Home games are incredibly popular. They’re an opportunity to flaunt skills, have banter with friends and also a great social activity. But there’s no use playing in a home game with cocktail sticks or poor playing cards. If you’re going to setup a home game it’s important you have a great poker chip set. The best home games don’t just offer refreshments and comfortable seating, you need the chip set to be high quality too. That’s why in this article we’re sharing our favourite few.
Bullets Playing Cards (BPC)
This is just an awesome set. The chips are ceramic, white, easy to use and feel great. It’s a 300 chip set with standard chip dominations (5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 500). They’re fantastic for a tournament home game or cash game. I love the look of the playing cards in this set too.
SLOWPLAY Nash Chip Set
The slowplay set is one of my favourites. This is chip craftmanship at it’s best for home games. You get 500 chips of clay composite, dollar value chips, and a truly magnificent case. This chip set can easily cater for up to 10 poker players and is excellent value for money. It’s probably my favourite chip set of all due to the look and feel and each chip weighing 14 grams.
Redtooth Poker Set
Another 500 piece chip set, this is a reliable poker chip set. The chips are numbered clearly, they’re visually pleasing and a decent weight too (14g). These chips are perfect for amateur games and decent value for money. The chips are plastic material and make for a perfect start chip set. It comes with a solid case, standard small blind, big blind and dealer button.
Riverboat Gaming Set (Tournaments)
This set is perfect for tournaments. They are standard colours of red, blue, green and black with 11.5 grams weight per chip. That is a little lighter than other sets. Riverboat is one of the leading poker set suppliers in the UK so you know you’re getting a high quality with these. Additionally, you get a couple of playing decks and and the standard buttons. Please note that this set is exclusively for tournaments with the denominations of 5, 10, 25, and 100 with “tournament pro series” labelled on each chip too. This poker chip set is amazing value for money, coming in at half the price of competitors, probably due to the plastic material.
What makes a good poker chip set?
There are primarily two things you want to look at for a chip set; chip material and weight. These are the fundamental aspects to a good set. A sturdy case, labelled chips and nice playing decks are important too but I always look at the material and weight. First let’s look at at the different materials before reviewing the different weights of a chip.
What material are poker chips made of?
There are four types of poker chip material; plastic, clay, composite (plastic) or ceramic. I’ve broken down each below so you can understand the value of each one.
Ceramic Poker Chips
Ceramic material chip sets are the “nuts” when it comes to poker chips. Since the beginning of poker, these are the best to play with.They feel great in your hand and are tough and long lasting. Visit a local casino and you’ll almost certainly be using these chips in a tournament or cash game. Unfortunately, ceramic chips are the most expensive to come by too. You won’t find these cheap online so be prepared to pay more if you want them. These chips are only worth buying if you are running a higher stakes game or want to make your game the best around.
Plastic Chips
Personally, these are my least favourite. They are the standard chips you can buy very cheaply at places like Argos. Plastic chips are fine for players starting out but you’ll quite quickly want to upgrade. They are extremely light and don’t have the same feel as its heavier rivals. Only one of my recommendations involved plastic chips and that was purely for value and for beginners starting out in poker.
Clay Poker Chips
Clay chips feel great and give that authenticity to a home game. They are not as common as the other types of poker chips and are generally more expensive. You may find that some of these break too which is why many manufacturers switched to composite or ceramic material.
Composite Poker Chips
For most of you, this will be the default place to go when it comes to buying poker chips. Technically, these are plastic, however, they have a metal type substance insight the chip to increase weigh and have a finish that gives it a more professional touch. These chips can be bought at a fraction of the cost of clay poker chip sets but still impress most casual poker players.
The weight of poker chips
Everyone has their own preference on what weight a poker chip should be. You’ll usually find they range from 9 grams to 15. Most chip sets are generally between 11 and 11.5. For me, the heavier, the better. I love chips that have more weight as they are easier to do chip tricks with and give an extra layer of authenticity. I don’t like playing with light chips that barely make a noise when you place a big bet on the table. Therefore, I recommend avoiding chips that are less than 11 grams as you’ll probably find them too light to play with.
There you have it, our recommended chip sets and a lowdown on poker chip materials and weights. Now you’re ready for your next home game, why not master bluffing so you can out-bluff your friends?
Narciso Baldo
Narciso Baldo is the Director and Head Coach of Texas Hold'em Questions. He has been playing poker for over 16 years. After spending many years as a professional, he now runs UK poker training site Texas Hold'em Questions. Narciso regularly writes poker articles sharing tips, strategy, news and experience with gambling enthusiasts. Narciso also writes for reputable gambling portal Casino City Times, (bio here). Contact: info@texasholdemquestions.com
