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High End Chips:
So this is it.  You've got more money than you know what to do with, and it's just burning a hole in your pocket.  (And you probably want to impress a few friends as well).  These are 'IT'.  The top of the heap in home poker chips.  Many of these suppliers actually make chips for casinos all over the world.  If these chips can't make you happy...I don't know what can.  Deciding among these chips is like choosing between a BMW or Mercedes.  It's all up to what you like. Enjoy the show.

Some thoughts on 'Clay' chips:
Many chip sellers out there sell their chips on the idea that they are 'real' clay chips.  As far as this web site goes, the only chips considered 'real' clay are those formed by compression molding.  These are the chips you will find in casinos around the world.  There are many nice injection-molded chips out there, but they are referred to as 'Clay Composite' chips on this site.

ApachePokerChips.com: Various chips
ApachePokerChips has a really wide variety of good quality home gaming chips. This is going to be a long review for them!

(Descriptions going left to right based on the bottom picture)

Tangiers Brass Chip: These are basically a big brass coin with some nice inlay work done on them.  Great detail, and great looking!!  They also appear to be very sturdy and well made.  The only detractor to these chips for me was the very metallic ring it (wonder why...) when handled.  These would make for an extremely interested set of chips.
WEIGHT: 16.4 grams!!!!!
FEEL: 7.5
QUALITY: 10
LOOKS: 9

Crystal Oyster: Just read the review about the ChipCo chips, because they make this series.  Very nice chip with better edge spots than the Casino chip line also available from them.  Good looking with low-key colors.
WEIGHT: 10.5 grams
FEEL: 9
QUALITY: 10
LOOKS: 8

Apache Casino: Another ChipCo chip with yet another great graphic design. Better edge spots than the ChipCo Casino line, but not as good as the Crystal Oyster.  Another chip you can't go wrong with.
WEIGHT: 10.5 grams
FEEL: 9
QUALITY: 10
LOOKS: 9

Viva Las Vegas Clay Chip: According to the Dice702 this style of chip is used in the Four Queens, Golden Gate and Stratosphere casinos in Vegas.  It's a real clay chip with a very clear and very smooth graphic printed on the face.  I myself did not like the smoothness of the graphic.  No edge spots, so that's a bit of a bummer. There is a very subtle design around the rim of the chip, but you can't see it unless you look very close. Not a bad chip, but not at the top of my 'must have' list.  I did try to vigorously scratch off the graphic with a fingernail, but I didn't damage the chip at all.
WEIGHT: 8.3 grams
FEEL: 5.5
QUALITY: 8
LOOKS: 6

James Bond Clay Chips: The 'Casino De Isthmus' chips are the same chip used in the Viva Las Vegas chips.  Again, a good chip...just not a lot of 'wow' factor with the design. At least with the single chip I got.  There are some other denominations shown on the Dice702 website that look better. I would have particularly liked to have seen the 50 cent, $5 and $500 chips. I did like the fact that the entire surface of the chip wasn't smooth like the Viva Las Vegas chips.  Tried scratching the center graphic and edge spots but didn't do any damage.  Note: See the bottom picture for additional James Bond Chips. I upped the LOOKS and FEEL slightly on these because of the new chips sent.
WEIGHT: 8.3 grams
FEEL: 7.5
QUALITY: 8
LOOKS: 8

Capone's Clay Chip: Again, this is the same chip as Viva Las Vegas and James Bond. On these chips, there is only the gold foil print on the front and they have no edge spots. Good quality chip, just not that exciting to look at.
WEIGHT: 8.3 grams
FEEL: 6
QUALITY: 8
LOOKS: 4

King's Crown: This is a very nice feeling chip.  It has a nicely done design around the edge and good texture when you handle it.  My favorite of Dice702's clay chips.  No edge spots.  Bummer. These would make a good poker set.
WEIGHT: 10.1 grams
FEEL: 8
QUALITY: 9
LOOKS: 7

Rounders Casino: These are fantastic chips. (4th picture down). I had these chips laying out on my desk all afternoon, and I lost count of the number of times I heard 'Wow!' when my co-workers saw them.  These are a ceramic chip with a smooth, matt finish.  The graphic work on these chips is EXCELLENT.  Very clear and sharp edges on the image.  The edge spots are good for a ceramic chip.  They vary somewhat between denominations. In short:  I'd be thrilled to have a full set of these babies.  They are awesome.
WEIGHT: 10.5 grams
FEEL: 9
QUALITY: 10
LOOKS: 10

