Ace-sist

31/05/2024

Disclaimer: All products I use are purchased or already owned by myself for the sole intention of using for the business if I find them suitable. Reviews are based solely on my experiences with them in the course of the business. I have not been paid for, nor currently asked to review in return for products unless otherwise stated
Links provided at the end.

Review #6

Today’s offering is Vevor branded 300ct Poker Set of which I purchased sets as there was an offer of buy one get one free and at the time of ordering it was discounted to £17.98 for one box but is now back to £27.59 from eBay.

In each case are 300 chips made from ABS injection moulded 11-gram chips with metal insert with values of 1,5,25,100 and 500 denominations, 2 decks of budget plastic coated playing cards 1 red and 1 blue backed design with standard indexes, 1 large plastic Dealer Button, 1 x Small Blind and 1 x Big Blind (both smaller than in diameter than a poker chip) and as usual, for some unknown reason, 5 translucent Dice.
The case is the standard aluminium design ( with Vevor logo on the lid ) and plastic moulded insert with 6 rows containing 50 chips in each row and space for 2 deck sof cards and foam liner in the inside of the case to keep it all in place.

There are:
100 x ‘1’ chips in black
100 x ‘5’ chips in red
50 x ‘25’ chips in blue
25 x ‘100’ chips in green
25 x ‘500’ chips in pink

They are clean and clear in design with the values printed in black on white background with a design on the outer part of the label.
There were a few minor imperfections in the label placement and the occasional small colour bleed on the edge spots.

Very, but pleasantly, surprised by the lack of excess flashings from the moulding process on the chips and they are very smooth. Also they are also consistently flat what stacked with very little wiggle room so less likely to fall when stack up.

I bought these as a test purchase believing it too good to be true and I wasn’t really expecting them to actually turn up as I ordered from EBay and company based in China but item was delivered from a UK warehouse and turned up within the stated delivery time.

I think that they are perfect for £1/£1 game and look much different to my regular tournament set and my ceramic home game set so no possibility of players trying bolster their stack with chips from another set.

Pros:
Great value
Clear and clean design
Perfect for cash games.

Cons:
Cheap and basic dealer/sb/bb tokens.
Really basic playing cards.
Thin aluminium case looks and feels cheap.

Verdict: 6.5/10

The chips are really quite, quite good and the quick delivery was nice.
I’m being overly harsh on the bits I didn’t really expect to be good for the price, but at the full price (£30 per case) I would want 100% plastic playing cards and better sb/bb buttons and a slightly better case.

www.uk.vevor.com

04/05/2024

Disclaimer: All products I use are purchased or already owned by myself for the sole intention of using for the business if I find them suitable. Reviews are based solely on my experiences with them in the course of the business. I have not been paid for, nor currently asked to review in return for products unless otherwise stated
Links provided at the end.

Review #5

In todays review we have the new 'Seat Cards' pack from All In Accessories. They are £12.50 + postage for a pack of 10 (Seat 1-10). You can order which ever table number you need from 1-10 from the website. So replacing them is really easy. Other table numbers would probably be available upon a direct request.

They are plastic coated, credit-card size, single-sided print with a plain black reverse with a large, clear and bold white font with a patterned border and white frame.

When you spread them on the felt to mix them up they glide and mix well ensuring a fair and randomisation of the cards.

The are well sized being just fraction a smaller than a credit card and I have pictured them next to my own self made cards and a membership card and a Time Bank card.

It may be possible to have a customised back with your own logo or text for extra cost but contact the seller for costs.

As with the Time Bank cards a rounded edge would still be preferable overall as you might get a little jab from the pointy corners, but that's a personal choice for me and it doesn't detract from the usage of the cards and that is about all the negatives about them.

