[Wylecoyo]

Manufacturer:Blue Chip
Retailer(s): epokerdeals
Average Price: approximately $1.12 per chip, depending on the size of your order
Material: Compression Molded Clay


Member Review by: wylecoyo

The High Roller line of chips was designed by Chiptalk member Se7enCardStud and is manufactured by Blue Chip. The main selling points are their edge-spots (especially the 8V’s featured on the $100 and $5,000 chips), supergrand-sized inlay, and color combinations. While the High Rollers are not fully customized Paulson’s, they are probably not what you have come to expect from Blue Chip clays. In the past, most CTer's (myself included) have derided Blue Chip chips as being of lesser quality and lower value due to their lighter weight (as compared to other casino quality chips) and their apparent tendency toward having misshapen and/or misaligned inlays. However, these perceptions seem to be changing as the newest lines of chips to emerge from the Blue Chip factory are of a much higher quality and have a much better inlay consistency than previous offerings. The one overriding positive feature of the Blue Chip Company is their willingness to offer a wide range of customization options, including inlays, edge-spots, colors, and even the occasional new mold.

Price

Pricing varies by denomination and quantity due to the increased manufacturing cost for the 8V $100 and $5,000 chips. Recent increases in Blue Chip’s overall manufacturing prices will also factor into the price you will pay; however, this is not unique to just the High Roller line as all other Blue Chip lines will be impacted as well.

Feel

These chips have a nice overall feel to them, as should be expected of compression molded clay chips. Individual chips weigh in at around 8 grams each, which is lighter than most chips produced by other manufacturers. While the lower chip weight is easily recognizable upon initial receipt, I have found the more I handle and play with these the less it bothers me. In terms of storage and travel, the lower weight is probably a benefit as a case with more than 500 chips quickly becomes a pain to handle.

Several of the chips I received, somewhere around 3% to 5%, had noticeably rough edges and/or chipping along the edges. While I will grant that I have very high expectations in regard to chips, I would say that nearly a third to a half of these chips with rough edges should probably not have passed Blue Chip’s quality control process (assuming they have one) and should not have been allowed to leave the factory.

Here is a close up of some of the $25 and $100 chips I decided to replace due to rough edges:

Stacking

The High Rollers stack very well, as should be expected from a compression molded clay chip. Stacks of greater than forty chips are possible, but would not advisable during play even though they would probably be stable enough to support doing so. I did find two or three spinners in my set, but they are not too bad and with so few of them you have to get “lucky” in order to find them.

The supergrand inlay featured on these chips has a nice fine texture to it which feels silky to the touch. The size of the inlay is such that it does cut down on the amount of clay to clay contact each chip has with any others in a stack and, while this does not adversely effect their stackability, it does give them somewhat of a tendency to slide against each other. The best way to describe what I am referring to is to say they still stack well, but rather than toppling or falling over, they cascade over each other rather nicely.

Sound

I find it difficult to describe the sound qualities of chips with words, but suffice to say High Rollers have a nice clay chip sound to them. If you have heard a quality compression molded clay chip before than you know what I am talking about and if you have not, they you owe it to yourself to experience it first hand.

Looks

If given only one word to describe how the High Rollers look I would have to go with “fantastic.” The supergrand inlays, overall graphic design, edge-spot styles, and color combinations are all top notch and pictures don’t really do them justice. It is easy to imagine them being used in a real casino.

While the High Rollers feature much better inlay consistency and quality than older Blue Chip lines, you can still find some minor inlay problems if you really look. Casual observers probably will not notice anything wrong with them, but if you know what to look for you will find two major types of inlay problems present in the High Roller line of chips: inlays which are off-centered and/or inlays which became misshapen or distorted during the manufacturing process. To be perfectly honest and fair, all clay chips, regardless of who manufactures them, will have these same inlay problems to some degree, but, for whatever reason, they tend to be either more pronounced or more noticeable in chips made by the Blue Chip Company. As previously stated, the inlays on more recently produced Blue Chip clay chips are much better as compared to their older counterparts, but if you are seeking perfection on a chip to chip basis you will probably be unhappy with these. I, on the other hand, am perfectly happy with my High Rollers inlays as they are, but, for the sake of illustration, the following picture shows twenty chips randomly pulled from my set and if you look closely you may be able to pick out a few misshapen or off-center inlays:



The only thing less than perfect visually with these chips is the small dot which appears on the bottom of the inlay immediately under and to the right of the base of the Club pip. This dot is part of the lens flare effect which is clearly visible on the upper left hand edge of the Club pip, but while the upper lens flare adds to the visual presentation, the lower edge flare looks like a flaw due to where it falls out. This doesn’t really make them look bad, but if you don’t know what this is it won’t make any sense to you. If you wanted to you could tell anyone who asks that it is a security feature (kind of like the micro-dots on real casino chips) to impress them or you can tell them it is a lens flare if you want to be honest.

These pictures show the lens flare I am referring to (the pictures are the same, but the one on the right has the lens flare circled):

Security/Originality

High Roller chips are exclusively produced by Blue Chip and, at the time of this review, are only available from a single retailer, epokerdeals. Given their price, it is conceivable one of your players might be able to buy some and sneak them into your game, but the real danger of this occurring is no more or less likely to occur than with any other chip designed for retail sales and home use.

Eventually, the High Roller designs will be offered as a custom line, allowing you to use the same mold/color/edge-spot combinations but substituting an inlay of your own design. While I like the retail design, this would seem to be a pretty impressive option as I am unaware of any other custom line which offers either the 8V edge-spot pattern or the supergrand inlay.

Durability

Blue Chip seems to use a slightly different blend of materials to produce their clay lines and the result is a somewhat harder chip. While this gives them a harder feel which some people don’t care for, I like it and it continues to grow on me the more I handle them. One big benefit of having a harder chip is that they will take abuse better without showing wear. I am pretty adamant about my players not being overly rough with my chips (tough or not these things cost me a buck each) and after three or four full games all of my chips still have perfectly square edges (at least all of them that came with perfectly square edges) and are not showing any real signs of wear. In home game usage these should last months without any visible wear and years and years without having to worry about them being too worn for continued service (if ever).

Reviewers Comments

After deciding to give a set of Blue Chips a try I went back and forth trying to decide if I should invest in a set of High Rollers or Desert Palms. In the end I couldn’t decide and ended up buying a playable set of each and I couldn’t be happier with my purchases. Each chip set is about 90% the same (same materials, basic manufacturing process, and feel) but they each have strong and weak points. The High Rollers have great edge-spots, nice colors, and a supergrand-sized inlay. Unfortunately, they also have some occurrence of rough edges and the occasional misshapen inlay, although, to be fair, the Desert Palms have this as well at about the same frequency. If you are a fan of the 8V edge-spots and if you like the inlays then these chips are well worth what you will pay for them. If, on the other hand, you like a chip with as much exposed clay as you can get, then you probably will want to steer clear of the supergrand inlay sized High Rollers.

Chip Pictures