Fan of Cards: The Fan of Cards are identical to the Viva Las Vegas chip reviewed above.  While I personally like the graphic on these more, they still have the same slick graphic on the majority of the face of the chip.  However, if you like the graphic, then don't be afraid to snag a set of these chips.  Good quality.
WEIGHT: 8.4 grams
FEEL: 5.5
QUALITY: 8
LOOKS: 7

BuyPokerChips.com: Ceramic and Compression Mold
Modern Clay Chips: I ordered the 10 chip sampler from BuyPokerChips.com. These chips are just outstanding.  Great colors and even better edge spots. These chips are genuinely worth a place in any Vegas casino.  They are a true clay chip with a great mold, sharp edges and in general lots of feel-good texture throughout. They have a very 'soft' feel to them caused by the texture in the mold. The only negative on this chip would be that the center poker logo is often printed off center.  Mildly annoying...but in the big picture, not worth getting all that upset over.  For 'old school' poker chip fans who may not like the new ceramics very much, you simply MUST order a sample of these chips.  I would suggest the stack of 10, which allows you to really play around with them and get a feel for what they'd be like during a game. 
WEIGHT: 8.4 - 8.6 grams.
FEEL: 9.5
QUALITY: 8.5
LOOKS: 9.5

Archetype: The Archetype is a ceramic, ChipCo style chip.  They have a smooth, (not slick), matt finish like the majority of the ceramic chips out there.  These chips remind me of the 'Classics' also on the market because the design is very classy.  To me, the color combinations on the chips are very eye-pleasing and overall the design makes one thing 'traditional'.  Graphics on the chip face is very sharp with clean edges and no bleeding. As with most ChipCo style chips, the weakness here is edge spots.  Definitely not the greatest, with nothing really that exciting going on and even some bleeding.  The edge-spot bleeding is not exclusive to this chip...it's common in most of the ceramics.
(Note: The Archetypes are on the right in the bottom picture.)
WEIGHT: 10.5 grams.
FEEL: 9
QUALITY: 10
LOOKS: 8.5

ChipCo: Casino Home Use Chips - Ceramic Chips
I purchased a full set of 500 chips in this line a few months ago.  The ChipCo ceramic chip is a relatively 'new thing' in Poker chips and is used in thousands of casinos worldwide.  ChipCo mostly makes chips specifically for casinos, but they offer a few stock home designs for us home players.  They have a very popular design call the Crystal-Oyster that's often found on Ebay as well as some of ChipCo's resellers.  I chose their 'Casino' design.  The Casino design has great low-key colors and a fantastic, matching, low-key, graphic on the face.  The main visual detractor is almost no edge spots.  That's always been something that has bugged me.  Handling these chips is great.  They have a nice heft and surface texture.  Audibly, they really sound good.  They are easy to stack and gobs of fun to play with. These are very good chips overall, and could be mistaken easily for chips from a real Vegas casino.
WEIGHT: 10.5 grams.
FEEL: 9
QUALITY: 9.5
LOOKS: 8.5

Edge Spot Designs: Grand Island
Edge Spot Designs sent me about a dozen of his casino quality clays.  These chips are a custom design by David Fleming, owner of Edge Spot. Right off the bat you realize that these chips are a direct competitor to the James Bond chips.  Same manufacturer, same mold, same feel, weight...etc.  That's not a bad thing in any way shape or form.  It boils down to personal taste, but these chips look *great*.  Bold colors with even bolder edge spots make these chips some of the best looking out there.  Some slight issues with bleeding and non-centered logos...but not really enough to detract from the overall effect of the chips.  Every once in a while I get some samples in that make me want to sell off a kidney to buy full set...and these fall in that category.  Great chips.
WEIGHT: 8.3 grams
FEEL: 7.5
QUALITY: 8
LOOKS: 9.5

image provided by
Edge Spot Designs

HoldemPokerChips.com: Various Chips
HoldemPokerChips sent me a huge sample of their ceramic and Bud-Jones style chips. 

Classic: First on the list is their 'Classic' ChipCo style ceramic. (Top picture).  The design on these is certainly very 'classic' as well as very 'classy'.  As I look at these chips, Bellagio comes to mind. They have the standard matt, semi-smooth finish found on most ChipCo style chips.  Feel and quality are standard ceramic chip.  Very good in both departments.  These chips actually have decent edge spots for a ceramic chip, even if all the spots are exactly the same between chip denominations. Great chip, overall.
WEIGHT: 10.5 grams.
FEEL: 9
QUALITY: 9.5
LOOKS: 8.5