Verdict: 9/10
Absolutely perfect for any pub/club/card-room T-D to make their game that little bit more professional looking.
Good range of table numbers available.
Clear large font makes it easy for players to see the seat assignment.
Possible branding opportunities.
Great value especially for replacement pack.
Quick turnaround from order to delivery.

https://www.allinaccessories.co.uk/product/seating-cards/

25/04/2024

Disclaimer: All products I use are purchased or already owned by myself for the sole intention of using for the business if I find them suitable. Reviews are based solely on my experiences with them in the course of the business.. I have not been paid for, nor currently asked to review in return for products unless otherwise stated
Links provided at the end.

Review #4

BlindsUp is a dedicated iOS (version 10.0 onwards) app that displays all the information your players need to keep up to date with the tournament as it progresses.

The free version limits you to 8 players and basic functions so good enough to use as a simple timer

The premium subscription £49.99 per year ( approx £4.20 per month ), or available as a rolling monthly charge £7.99 is not just a simple timer but a complete tournament management system with multiple screens showing current and upcoming Blinds, player bust-outs, current payouts and final standings.

The positives.

Set your costs for Buy-Ins, Re-Buys, Add-Ons, chips recieved for each amount paid.

Set date and time of each game, easily duplicate a tournament with all your choices copied over.

Choose from pre-set Blind structures, auto-generate a stucture based on player numbers and game time, or create your own from scratch by adding SB/BB/Antes, time per level, game type, colour ups etc.

Add players from your database, add new players or guest players from within the tournament selection screen, assign players a seat manually or from a random seat draw function.

Auto-generate a prize-pool pay outs or manually select your own.

You can add a 'Bounty' to each player so when they get knocked out the person who eliminated them recieves a cash bonus. You can even add a 'Secret Bounty' to special players for an extra surprise reward adding to the fun of the game.

Chipset - create a selection of chips to be displayed on the tournament screen. How many of each denomination, chip colour, and value of chip or take photos of them and upload the image.

Sounds - use pre-set sounds and voices to announce blind changes and breaks.

Unlimited Player database - Player profiles are easy to add and edit, keeps all the the results from each game the player competes in, showing expenses, winnings, average earnings, wins, points and knockouts.

Championships - Keeps track of the combined stats for players in a season including how many tournaments played, expenses, earnings etc. View league standings by Points, Knockouts, Toatal Earnings/Expense, and Wins.

Create and save your own points structure or use the Pre-set ones available.

Fully customizable timer layout. Backgrounds, each item to be displayed can have its colours changed, plus its size can be altered.

No need to carry a heavy laptop around, works offline so no mobile data or WiFi issues, unlimited player numbers and tournaments can be created

It can displayed on a large TV or projector screen via a HDMI connction (adapter needed) or via Apple-TV sync.
When connected to big screen, none of the settings or menus disrupt the timer display when the tournament is running, so any changes are hidden from the players.

Clear announcements voiced by an actual person not a robotic text to speech voice.

Subscription is is cheaper than other apps like Blinds Valet £11 p/m approx ( internet required ) or Casino Ware £99 p/m for a basic plan

The negatives.

Editing layouts can be a little frustrating trying to get things set just right.

The sync function between iPhone to iPad is still waiting to be fixed ( but it is being worked on )

Voice announcement doesn’t voice custom ante settings, say if you use a Big Blind Ante,

It’s only on iOS ( at the moment )

Updates can be a long wait, but any potential serious issue is dealt with quite quickly.

Some minor bugs still to fixed.

Overall this This far exceeds any other tournament app or timer on either iOS or Android. I've used countless of other timers to find the right one to help me run poker leagues and home games and nothing comes close to the versatility of BlindsUp.

It’s really easy to learn how to do things and the User Interface means it is usually human error which causes problems

No need for a laptop to be carried around or learning to use a programme like Tournament Supervisor or CasinoWare, which are better suited for casinos running multiple tournaments simultaneously.

All you need without needing to be a casino card room.

8.5/10
A few fixes and it’ll be perfect.

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/blinds-up/id827327902

22/04/2024

Disclaimer: All products I use are purchased or already owned by myself for the sole intention of using for the business if I find them suitable. Reviews are based solely on my experiences with them in the course of the business.. I have not been paid for, nor currently asked to review in return for products unless otherwise stated
Links provided at the end.

