A ready-made poker set or buying elements separately?
In fact, it’s up to you to decide, But let’s look at this issue in more detail.
So, what is the advantage of a ready-made poker set?
Plus. Obviously, this is more convenient. It can be a wonderful gift for your friends or loved ones.
The minus is, of course, the quality of what you get in such a set. Usually such sets are not of high quality in terms of the wear resistance of its components.
Chips and cards as separate elements.
Minus. The downside is the lack of a storage case. No button dialer.
On the plus side: You don’t buy what you don’t need. In fact, you only need chips and cards. Even without a button button, you can do without.
Poker Cards.
The variety of maps today is really amazing. Let’s look at what you should pay attention to.
Material.
The material from which the cards are made directly depends on their quality - that is, wear resistance.
The cheapest and most affordable card decks are made of cardboard. Of course, you can buy them at any store, at a very attractive price, but the quality leaves much to be desired. Unaesthetic appearance and low wear resistance. Not to mention how easy it is to turn such cards into marked ones.
The wear resistance of cards with a plastic coating is slightly higher. Such cards are made of paper materials, but they have a plastic coating. It cannot be said that these cards will last you much longer, but their cost is also low.
Fully plastic cards are currently the best option for poker. High wear resistance makes them a really worthwhile choice. Of course, such cards are more expensive, but their service life is much higher.
It can be noted that plastic also happens to be different and the most durable cards are cards made of acetylcellulose. But they are very expensive and even casinos use ordinary plastic cards.
The number of cards in the deck, the index of the deck.
The number of cards in the deck, the index of the deck. It’s pretty simple here. A full deck (52 cards) is always more functional than a short deck (36 cards).
Speaking of the index, there is a color index: there are two-color and four-color cards. Here everything again depends on your preference, but traditionally a two-color deck is used.
There is also an index of the size of the designations directly on the map.There are: Peek index (the smallest designations of numbers and suits), standard index (small designations of numbers and suits), Jumbo (medium-sized designations), Magnum (large-sized designations).
And again, everything here depends only on your preferences.
Card back.
You will be surprised, but this choice should be taken quite seriously. The fact is that the more complex the drawing on the outside of the card, the easier it is to leave inconspicuous marks on such cards (map marking).
Thus, there is no need to chase after something unusual and you need to prefer the most technically simple drawings.
Also, the drawing should not be solid: for a poker game, a white indent along the diameter of the card is also very important (for the same reason).
Summing up, paying attention to all the nuances, you just have to choose the professional manufacturer of your future cards. Nevertheless, it is worth stocking up on several decks, regardless of the choice.
Chips.
Choosing the chips that you will like and that will last you long enough is quite simple, but it’s worth paying attention to a few nuances.
Material.
There are only a few types of chips, if we consider them by material.
Plastic chipsare the most inexpensive option. Such chips are often used in poker sets. The texture is slippery, the quality of the plastic is usually low, although the wear resistance is quite good. Such chips are often made without a denomination, or with ordinary stickers.
Chips made of Compositional material. In fact, these are also plastic chips, but they have an iron weighting inside. The most interesting thing is that the heavier such a chip is, the higher the quality of the plastic used to create it. Such chips are affordable and last quite a long time.
Ceramic chips. Despite their name, such chips are made from a mixture of ceramic crumbs and plastic crumbs. However, such chips are much more expensive than the previous options. The quality of their manufacture is excellent: they are pleasant to the touch, aesthetic in appearance, quite heavy and in most cases, they are not just glued with naminal stickers - they are literally sealed on them with the help of special technologies. These are the chips used in the casino. The disadvantage is the high cost and more fragile material. Although, if we talk about wear resistance, casino chips change every 5-6 years, so we can say that at home, they are likely to last you a really long time.
Clay chips. Another option for expensive chips. There are chips made of so-called porcelain clay and they are really fragile. Despite the aesthetic appearance, they are really fragile and they can literally be broken, even if you don’t have much strength. Such chips are practically not used anywhere. But there are other clay chips. they are made of premium-class clay chips and thanks to the manufacturing technology, such chips are not inferior to ceramic ones. However, they are also practically not used anywhere else.
How many chips do we need and where to buy them?
The number of chips will depend directly on how many people will be in your company of players. It is usually recommended to take 300 chips (a set of chips of different naminals). This amount is quite enough for a game of six or even nine people, if you reduce the number of blinds in the starting stack of each. To buy chips, it is better to give preference to specialized stores and when buying, it is always necessary to clarify how limited the batches of exactly those chips that you plan to purchase are. This needs to be clarified in order to understand whether you will be able to buy these chips.
Weight, Size, The presence of a denomination on the chips.
These points are worth considering. If you plan to buy more chips, just check that the characteristics (weight, size) do not differ.
Make a decision about whether the denomination will be indicated on your chips or not. Most prefer chips with a denomination, for convenience reasons. Of course, chips without specifying the denomination give you the opportunity to independently determine the denomination, but, as practice shows, this is quite inconvenient, since everyone will need to remember how much each chip costs.
When choosing chips with a denomination indication, take care to choose chips with high-quality application (simple stickers are not the best choice).
and if they get dirty you can clean them easily!
I will post below a picture of my chips with the custom label.
