I am looking to improve my poker chip collection for my home game.

I really like the look of the Veneratti's. They have an old school look without that much flare, but I believe they are quite light compared to like 14.5 clay composite. I was looking at Paulsons but i dont like any of the looks of the pharoah, world tophat, national, etc.)

is there anything out there that i can get the best of both worlds. the look of veneratti's + weight of paulsons?

thanks

chiptalk.net will answer all your prayers except one:

How can I afford more?

there are 3 basic categories of poker chip materials

1) "clay" (paulson, asm, bcc. not really clay)
2) "ceramic" (venerattis, chipco, etc. not really ceramic)
3) injection molded (dice chips, "composite", etc.)

the heaviest chips are invariably cheap injection-molded chips with a metal slug in them. Paulson/ASM/BCC chips that were the casino standard for decades were ~9-10g. Ceramics are a similar weight.

You don't need 14g chips. Slugged chips have a characteristic sound that people associate with cheap chips, so they're actually not preferred.

see the HPF FAQ for excellent overview information. There have also been extensive threads about chips in the last month or two that are worth searching for.

14.5g clay composite chips? I've weighed a TON of chips, and none of them weigh 14.5g without a giant slug in them. 12 is heavy. 10.5 is the going rate for most china clays.

If you like the china clays, then get them blank. Buy Nexgen or Progen chips and have your own customization done to them. While they're certainly "different" in feel from other china clays, they're not in a different class - not by a mile.

I enjoy my ceramic chips, although they are lighter.

ok after looking at some options i do like the look of the venerratis and the archetype ceramics. I have read positive reviews of the venerratis but does anyone have anything good to say about the archetype?

on the higher end i really like the look of the le paulsons noirs, but as far as i can tell they stopped manufacturing them? anyone have any info on that?

thanks

I don't know why, but it bugs me that the Archetypes have "poker" written on them. Is it so you have a reference, in case you forget what you are playing?

Besides that, they look pretty cool. But they are pricey.

Forgot the most important thing:

Get samples.

You can't judge chips well from a photo and description. ceramics, paulson's, and china clay (eg pharoah, progen) all have a different feel and sound that you must evaluate in your hands.

I can haz search?

Heavier is not better. This was a common misconception when the poker boom hit about 10 years ago. That's why the market was flooded with metal insert chips. IMO a chip should weigh 8-10 grams. 12 to 14 gram chips are the least desirable.

Again, Paulson chips - the casino standard - weigh 9.45g new, and then shed a little weight as they wear.

The bulk of your China clays weigh a little over 9.5g.

I think the new Claysmith chips look nice.

http://www.apachepokerchips.com/clay...okerchips.html

Used casino Paulson can be had for a decent price these days. A lot of us have bought cheaper chips only to end up buying Paulsons later on down the road. It seems like a lot of money at first but saving some money here and there to build a set slowly isn't all that hard. You might save money over the long tun.

Get samples!

On used Paulsons, you can have them relabeled with customized labels.

Yikes, don't do that. Paulson's are made with an inlay pressed into the chip. Putting a label on top of the inlay is like repainting your car with a brush.

Depends on the quality of the label. There are vendors who advertise on chiptalk with higher quality labeling then just plain stickers.

OK, really nice labels would be like repainting a car with a can of spray paint.

I recently saw photos of a car that was repainted with spray paint. If you take your time and don't mind a lot of labor, it can look very good.

The same thing applies to relabeling Paulsons. They can look great as long as you take your time, use quality labels, and make sure there's enough recess to allow the new labels to sit flush. You may even have to do some careful scraping - go do a search on CT for details, I think I recall a thread or two on this topic.

Yes, I tried to make a good analogy.

My preference is to have my car painted professionally, and pick out some Paulson's with an inlay that I like. If I'm going to use custom labels, I'll buy China clays.

Furthermore, the inlays on like the Paulson pharaoh's are way, way too slick for my taste. They feel worse than a label, imo. Plus, it's way baller to have Paulson's with your custom club name on them. Just do the labels right.

Someone relabling something like an Empress should be euthanized, of course.

heresy

In a civilized country, you would be flogged for these comments.

I agree. It's a better option, assuming you don't want to pay for custom clays.

maybe for price reasons, but if you are going to make a semi-custom labeled chip, why not put your labels on the best possible chip? Aren't there hotstamped paulsons with the noir color scheme? seems perfect for this.

as for the sacredness of all things paulson, this is my desk at work:



and, in my opinion, pink-and-green on purple is a terrible color combo, white inlays are a compromise at best, these inlays are so slick they feel like a label (and I have the knifed-up chip in that stack somewhere to prove I've tested this theory), and Paulsons sound and feel awesome when shuffled.

When someone gets the inlays and colors right -- like with those empresses or noirs, paulson's are fantastic. But just because paulson made it does not mean it's always superior to any other option in all respects.

Has anyone ever purchased chips from buypokerchips.com - online retailer for sidepot clay poker chips?

i got samples of vernattis, archetype, and protege. i really liked the paulson le noir's but they are not being manufactured anymore?

i prefer the protege b/c of the sound and feel, but i can see why the vernattis are a great ceramic chip.

Posters have purchased from them in the past. They are among the reputable online vendors.

afaik buypokerchips.com is simply sidepot's marketing arm. Sidepot started a few years ago as a sort of massive group buy for Paulson chips. they have a relationship with Paulson that allows them to make things like the noir's and protege's. Sidepot has expanded to offer different types of chips more recently. I could have that story completely, horribly wrong, too.

but buypokerchips.com ~= sidepot.