Buying Poker Chips for Home Games

Hey everyone, I am currently contemplating purchasing some quality chips for my now weekly poker home games with friends. But I signed into ebay and started looking, as well as a few review pages, and I just don't even know where to start.

Does anyone have any recommendations on what brands, what styles, what prices and where to buy? I'm given to understand that clay chips are the way to go for the solid, casino feel, but I'm still not sure of how much I should be willing to pay, and where it's best to buy.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated, thanks everyone!

T.

http://www.chiptalk.net

Really comes down to personal taste and what you're willing to spend. I'd recommend getting samples before you spend any significant $$ on any chips. You can tell 1000x more holding 4 or 8 chips in your hands than you ever will seeing them on your PC screen.

You don't really need a high quality chip set for a home game, clay chips are like $50 or less for a set of 500.
Look at your local games/hobby shops or anywhere they sell games.

Check out www.5stardeal.com you can get nice chips fairly cheap and you can personalize some of them so no foreign chips are brought into game. I saw 1 nice set of paulson chips with amounts on them for like $235 for 1000 thats a great deal for the type of chips, its under the poker pro chips I think.

here is the link for some really nice chips for a home game. I'm even thinking of buying these once I get a job.
http://www.5stardeal.com/expand.asp?pro=25777&subcat=16488

I have the world series of poker clay chips. I got them 50% off at Dillards department store. It has 300 chips. It's really handy and comes with a nice case.

I would check around. There is good buys out there for the heavier clay chips. You can get a great set for $40. If you want denominations printed on them you will pay a premium but still nothing crazy.

I bought mine online. Shipping will be up there as a 500 chip set will weight in close to 30 pounds.

Grossberger said:

here is the link for some really nice chips for a home game. I'm even thinking of buying these once I get a job.
http://www.5stardeal.com/expand.asp?pro=25777&subcat=16488

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I like the look of the lucky bee edge spot, one above yours. Don't know what any of them feel like...wish there was a store nearby I could walk in, test and purchase. I did find some short videos to give an idea of what different chips sound like and their composition, think the name was viddler?

There a are loads on the market and I have a nice set.

Go with the heavier ones, the lighter the chip is the worse it 'feels' in your hand.

think about if you want them numbered or not. Will you always be playing for the same values? if they are unnumbered you can just make it up as you go along.

Good luck and I hope you take money of your mates!

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I will take a look at all those sites as soon as I get the chance. I know that I don't "need" to have awesome chips just for home games, but it's a small luxury that I think I can afford right now, and I figure I'll indulge a little bit. Best of luck out there, talk to you soon!

T.

Don't forget to consider customs as well. With the right design and chip choice, they'll not only be awesome but completely unique and yours alone.

Here is a good place to start and see some reviews of chips on the market. http://www.pokerchipreviews.com/ceramic.html He does a pretty good job of explaining the differences between chips. After looking over the reviews I would go some where like apache chips and order samples of chips you potentially want. You will often find that what you thought you wanted just does not meet your expectations.
Personally I am a fan of chipco ceramic chips and most compression molded chips out there (Paulson, asm.etc). I have a few sets and a ton of samples. So far I have found the most bang for my buck as far as quality are these chips right here http://www.apachepokerchips.com/desert_palms_poker_chips.html . Either way my biggest piece of advice is order samples to make sure it is what you want

WVHillbilly said:

Don't forget to consider customs as well. With the right design and chip choice, they'll not only be awesome but completely unique and yours alone.

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thats what I said when I bought these over 15 years ago . still love them but we played limit games and seven card games with 7 people max . I got by with 400 chips , today they need 1 or 2 thousand IMO

Tublecain said:

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I will take a look at all those sites as soon as I get the chance. I know that I don't "need" to have awesome chips just for home games, but it's a small luxury that I think I can afford right now, and I figure I'll indulge a little bit. Best of luck out there, talk to you soon!

T.

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if you can afford it then yes you do need nice chips but the main thing with todays NL card games is the number of people that can play together and the amount they will want or need each . that can be alot of chips esp if you do any tournaments . so considering the amount of chips you need it would be expensive to customize with denomination or initials . just get at least 10g weight if you can .

BUT ... I've played with the $50 sets and thought they were pretty nice too

http://www.epokerdeals.com/Wicked_Spades_Poker_Chips_s/121.htm

A little to expensive for me but something worth considering if you want a set to call your own.