I was in the same price range and went with Poker Knights and The Mint sets from Claysmith. I like them, they're nothing special but good for the price. EDIT: Make sure you buy them with your own chip breakdown, not the standard one in the sets. I use 400, 300, 200, 100 of $5, $25, $100, $500 for my set.
Last edited by dmccoy87; 06-05-2017 at 10:51 AM.
Reason: more info
Largely depends on how many players you have at one time and your format. For one table, 500 was fine for me. When we started getting more two table nights and higher stakes games, I ordered another 500.
A serious consideration is how often you will be playing with them and a realistic evaluation of the discipline and habits of your players towards chips, cards, and tables. That said ,I have collected about 600 Brybelly Eclipse chips off of Amazon. We play a single table 7 to 10 player weekly cash game with responsible folks. They are well recieved and have stood up well. Come in 25 cent to 5000 dollar denoms in packs of 50 for about $10 a roll new. So my outlay was about $130 counting shipping for 600 decent heavy chips. Worth a look at least for you.
Last edited by Bene Gesserit; 06-05-2017 at 03:05 PM.
It really depends on how many chips you will need. If you need 1,000 chips or more, your options are fairly limited, but if you only need say 500 then you can get some nicer chips. As mentioned, Claysmith has a few good options that would fit in your budget. Keep in mind, that not all of the chips sold there are of equal quality. For example, I believe the Mint and most of the other chips on Claysmith are just plastic molded with a metal slug. I personally have a set of Milano's(Which are China Clay chips)and they are very nice for the price. I bought a set of 750 slightly used for about $200 shipped.
Also check out Apache Poker Chips. They have some reasonable options as well.
It really comes down to how many chips you need, and how much you care about the quality of the chips. If you want the "Casino" like feel without paying for Paulson's, then China Clays are your best bet, but some of the plastic/ceramic chips are decent as well.
