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Nevada Jack’s Composite Chips

Manufacturer: Nevada Jacks
Retailer(s): Nevada Jacks , 5-Star Deal.com, Holdempokerchips.com
Average Price: 60-66 cents per
Material: Ceramic
Member Review by: Jojobinks

These chips are the only real option to Chipcos if you’re looking for ceramic. They combine the beauty of full-face ceramics with some of the feel of clay, and at a much better price than either. For those that are looking to step up from cheap chips, but without the roll to go $1 per, these absolutely can not be beat. I own 900 Desert Sands, and can say that they're my best poker purchase (pending my Pharaoh buy )

Price

Nevada Jack’s standard retail price is 60 cents per if you buy 500, and 66.6 cents per for a set of 300. Of course, there is the world famous buy 2 get one free sale for the Desert Sands 300 piece set that ran for a couple of weeks, and could happen again at some point.

Feel

These have a similar feel to Chipcos, with one big exception. Like Chipcos, they’re cold to the touch, but warm quickly. Like Chipcos, they’re smooth on the rolling edge. Like Chipcos, they have a slightly rounded edge to help with shuffling. The biggest difference is the texture of the face, which is quite rough when new. They resist shuffling, and I’d say it takes a solid 15 minutes of shuffling to loosen up a stack of ten chips. At that point, they shuffle quite easily. The texture, however, stays gritty to the touch, which helps with shuffling and stacking. One other minor difference; the edge is more beveled than Chipcos. The angle is a little sharp, and if looked at closely, it looks manufactured, as opposed to Chipco’s edges which might look naturally worn if one didn’t know any better.

Stacking

After a vigorous stack-test, I have come to the following results: I’d call stacks of up to 60 rock solid. They slide well without fear of spill and feel tight. At 80, they wobble but can still be pushed into pots fairly easily. Stacks of 100 are possible, but I wouldn’t recommend moving them around. It must be considered that during the how high can you stack them thread, I was unable to get anywhere near where others were (not a good stacker, I).

Sound

They sound like ceramic. That is, they’re higher in pitch than clay (or plastic non-slugged), but lower than metal slugged chips. They click instead of the clack of clay, is how some describe it. The sound is crisp and a little sharper than clay, but clearly within the realm of acceptable. Again (and this seems to be a recurring theme of the review), if you’re frustrated by the sound of Dice chips, and are looking for a step up, these’ll certainly do the trick in this department.

Looks

Obviously this is the great strength of ceramic chips. They have full face graphics, and they look incredible. The bad news is that in exchange for the gritty texture, the pictures are less sharp than Chipcos.

The Desert Sands chips go for a classic casino look. They’re actually not a world apart from the way Tenpercenter originally envisioned the Pharaoh’s set. They have scalloped faux inlay, and three edge spots on the face. A big weakness of ceramics, it must be mentioned, is the rolling edge. The edges are pressed on, and so if there are spots on the face (like there are with this set), they won’t match up to the edge. In fact, with the DS chips, they didn’t even try to make it look similar. So although there are 3 spots on the face, there are six on the rolling edge. In addition, the spots on the edge have an extra line down the middle that don’t match up. Some are more bothered by this than others. I think these chips are good-looking. They do the job for me as far as looks.

Some further complaints, however; Small complaint #1: they’re too busy. Running around the edge in what would be the mold of a clay chip, are diamonds with NJ inside. I think without those, it would be a better chip. Small complaint #2: the colors. I have the small denominations in my set; 25c, $1, $5, $25. I love the gray quarter and the green $25. The blue $1 and red $5, however, are hot. As in they threaten to burn my eyes sometimes. Small complaint #3: the main color on the face is flat, but on the rolling edge it’s marbleized. This is kinda cool, but also doesn’t match and hurts the overall looks of the chip IMO.

The Dead Man chips are better looking, IMO. They avoid the edge spot issue by not putting spots on the face. They have less main color on each chip: for instance, the black chip is only black on the outer rim and rolling edge. They also use the weird marbleized edge. I can’t say too much about these guys, because I don’t own any. But I prefer them, and would have bought them if the three for two sale had given me the choice.

It should also be mentioned that there is a third ready-made design, the Mardis Gras set, that is available here. I have no samples or experience with these, so I can't speak to them.

These do have a pimple, as do most ceramics; That is, a slight imperfection on the rolling edge where the chip is injection-molded. On some chips the pimple is nearly impossible to notice, but in a stack they’re quite obvious.

Security/Originality

They are more secure than Dice chips, at least we can say that. Obviously, though, these are readily available, off-the-rack chips that can be easily floated into your game.

That being said, Nevada Jack’s offers customized set with their manufacturer. It looks to me like this can be done for 95 cents each, with a 500 dollar min and only 4 denominations in 2 weeks. For those not experienced in the field of custom chips, let me say a few things. First, 95 cents per chip is very reasonable. That should be compared to over a dollar per at homepokerchips.com, about a dollar at pokerchips.com, and .91 per at Paulson (sorry, minimum 100k there J). About turn around time; allow me to say HOLY COW! 2 weeks is very very good considering the options available for custom jobs.

This price, it should be mentioned, is good only if you supply all artwork finished, and is an inlay design only. The outer part of the chips, including edgespots and main body color, will be the same as the Desert Sands chips. Fully custom chips are also available for the same price plus $65/hour art costs.

I still have not heard any stories of people going this route, but if you have or know someone who has, please PM me or reply to this thread so we can hear more.

Durability

Durability should not be an issue for the average home game. They won’t break or otherwise take damage. Of course, there is the ceramic white ring issue. Most Chipco sets have a thin white ring around the edge of the graphic on the face. This is because with wear, the graphic begins to wear off. It’s not uncommon to see ceramics at a casino with a good part of the graphic gone. By putting the ring there to begin with, it lessens the visible effects of wear. The NJ composites don’t have this ring. I haven’t heard any first-hand accounts of what NJ composites look like after 1 year, 2 years or more, but I anticipate there will be some wear.

Reviewers Comments

There are some weird things about these chips that I don’t like. And, it should be said, I consider myself a clay man. That being said, for ceramic, I like these best, and am happy about my purchase. I think that these chips do a good job of finding a middle ground between clay and ceramic. They have the full-face graphics that are so awesome in Chipcos, but have more of a clay feel. And at 60 cents per chip, I think that these are the best buy on the market (an argument could be made for 50 cent pc.com blanks).

Chip Pictures
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Photos provided by Holdempokerchips.com