[drneau]

I posted this on HPT a few days ago. I'm interested to see what kind of feedback this community has...

After accidentially winning an auction for the 1,200 oak chip case, I'm now considering acting on the long-planned purchase to fill the case with something better than my dice chips by 9/9/06 (my next tournament).

The dice chips will become the traveling set / side-game-for-losers set.

I've narrowed it down to four types based on the reviews/comments here, the reviews on pokerchipreviews and my hands-on experience.

I'm considering:
- Paulson James Bond (the newer ones)
- Paulson Pharaoh
- Paulson National Poker Series
- Samurai

I really wanted to take a look at the T.R. King Rounders, but since I discovered that they are out of business I've pretty much ruled out anything made by them.

I have samples for each of the Paulson types with Samurai samples on the way this week.

As they are all about the same price, therefore price is not a consideration.

I generally run 24-player tournaments. Based on that, I'll be getting about the following quantities of each (comments appreciated on this):
T5 - 400 (15 per player to start for a T3,000 tournament)
T25 - 400 (13 to start)
T100 - 250 (6 to start)
T500 - 100 (4 to start)
T1000 - 50
T5000 - 10 - 25 (depending on whether or not plaques are available)

My thoughts on each (as they are all about the same price, price is no issue):

Paulson James Bond
- Best Paulson mold: Tiered design. No noticeable transition from label to chip (other than texture difference).
- I like the colors.
- Fake casino. Not thrilling to me. Although for a fake casino, the casino name doesn't punch you in the face.
- Images aren't always centered on the labels. No biggie.
- Plaques available.
- Denomination isn't the easiest to read, although I don't think I care about that too much.

Paulson Pharaoh (I think I've ruled these out)
- Mold a bit less attractive than the James Bond. No tier. Drop from mold to inlay.
- I like the colors.
- Another fake casino. Not thrilling to me.
- Not hot on an Egyptian theme.
- No plaques available (at least matching ones).
- Denomination easy to read, plus non-denom set available.

Paulson National Poker Series
- Same mold as Pharaoh. No tier. Drop from mold to inlay.
- Colors are striking but take getting used to. 3 different edge spot designs.
- Not a fake casino.
- No currency on denomination.
- Plaques available.
- Denomination extremely easy to read.
- Wife doesn't like them.

Blue Chip Samurai (don't have samples yet...will update this when I do)
- Great looking mold.
- Textured inlay (compared to slick inlay of Paulson).
- Fake casino.
- No plaques available, but a T5000 chip *is* available.
- Denomination easy enough to read.
- Different label on front and back (not sure if that's good or bad).
- Very classy looking, at least on the internet.
- Cool dealer button appears to be available, but I can't find it anywhere.

[panthershutch15]

Of those choices I like the Samurai's....Only own samples of those and I at one time owned both Pharaoh's and Bond's. GL

[Matthew]

All good choices. My personal opinion is Samurai.

Set up a excel table with the following categories (to start)
Price
Mold
Insert
Colors
Casino Name
Demon avaialble
Easy to read
Wife's opinion
etc. (any others you can come up with)

Weight the categories for which are more inportant to you (1, 2, 3, or 4), for example price would receive a 1 weighting, where the wife's opinion would probably be weighted with a 4. Give a score of 1, 3 or 7 to each of the four in each category for your opinion. So a 7 from the wife would add 28 pts to the total where as a 5 in price would only add 5 pts.

Let us know what you decide - good luck.

Do the math and see which comes out on top.

[JM]

Wait till you have the samurai samples in hand then you can really compare apples to apples and decide which YOU like best (as opposed to us). You'll probably be using them for quite some time, so make sure you pick the one that has the best look, feel and sound to you.

[drneau]

BTW. I can't get the Rounders chips any longer, but I'm curious. I read that they had a smaller diameter...how much smaller was it?

[Matthew]

Originally Posted by drneau

BTW. I can't get the Rounders chips any longer, but I'm curious. I read that they had a smaller diameter...how much smaller was it?

TR King Rounders? Yes they are smaller (as with all TRK's) - about 38 mm instead of 39 - enought to notice.

[JM]

Literally about 1 millimeter.

[Mike Sears]

Check out the new Desert Palms that the chiproom is getting from China before you make your final decision. Clay chips for $0.25 each are worth checking out. You can look at them and read people's comments on thechiproom's thread in Market Place.

[hachkc]

Originally Posted by Matthew

TR King Rounders? Yes they are smaller (as with all TRK's) - about 38 mm instead of 39 - enought to notice.

Only an issue if you are mixing them with other chips or are extremely anal about chip size of which a few people around here have complained about.

[asam2006]

I have all 3 Paulson sets and my preference is the Paulson NPS for the following reasons, the availability of Plaques, the edge spots, the weight and feel of the chips. Samurais are great looking but they aren't Paulsons. They are slightly wider and thicker than Paulsons but I think they're little too hard and don't sound as good. For me it would be a choice between the Samurais and NPS for your situation.