Austin HTF Poker Thread (1 Viewer)

[Robert_Z]

Robert_Z will be there...believe it or not...and no last minute cancellations this time. :b

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

With all the RSVPs in we have the following for tomorrow night:

CONFIRMED
Nils 'Big Dawg' Luehrmann
Scott 'Tubes' Oliver
Jonathan 'Doc' Atkins
David 'Picasso' Gorton
Hank 'Bogie' Frankenberg
Jeff 'Captain' Blair
Robert 'Z' Lopez
Conrad 'Colton' Meub
David '?' Hoffman

MIGHT
Linda 'Blondie' Luehrmann
Scott 'Wolf' Stephens
Stephen 'Red' Mulva


For you "Mights", don't be shy just because we already have nine confirmed. Not only do I have enough room to comfortably sit 10 players, but I can even expand the table to accommodate two games of 6 players each. In fact for that matter I also have the 8 player round poker table upstairs if absolutely necessary - and I should have enough chips for just about any number of players.

Speaking of poker tables, I've made some advancement in my plans for an expandable poker top for our dining room table.

I went fabric shopping today... (had to slam down a beer after that to regain my manhood) and discovered a great material for not only the dining room poker table top, but also the folding table I plan on making later on.

I first was considering high quality felt and frankly I didn't like the look or feel on any of the samples I found. I was then recommended to consider some super soft suede material and most of those samples were all very nice, but then I started looking at velvet samples like that used in my chip case and really liked them! They had the best feel, and were all stretchable thus making a really nice fit to any table top surface.

Then I discovered that all of those fabrics, fine felt, suede, and velvet are dry clean only and would never survive a night with 'Tubes'.

When I brought up the importance that the material be able to be washed and not dry cleaned and that it must be a durable fabric it was then suggested that I consider a faux crushed velvet fabric and let me just say this... WOW!

The stuff is great. While not quite as nice a feel as real velvet, its a close second and is also stretchable. Most importantly it is supposed to be very durable and easily washed - that said... I'm still going to give Scott a sippy cup when he sits down at the table.

I thought I was going to only want a rich deep green fabric, but after seeing a sample of a golden crushed faux velvet fabric I was sold.

I still plan on buying a 1/4" or maybe even a 1/8" neoprene rubber mat to glue the fabric to, but in the mean time I wanted to find a quick substitute in order to give the table a padded feel to it.

I found a nice 1/8" neoprene foam mat meant for yoga (Harmony Pad) - (yes, I had to slam down another beer after that acquisition as well - not just because I bought a yoga product, but because the product name sounded so much like a tampon product)

I bought enough mats to cover the table, but even so I was not entirely impressed as the mats are not completely smooth like a rubber mat would be. Instead they have very small indents thus even with the fabric on top it made the table not feel as smooth as I would want. I bought a 6'x9' sheet of carpet grabber material that had a completely smooth sticky surface that allowed it to grab the fabric and keep it in place as well as grip onto the foam mat, but without the typically bumpy surface common among carpet grabbers. The result was actually quite good, but not enough to make me rethink my original plan.

Any way, so here is the end result for which those that attend tomorrow night will get to try out first hand (click on any pic to enlarge):

[url=http://home.austin.rr.com/gottasee/links/poker2-small.jpg] [/url]

[url=http://home.austin.rr.com/gottasee/links/poker1-small.jpg] [/url]

[url=http://home.austin.rr.com/gottasee/links/poker3-small.jpg] [/url]

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

I think I'm gonna be ill.

If Humphrey were with us today, he'd give you such a hard time about that, and all us mugs would have a laugh. BUT, the important thing is that Big Dog has found a slick solution to the dining table poker table transformation, soooo....
LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

BTW, hardcore members, keep in mind that I'm planning a poker party (meaning, of course, FAJITAS) for Friday evening, October 8. Fajitas, a horror movie excerpt for grins, then poker. Is there a modicum of interest?

Also, I may have blonde dealer present, but never mind.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

I sent out the requested directions so if anyone still needs directions please let me know ASAP.

