500 InPlay Clay Poker Chip Set
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About the InPlay Clay Poker Chips
The InPlay Clay line is the successor to the
popular Modern
Clay line, the first great clay poker chip that we designed
and built from the ground up. Our goal with the InPlay Clay
line was to go above and beyond “a great clay poker
chip” and create the finest home game poker chip on
the market.
How can you improve a great clay poker
chip?
When poker players were telling us they wanted
chips, “exactly like the casinos use”, we took
them literally and designed and produced the exact same chips
that casinos order, straight from the manufacturer, with the
dust still on them. That’s what they were screaming
for, so that’s what we gave them.
We could have stopped right there and still
have had what is widely considered the premier clay poker
chip on the market today. Of course, we're not really ones
to rest on our laurels.
In our continuing relentless pursuit of a better
poker chip, we asked ourselves if it was possible to make
even better chips. So we decided to delve into the mind of
home game poker players and ask them what reservations they
had (if any) about the top clay poker chips on the market.
What we found out was a little surprising. While they loved
clay poker chips, there were a number of reservations that
were widely shared. They biggest complaints were as follows:
- The chip edges are too sharp - The
most common complaint we heard was that the clay poker
chips people were buying for their home games had sharper
edges then they remember casino chips having. Since casinos
use chips for about seven years on average before destroying
them, the average chip you see in a casino is about 3.5
years old and thus has nicely rounded edges. In fact,
most people have never even seen a brand new casino chip,
so when they were asking for chips “exactly like
the casinos use,” they really were asking for a
chip that’s been worn in for 3.5 years.
- The chips are too rough –We heard
a lot of people complaining that the face of the clay
chips they were buying for their home games were overly
rough, unlike what they were used to in casinos. This
complaint is related to the issue of the edges being too
sharp (people are used to worn in chips, not new chips
right out of the factory), but has a slightly different
root cause. The mold for most clay chips used in casinos
is intentionally made with a rough, textured surface.
The exact reasons for this intentionally textured surface
is debatable, even among industry insiders, but the general
consensus is that it makes for better friction between
chips which makes them stay in stacks better. Nonetheless,
most casino chips become smooth after just a few years
in play and still stack just fine, and casinos continue
to use them another five or more years. As we found out,
home game users far prefer the feel of the smooth “worn
in” chips. The tradeoff in ability to stack is negligible,
if noticeable at all. From what we can tell, the reason
casino chips are intentionally made rough, may be just
be based on unsubstantiated notions, or worse yet, just
plain habit.
- Inlay design is severely lacking –
A widely held belief is that casino chip design, namely
inlay design, is fairly poor. Not only for home game poker
chips, but for actual casino chips as well. There is a
lot of frustration on the part of home game poker players
when it comes to design.
- Home game mold designs are lacking
– Home game poker players tend to agree that the
molds the casinos use are pretty nice. Their thoughts
about the home game poker market mold designs are quite
different. The general consensus seems to be, “Why
is it so difficult? Especially when you’ve got great
casino mold designs to model them after?”
The birth of a legend
Knowing exactly what home poker players were
dissatisfied with in the currently available clay poker chip
market, our task was simple.
- Give them a clay poker chip that mimics a casino chip
that’s been in play in a casino for about 3.5 years.
- Create a mold design on par with top casino molds.
- Go outside of the currently lacking poker chip design
world and get fresh design inspiration from other industries
where design is considered outstanding.
The resulting effort created a rather innovative
leap forward in clay poker chips, in terms of both design
and the all important touch and feel component.
Our InPlay Clay line utilizes our throwback
Cigar & Snifter mold, what some insiders in the poker
chip industry consider the finest mold ever produced. The
engraving design features an intricate cigar and snifter design,
repeated 8 times around the track of the chip. Two concentric
circles frame this repeating design, one inside and one outside.
The innovation that really sets the InPlay Clay
line apart from every poker chip in the world is the innovative
(and intentional) smooth feel of the track and edge of the
chip combined with the popular textured, cross-hatched inlay
surface. Unlike all other clay chips in the world, which come
out of the factory with a rough surface, the InPlay Clay chip
has an unmistakable smooth feel. It feels just like a chip
that has been in use in a casino for 3-5 years, exactly what
home users have been screaming about for years.
Lastly, our idea to bring good design to the
poker chip market is a very simple and straightforward idea.
If the industry is plagued with bad design, then go outside
of the industry for your talent. Give that talent full autonomy
to design a poker chip as if it were the first chip ever designed,
and intended to establish a benchmark for all future designs.
Have them borrow from award winning designs in other design
disciplines, as well as completely unrelated industries that
are known for great design. Our InPlay Clay line very successfully
took this approach and borrowed from proven international
currency design.
InPlay Clay line features:
- Industry Leading Innovation!
Smooth clay touch and feel built right into the
mold of the chip – A major innovation for
home game poker chips that gives them the “InPlay”
feel of a poker chip that’s been properly broken-in
within a casino environment.
- Industry Leading Innovation!
Each chip in pre-oiled for optimum touch, feel, and sound
– Borrowing from a little known phenomenon
in the casino chip collecting world, we break-in these
clay poker chips with a labor-intensive oil treatment
process that mimics exposure to hand oil, a process that
can take 10 hours or more per chip set for a chip collector.
The result is a finely polished chip that livens up the
chip colors and provides that unmistakable “InPlay”
feel.
- 100% Authentic Casino Chips - Same
clay chips, same manufacturer, as those used in numerous
popular Las Vegas casinos including the prestigious Mandalay
Bay
- Exclusive mold - This chip line uses
Sidepot Gaming Company's highly touted throwback mold
design, the Cigar & Snifter mold.
- Highly refined base and dual edge spot color
combinations - The colors are a key, yet often
overlooked, element of a chips beauty.
- 11 Denominations – The widest
denomination selection of any clay poker chip on the market.
Choose from 25 cent to $5000 denominations.
- Textured cross-hatched inlay surface
- Not flat and lifeless just because it’s easier
to make.
- Inspired inlay design – Inspired
by the award-winning design elements of popular International
currency.
