Formal Plaques Review by Vince

[Vince]

"Formal" Ceramic Plaque
by Vince

Manufacturer: Nevada Jacks
Retailer(s): HoldemPokerChips.com
Average Price: $5.75
Material: Ceramic

I have never paid much attention to plaques, but recently I got curious. So I ordered 12 $5,000 "Formal" Ceramic Dealer Plaques from HPC. My intention was to create a Poker After Dark set-up for my ASMs and I wanted to use the 5k plaques for the 5k cash bundles that they use on PAD.

My first plaque, ever, was a sample plastic plaque of the Matador series, but there are no 5k plaques available in that range. So after searching widely, I decided to go for the 'Formal' from HPC. I like the 25k Crown casino plaque that they use in the Aussie millions cash game and the grey/white 'Formal' plaque looks quiet similar.

They are available as

Red $1,000
Grey/white $5,000
Blue $10,000
Purple $25,000
Mustard $100,000
Black/dark blue $1,000,000

Pros

• Feel
• Look
• Edgespot shades
• Vendor (HPC is just a pleasure to deal with)
• Price

Cons

• Some plaques have some stains and spots on the edges
• Edgespots only on the long edges
• one spinner

Price

As mentioned before I checked all the big online shops that offer plaques and these were actually the cheapest ceramic plaques out there. $5.75 is a pretty much unbeatable price for that type of plaque, I think.

Feel

They feel great. HPC’s site says they have a smooth texture, however, in my opinion there is actually none. A “smooth texture” in my opinion is a surface without a crosshatch, but with some sort of irregularity (a satin finish). For example a Chipco, for me, has a smooth texture. These Formal plaques are smooth and slick. Not necessarily a bad nor a good thing. Personally, I like it. Also note that slick doesn’t mean slippery in this instance.
With 42 grams they have a nice weight and give you the feeling that you really have some dough in your hands.
They are advertised as having the exact size of a credit card. Didn’t sound really promising to me, but they seem larger when you get them in your hands.

Stacking

They stack pretty well. I only ordered 12 plaques, since in my game every player gets 2 plaques. Therefore, for me, stacking is not issue. But I think that you can stack them sky high. Stacks of 50 shouldn’t be a problem.
I got one spinner. Since mine was a small sample size, I don't know if this is representative. 1 out of 12 is acceptable to me.

Sound

The sound is pretty loud and mighty. Just like the plaques in the Aussie millions cash game. Not like a ceramic chip. They have a very unique sound.

Looks

The look is pretty decent and classy. They have a big $5,000 right in the center printed in gold and a golden ring on the outside that says “$ FIVE THOUSAND $ FIVE THOUSAND $” all around it. Inside that ring is a 'leaf' pattern with grey leaves on a white background.
The graphics are printed on both sides and are pretty sharp. Not as sharp as the print on a Chipco chip but that’s maybe due to the bigger graphic itself.
On the longer edges they have blurred grey edgespots. The look like some kind of shadow, very very nice and again, very decent. For some reason they don’t have these edgespots on the shorter edges which seemed rather odd to me. It would look nicer to have them all around the plaque.

Security/Originality

Everybody can buy these at HCP, so there is really no security, whatsoever. But I can’t see somebody buying these for almost $6 each, just to sneak them into a private game.

Durability

Seem to be very solid.

Reviewers Comments

I love these plaques. I’d love them even more if they had edgespots all around the entire edge, but this is only a minor negative. Great sound, great feeling, a reasonable price and their classy and simple look makes them fit into any home game.

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[TenPercenter]

I find these plaques to be one of the most universal sets you can get. They're classy and unique. You can use them with pretty much any set of chips and they'll fit right in.

[TheJeep]

I had these custom plaques made by HPC to complement my Paulsons...they ended up costing about $9 each including art and shipping, but I only bought 20. Obviously the per plaque price would go down with a larger order.

[Sweet]

Hi all, I'm new to this forum. I've been doing a bunch of reading on multiple topics. I am starting to know what the poker chip addiction feels like. I just bought the 500pc set of Renton Hooter's Chipco's from Ebay.

I am interested in the Nevada Jack's Skull plaques, 25k and 100k. I've done numerous searches and haven't found any reviews on here. This thread on the NJ plaque is the closest I've found. Can anyone give me a brief review on them? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[courage]

Welcome to chiptalk!

I don't know anything about the NJ plaques, but if you're interested in tweaking a design, you could work with ttttubby on these which are currently a nice price from Old West Poker Supplies:
http://www.chiptalk.net/forum/chipta...group-buy.html

[Ginola14]

I bought 8 of the plaques, 1 for every denomination, off this Ebay merchant eBay My World - imaginedistributors

Agreed with almost everything Vince said. Those plaques look cool and fits in well with other chips nicely indeed.

Caution: don't ever drop them onto the floor. The plaque does break easily when that happens.

Saving grace is that mine broken cleanly into half (i'm not sure that will happen all the time) and i was able to reattach the 2 broken pieces easily using normal glue. When i received the plaques, there was also one that had a small bit chipped off at the corner. As long as one takes care of them, they should last but they are not the most durable of plaques to be honest. They are cheap at USD7 a piece though.