BTW: I guess I am the only one offering booby prizes? Oh well, let's see. I have a movie pass I could toss in to the loser's pot. It is for either Vanity Fair or Wimbledon and is good for up admission up to $10.50 .

Or else I might consider giving the loser one of those Limited Edition Boxes for Kill Bill Vol.1 & 2. I have an extra one and even if you don't like it you could probably sell it on eBay for a tidy sum. Here is one that sold for $26.51, and here is one that sold for $25.50 - it's a nice looking box, but $25 worth? Go figure.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

Before I forget, check out what 5StarDeal now offers as table accesories:


Slide-Under-Table Plastic Cup Holder


Slide-Under-Table Plastic Cup Holder w/Cutouts

Hmmm... now this may actually be 'Tubes'-proof.

 

[Jeff Blair]

Nils, Is there such a thing??

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

Tubes will figure a way to defeat ANY cupholder

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

Okay, Conrad "Colton" Meub just confirmed. See ya'll at 7:00.

 

[Jonathan DA]

Hmm, gold on a poker table; that's like putting red cloth on a pool table. Let me hear ya say, "That ain't right!!!" Though I must admit, it looks great with your super cool Teak furniture.

Hank, you think Nils going fabric shopping is bad, well I'm the one who told him which stores to go to!

 

[Jeff Meininger]

Let us know if you find a source for that neoprene rubber. That idea sounds better than the plan I was going to move forward with (pink foam insulation board cut to match the table... heh).

 

[Scott Oliver]

Ok question for those who have poker chips. How many defects did you guys get on your sets? And how picky were you on picking out any defects?

I am going through my chips and so far I am pretty disappointed in the quality of them. I am pulling out about 20% of them (out of 200 searched so far) that I plan on asking for an exchange on or I may just even try to return the whole set if it is bad enough.

Other little beefs with the set:
1. Case is really nice but one of its hinges currently squeak, can fix that with some nice 3M product I imagine
2. Cards are worthless because not only did they cut the corners of them but they also drew a black line along another corner that is not equal on every card, thus they marked in a manner of speaking. But don't really care about that much since the cards don't matter to me.


The chips however I am feeling big time buyer's remorse right now. So again someone tell me how much perfection should I expect on these chips?

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

What kind of defects are you seeing?

With my current and previous sets I found very little in the way of defects. Maybe one out of a hundred or more chips will have a minor printing error or permanent mark.

If you are seeing some pretty obvious defects on 20% of your chips then it sounds like you have a very legitimate complaint on your hands.

I believe you got used casino cards which are often marked with a black permanent marker along the side of the deck and sometimes they will chop a corner off the deck. It sounds like the cards you got have both. This is done for security reasons so no one can sneak in matching casino cards into a game.

Interestingly though I have several casino decks of which none are marked or cut:

Harrah's Las Vegas
Santa Fe Las vegas
Rio Las Vegas
Horizon Lake Tahoe

Most of them are Bee Club Special No.92 (w/cambric finish) cards. Horizon uses Aristocrat cards.

Casino decks are not very expensive, so if you do not like the marked or cut cards I suspect you could replace them with unmarked cards easily enough.

If you do end up sending back your chips, at least wait until we can see them.

 

[Jonathan DA]

I have decks from the Luxor and the Mirage. The Luxor deck has a cut corner I believe, and the Mirage deck has one corner marked black. It looks like they burnt the corners of the Mirage deck instead of using a black marker. As Nils mentioned, typical of most casino decks. I have some older casino decks that have a hole punched thru the center of very card as well.

The chips I would definitely send back. A 20% defect rate is insane.

 

[Scott Oliver]

Ended up with a 136 total that I consider defective and showed them to Nils for his confirmation of them being considered defective as well.

I could be consiedered picky as some are as little as spots here or there, but when no one else's chip sets are showing these spots and especially not at a 20% rate, then I think I should expect better quality. Also Nils pointed out to me that the case handle is lose, but this is probably just some shipping damage.


This is in their ads as their Guaranty and they brag all over the ad about how superior their chip quality is to other manufacturers, so I am hoping all this translates into me just being able to return the set for a full refund and me being able to look elsewhere.