Mardi Gras: The Mardi Gras chips immediately strike you with their bold colors.  (2nd down). Something that my photo's really don't capture 100%.  These chips are similar to Nevada Jack's 'Dead Man' ceramics in that they have a surface texture to them.  It makes for a great feel.  The catch is that, just like the Nevada Jack chips, they can be scratched easier than the regular ceramic smooth finish.  Now keep in mind, I am rubbing to chips HARD together to do this...but it needs to be noted. As far as edge spots go, these are sort of so-so.  There is some fading to be seen, but the spots are different for each denomination and overall, they look cool. I have to admit, I like these chips a lot, and would love to have a set of them.
WEIGHT: 10.5 grams.
FEEL: 9.5
QUALITY: 9
LOOKS: 9

Murphy's Card Room: If you've read the Composite section of this site, you will have read about the other Bud Jones replicas that look so good, yet don't have that great a feel, and are actually hard to use/stack.  (3rd down). Of all the chips I've reviewed, they were the most disappointing.  HomePokerChips.com have managed to get some of these style chips with a slightly rougher texture to them.  The result is pretty huge.  I spent an HOUR comparing the two different chips together, (Sad...isn't it?), in order to confirm that these chips actually do handle better.  They still are not 'soft' feeling enough, and don't match a real Bud Jones...but they are nice step closer.  Scary cool chip with an even scarier potential if the manufacturer ever gets it right.
WEIGHT: 12.6 grams.
FEEL: 7
QUALITY: 10
LOOKS: 10+

Image supplied by HoldemPoker-
Chips.com

HomePokerChips.com: Custom Ceramic Chips
HomePokerChips.com is ChipCo dealer.  They specialize in custom poker chip sets both commercially and for the home player.  Like pretty much all of the other ceramic chips, these have a nice heft and feel.  The finish on their chips is the standard, matt finish.  What this translates to is the ability to create razor sharp images, and that's where their chips stand out.  All of the chips they sent show outstanding detail and clarity in their graphics.  The chip in the upper right was particularly impressive with the detail of the cards and poker chips coming through with no bleeding or 'fuzzyness'.  (Although, for some reason, I kept finding myself drawn to the chip below it...).  If you like ceramics and want custom chips, definitely contact these folks.
WEIGHT: 10.5 grams.
FEEL: 9
QUALITY: 9.5
LOOKS: 9.5 - 10 (image quality-how they look is up to you!)

KC Chips: Bud Jones Style Poker Chips
I received one each of the 4 denominations of this chips.  Not the greatest of samples...but what can you do.  Visually, these chips are just stunning. The colors and design combine for, in my opinion, the prettiest chip available out there right now for the home poker player. Unfortunately, when you start handling them, things go a bit downhill.  These are a semi-soft plastic chip with a metal 'coin' inserted in the middle.  The plastic is to hard, and makes the chip feel a bit cheap.  When stacking and tossing the chips around, they give off a sort of metallic sound that's a bit to close to the super-cheap plastic chips with a metal slug inside of them.  Not a good association.  The construction quality of the these chips appears to be VERY good, with no bleeding or molding issues visible in my sample set. The chips are very slick, which makes stacking quite hard. The least little nudge will cause even my short 4 chip stack to fall over.  If KC Chips could soften up the plastic a bit and maybe even add some texture, these chips would be fantastic...maybe even the best out there.  As it stands now, they are great to look at, but a little disappointing to handle.
WEIGHT: 12.6 grams.
FEEL: 5
QUALITY: 10
LOOKS: 10+

Nevada Jacks: Various Chips
Nevada Jack's sent me 6 chips total.  2 of each of their top of the line poker chips. Nevada Jacks Clay, Martini Club Clay and Nevada Jacks "Clay Composite" which is a Ceramic chip. 

Nevada Jacks Desert Sand: The newest in Nevada Jack's line, this chip uses their textured ceramic style chip.  These chips have a great feel that you don't get in most of the regular 'ChipCo' style ceramics.  Good design with equally good color combos turned out a chip that really caught the eye of many of my coworkers.  The strongest suit on these chips is they easily have the best edge spots of any ceramic chip out there. Really well though out design.  As with the other 'textured' ceramics like these, you CAN damage the surface with another chip if try hard enough.  But you've really got to want to do it.  Manufactured by Nevada Jacks.
WEIGHT: 10.1 grams
FEEL: 9.5
QUALITY: 8
LOOKS: 9.5

Nevada Jacks 'Dead Man' ceramic: If you've handled a variety of ceramic chips, then the first thing that strikes you with these is the surface texture.  They are 'rougher' than any other ceramic chip I've handled.  That's not a bad thing. These chips feel great to handle...the best of any ceramic chip I've played with. Looks wise, I'm not a giant fan of the graphics...but that's a personal choice and not nearly as important as the quality and feel. As you can see there is not 'white ring' around the chip.  The graphics go all the way to the edge.  Good stuff.  Edge spots are nice, but apparently the same for all the chips.  If you like the graphics, then don't hesitate to get these chips.  They are very good.  Manufactured by Nevada Jacks.
WEIGHT: 10.1 grams
FEEL: 9.5
QUALITY: 8
LOOKS: 8

*Note (9/28/04): Discovered something interesting today from a post on TexasHoldem-Poker.com.  If you rub a couple of these chips together vigorously, you can get the image to scratch off.  This did NOT occur to either the ChipCo or TheChipStore chips under the same abuse.  I've adjusted the 'quality rating from '10' to '8' because of this.  Something to consider with your purchase.

