Poker Chips

Ok, I admit it.

I have a thing for poker chips.

My first set was one of the original WPT sets in a wooden box from Sam's Club. I had them for ages before I actually played with them. They are quite nice. They are heavy enough, 11.5 g composite clay, and sound nice when you shuffle them. The rounded edges make them a little easier to shuffle but they do have a nasty tendency to topple over when they are stacked.


Since I hadn't really played with the original set I didn't know about the chips' tendency to fall over before I bought a Bellagio set. By then I'd figured out that I really didn't have enough chips to have a proper tournament.



These are the same as the original WPT chips just different colors. Which actually becomes an issue when you are planning a tournament. You really really REALLY don't want to have to have two different colors as the same denomination. It's confusing enough when you don't have the denomination actually on the chip.

Once I finally figured out how many chips I would need I started to hunt for another Bellagio set. Turns out T's brother had one he was willing to part with in exchange for an SD card for his camera. SOLD!

So finally I had enough chips.

Then I had some tournaments. I don't know about you, but I can certainly remember what the chip values are after about 10 minutes. But, apparently, I'm the next best thing to a rocket scientist. I was shocked, SHOCKED! I say, to discover how many people could not remember this for the entire night, and the next night and the next night... you get the picture.

I was on eBay one day looking for Copag cards. I stumbled on this poker supply store with a great selection of stuff. I ended up calling them on the phone and ordering several things. Mark over there was awesome.

While I was perusing I saw these poker chips.


I was dazzled. I.had.to.have.some. I talked Mark into sending me a sample of each chip. I wasn't sure I would like them. I found it hard to believe that I could tell a difference between 11.5g and 14g. To be honest, I thought the 14g might have been an "exaggeration".

These chips are AWESOME.

Are they clay? Hardly.

Are they cheap? Absolutely.

Do they feel or look cheap? Not on your life.

The best part? The denomination is right on the chip!

The next best part? They will custom mix any combination (within 25 chip) you want.

I ordered 1000 chips and 10 chip trays for about $115 including shipping. You can't beat that with a Royal Flush. I did end up having to order 200 more chips in order to have enough to have a 50 person tournament. I assume most of you won't be needing to do that.

The denominations I picked work well for cash stakes or tournament. I bought a few 10 so that I could play .10/.20 or .10/.25 NLHE cash. The rest are 25, 100, 500 and 1000 denomination.

I can not stand the WPT chips anymore. They are too light and the rounded edges bother me. Additionally, they are slightly thicker than the average chip and I can only get 19 in a row of a rack. I actually had Mark check for me that you could fit 20 of these Franklin chips into a chip tray before I bought them. Just another small annoyance but when you get into having a home game/tournament it makes a difference.

If you are in the market for some chips I would highly recommend the Franklins. They also have a Las Vegas and High Roller design for the same chips.

If you ever want to have a tournament you MUST go the Home Poker Tourney for everything you will ever need or want to know about running a game. This is where I figured out how many chips and what denominations I needed.

I would also recommend you download this free software. It's very easy to use and they even have a forum to help you.

Now get out there and play some poker!