I had hoped this set would get me close to the tri-color level of quality like Nil's without me having to shell out that level of money but I guess not. Bummer! So upon return I will be upgrading to a higher level of chip (more expensive). I ha ve my eye on some, but will not spill the beans until I get a resolution on these current chips.

 

[Scott Oliver]

The chip set will be sent back tommorrow for a full refund. Thankfully the company seems to be a quality one and easy to deal with. Plus, I seem to be the only person unhappy with the Radiant chips so far.

Don't fret as I have already purchased my replacement set, which I believe will be a major upgrade but there are no Pink chips. :frowning:




The set won't allow me to do the smae chip layout that we used last time, but I think I have the best chip layout worked out already.

$5 = 100 in chips
Starting chip amounts:
whites = 15
reds = 11
blues = 3
The chip values will be:
whites - 1 - $.05
reds - 5 - $.25
blues - 10 - $.50
greens - 25 - $1.25
blacks - 50 - $2.50

 

[Steve Stogel]

I will boycot any poker game using those denominations. I'm sure we can figure out something better. What are the amounts of chips you're getting?

Oops. Never mind. Just re-read the amounts, and you're saying they'll be worth 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, but you put the actual amount since 100 will be equall to $5. Got it. I'd still make the blacks 100 ($5) and just likely rarely use them.

Now, about the chips. I think those look wickedly nice, Tubes. I'm not sure about the picture, but they look great from a color-layout standpoint, and I love the edge spots on the side. Very casinoish (it's a word).

Are they 10g clay or the 11.5g composites that we all have? They look very clayish (also a word) to me. Very nice, and we'll have to break 'em in soon.

 

[Scott Oliver]

They are clay composite 11.5 gram chips, but like what we are suspicious of Nils chips being, they mention they have more clay in the mix that gives a feel closer to clay chips - less metallic.

As for denominations, I am just trying to figure out a way to get more of the chip set into play as the only bad thing about the set is that you can't change the chip layout of the set.

As for the picture I like it alot as the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign just oozes "Let's gamble" at you. Plus unlike almost every chip on the market that has a picture in the middle these have no marked denominations. But defiantely very similar to the style of chips used by casinos for many these tournaments shown on TV.

 

[Steve Stogel]

Well, they look great, Tubes. Can't wait to see them in person. I absolutely love the sides of them. I know it seems ridiculous, but I just as much stock into what the sides look like as the front/back. It's probably because I really liked the AJ chips I got but then was horribly frustrated by the side markings on them. I hope the quality is there. Did you get them off eBay? I did a quick search and couldn't find that type of chip. What should I be looking for?

BTW, my cuz played with some of the 13 gram chips (yes, 13 grams), and he was pleasantly surprised at how nice they were. He (and I) figured they'd be too heavy, but he said they actually had a very nice feel and seemed more "clay" than any of the composites he had played with. He also mentioned that it seemed that you could stack them much higher than the normal composite chips (about 20 high is as high as most dare to go with the 11.5g chips).

 

[Scott Oliver]

For some reason the chips aren't listed under Casino chips, instead they are categorized under Other games. Anyways do a search by seller for jrmintl and you can see the other three style of chips thay have. All of them are very nice looking.

Also once I get the chips, I wanted to gauge interest in me resurrecting the Tuesday night games that we had going through July and August. Maria always has to go watch a Brazilian movie for class that night on campus, so it would be perfect for me to host a game from 7-11pm.

Steve what do you think? Do you think we could get some of your side of the poker family folks interested? Also I am close to campus, so we could also more easily get Mitch and buds over from UT.

Would be looking at starting the series on 10/12.

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

Did anyone notice my Sept 24 note:
?

Hank's Cafe Americain this Friday evening, 6:30-ish. I'll start grilling fajitas a little before that time, and folks can bring their side dish fixin's and we can work along together to some music (Cuban, perhaps?). We'll eat and socialize, maybe watch a horror movie excerpt? Then, it's Texas hold-em ~8:00 - 12:00. Tubes, if your new chips arrive in time, bring 'em over.

So far:
Bogey
Laurie
Colton

Let me know