*Note (10/29/04): I spent sometime this evening trying to mess up both the Dead Man and Desert Sands chips. I rubbed two chips together, face to face, VERY vigourously for 30 seconds at a time.  After a couple minutes of this, I could see no major damage to any of chip.   I then used the edge of one chip to try and scratch off the surface of a second chip. (What I did above in the note dated 9/28/04).  I could replicate the scratched surface...but you have to try pretty hard to do this.  Anyone considering these chips should not be concerned about the scratching issue under 'normal' use.
 

Nevada Jacks Martini Club: VERY nice clay chips. A surface texture somewhere between the BuyPokerChips.com and Pokerchips.com clay chips. Not as 'soft' as BuyPokerChips, but not as 'hard/slick' as Pokerchips.com.  Nice design around the edge.  Fun to handle, and cool edge spots.  I really couldn't find anything wrong with these chips. Manufactured by Blue Chip Co.
WEIGHT: 8.7- 9.2 grams
FEEL: 10
QUALITY: 10
LOOKS: 10
Note (1/6/05): Added a new pic of the Martini Clubs.

Nevada Jacks Clay: Take the Martini Club chips from above, and take a baby step towards the BuyPokerChips.com clay chips, and you have the Nevada Jack's Clay.  A 'softer' feeling chip than the Martini Club, these really nail 'the perfect handling chip' award in my book. The 'NEVADA' imprinted on the chip surface is just GREAT.  These chips look outstanding and are great to handle. Great, great chip. Manufactured by Blue Chip Co.
WEIGHT: 8.7- 9.4 grams
FEEL: 10
QUALITY: 10
LOOKS: 10

Mini-Review - 12 Gram Injection Molded: This review belongs in the injection molded section, but since I just got one chip from NJ's I'll throw a quick review up here.  The material in these composites is fairly hard.  They have a metal insert, which unlike many lower-end chips, is well hidden.  Feel is good on it's own with a great inlay and texture.  On it's own, the chip does not feel that it's slick, however, there have been numerous comments that these chips are quite slippery and hard to stack.  I'll know more in the future.  Overall, a good looking and feeling chip for the money.
(Ratings vs other injection molded chips)
WEIGHT: 12.3 grams
FEEL: 8
QUALITY: 8
LOOKS: 8

desert sands



desert sands



martini clubs
 

Pokerchips.com: Clay Chips
Pokerchips.com made the chips for the movie Rounders.  That alone is wicked cool.  My sample from them included a few chips each from their top of the line, down to their uber-cheap I-bought-these-at-K-Mart chip.  Unfortunately,  I wish they had included more of the nicer chips in the sampler.  Anyway, Pokerchips.com is on the map for their real clay chips, which I got 3 to play with.  The clay chips are very dense with a much slicker surface than BuyPokerChips.com Modern Clay. More along the lines of a Paulson chip.  Not saying one is better than the other...just different.  Quality appears very good.  Pokerchips.com is really about custom poker chips.  I don't know of any other Clay chip manufacturer that allows so many choices when designing your own chip.  One thing that is strange with my sample was that the edges of all 3 clay chips had gold 'glitter' and a very 'dull' finish to them.  I personally found effect to really take away from the edge spots on the chip and didn't like it at all.  However, when I contacted Pokerchips.com to ask if all their clay chips had this effect on them, they had no idea what I was talking about.  I had several conversations via email and phone, and I still think they believe I'm insane.  Insane or not, the pictures are attached.  You can decide for yourself.

Note (9/28/04): I've received a ton of emails on these explaining to me that the 'gold glitter' are metal shavings put in the chip to help weigh them down. Also, I need to clarify my statement above that it was more the 'dull' edge finish and not the 'glitter' that I felt took away from the chip's overall appearance.
WEIGHT: 8.6 - 9.3 grams.
FEEL: 8
QUALITY: 10
LOOKS: 7.5

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All reviews are the opinions of John Tucker unless otherwise stated, and can be changed at any time.  Content cannot be used without express written consent of John Tucker. 
Copyright John Tucker 2004. All rights reserved.