Review #3

Here we have a set of “Time Bank” cards from All In Accessories.
They are custom designed plastic cards perfect for cash or tournament games.

For those games where there is a Shot Clock in use, you give each player a set number of cards and they can use them when needing that bit of extra time to make a difficult decision, especially if it’s for their tournament life, and each card used will be given to the dealer for an extension of the Shot Clock.

Pros:

High durability, less prone to bending, denting and scratching.

Water resistant, liquids run off quickly so cleaning will be easy.

Tear resistant, although I didn’t try too hard to tear it but I suppose with enough deliberate force it could tear.

Antimicrobial protection, although I wouldn’t know how to test or disprove this claim from the website, so with all good faith I take their word for it.

Credit card sized with clear double-sided print and large font. ( see pic 2 for size comparison against my own created seat cards )

Cons:

Could do with being ever so slightly thicker for durability.

Would prefer rounded corners to avoid accidental jabs and cuts when picking them up.

Overall: 9/10

A good size, large clear font and easy to clean if needed. A sensible price for a pack of 20. Great for that extra bit of professionalism in your games.

Check out https://www.allinaccessories.co.uk for dealer buttons, all in triangles and other accessories in the pipeline.

08/06/2023

Disclaimer: All products I use are purchased or already owned by myself for the sole intention of using for the business if I find them suitable. Reviews are based solely on my experiences with them in the course of the business.. I have not been paid for, nor currently asked to review in return for products unless otherwise stated
Links provided at the end.

Review #2

Here we have Redtooth Poker Dark Night 100% Plastic playing cards priced at £5.80p a deck or £40.20p for 12 decks on a 'buy 6 get 6 free' offer.

Each deck is sealed and comes with two Joker cards.

The deck has an embossed black and white diamond pattern on the back with a white border and the face side has 2 large printed indexes denominating the suit and value and a black border surrounding the central suit index.

Pros:

They are smooth and pliable to use with a very nice shuffle and glide across the table very nicely.
They are easy to clean with either soap and water or ,as in my previous review, LCD screen cleaner and micro-fibre cloth to keep the cards smooth and like new.
These will last significantly longer than the VC cards from the last review, because even when dirty they still perform really well and can last between 2-4 games before becoming sticky and needing to be cleaned.

Cons:
Some decks I have used have had printing issues on individual cards like the 'Face' border not aligned in the same place as other cards and the reverse border can also be thicker at one end than other, but it does not affect the performance of the cards its and hardly noticeable during play and really is a minor issue.
They can be bent and marked, like finger nail indents, quite easily (sometimes the cards are bent during the packing process and are like this out of the boxed, but its rare for that to happen)
The print of the 'Face' values can fade after a short while, but I assume the more they are cleaned the quicker this will happen.

Verdict:
A great price for a budget deck of cards and ones I exclusively use in my games. Very easy to clean and really good longevity.
If the material used was a bit stronger/thicker the bending would be less likely to happen and the printing errors could be improved.
Significantly better than the Victor Chandler budget cards, which I will edit and reduce that score due to the much inferior product.

Score: 6/10
Link:
https://www.getpokergear.com/collections/playing-cards/products/dark-night-casino-quality-playing-cards-with-two-jumbo-indexes-100-plastic

29/06/2022

Here is a short video of the Tuesday Re-buy pre-game set up.
Blinds Up tournament software connected to large screen TV
Table-tops, chips and cards are purchased from Redtooth Poker

11/06/2022

Thought I'd do little reviews of some equipment I use for the games I run.

Disclaimer: All products I use are purchased or already owned by myself for the sole intention of using for the business if I find them suitable. Reviews are based solely on my experiences with them in the course of the business.. I have not been paid for, nor currently asked to review in return for products unless otherwise stated
Links provided at the end.

Review #1

So first up is the VC Economy 100% Plastic range by Premier Poker Chips for £2.99 a deck with price breaks for multiple decks ( I bought six decks for £2.69 each ) and the deck comes sealed with 2 jokers and a Hand Ranking card.

Buying playing cards has the same pitfalls and benefits as buying poker chips, electrical equipment or cars in that bigger price tags doesn't always mean better quality and likewise budget items doesn't always equate to better value for money.

That being said you should always buy 100% plastic playing cards over standard plastic coated cards for longer lasting and more durable equipment.

The VC (Victor Chandler) Budget 100% Plastic cards are nice to shuffle, deal and to generally handle.

They do get dirty after just a couple of hours use and tend to stick together and become difficult to shuffle requiring a change of deck earlier than expected but some of this is also down to whether the table being used needs cleaning and players dirty hands as well. Although once cleaned using soapy water, or in my experience LCD screen cleaner and a micro-fibre cloth works better, they become almost new again with the same performance as a brand new deck.

I did notice that they were easily marked by fingernail indentations with little effort and these are easily spotted when light is reflected of the playing card surface. Most players wont notice this during general play but more attentive/experienced players will see and feel the bumps.

Pros:
Very low price-point to buy in bulk and replace.
Very nice to use when new/cleaned.
Easy to clean.

Cons:
Gets dirty and cards stick to each after just a few hours.
More time spent cleaning cards than necessary.
Shows scratches on branded side easily.
Can be easily marked without a to much pressure.
You will tend to buy and replace these more frequently

Verdict:
Better than paper/plastic coated cards and relatively inexpensive to replace. They way they stick together after a short time is the biggest detractor for buying these on a regular basis. Great for one-off or monthly games but certainly not for daily or weekly games.
*Edited score after re-review Score: 3/10.
https://www.premierpokerchips.com/playing-cards/budget-playing-cards/victor-chandler-economy-plastic-playing-cards

11/05/2022

12/03/2022

Another fun evening for Al's Home Game.

6 players for started for a £50 Freeze-out, 20min clock throughout, 20K starting stack. Clint Was the winner this time for £195.

Cards by Premier Poker Chips
Chips by POKERSHOP.de
Tournament clock by Blinds Up

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06/03/2022

Another fun evening had by the boys in Chelmsford.
Thanks for choosing Ace-sist for your home games.

Chips by POKERSHOP.de
Cards by Premier Poker Chips & Redtooth Poker
Tournament clock by Blinds Up

Another one next week.

06/03/2022

05/03/2022

Prepped for tonight's in Boreham, Essex.
Chips by POKERSHOP.de
Cards by Redtooth Poker & Premier Poker Chips
Table by Redtooth Poker
Tournament timer by Blinds Up

21/02/2022

20/02/2022

Use the 'Send Message' service for a quicker response to your initial enquiry.

We will need the proposed date and time if the event, estimated player numbers, location of the event and what package you require.

20/02/2022

15/02/2022

Our standard recommendation for your event is:
Buy-In £30, Stack - 5k
Re-Buys £30, Stack - 5k, from 1 - 3 max per player.
Add-On £20, Stack - 10k available to all players still in the game.

Starting stacks and buy-ins can be tailored to your needs.

Re-buys - Players that lose all their initial chips can purchase another stack of chips to continue playing in the game. This can only be done during the Re-Buy period. Re-Buys add extra money to the overall prizepool.

Add-on (optional) - Any player still in the game during the add-on period ( normally at the break ) can purchase a top-up of chips to add to their current stack. Nearly all players will take this option. This, like Re-Buys, add extra money to the total prizepool.

Recommend Blind Structure.

SB BB Clock
25 / 50 15min
50 / 100 15min
100 / 200 15min
200 / 400 15min
BREAK 20min
300 / 600 15min
400 / 800 15min
500 / 1000 15min
600 / 1200 15min
800 / 1600 15min
BREAK 20min
1000 / 2000 15min
1500 / 3000 15min
2000 / 4000 15min
3000 / 6000 15min
4000 / 8000 15min
5000 / 10000 15min

This can also be adjusted to suit your needs.

13/02/2022

When deciding to book with us your preliminary enquiry, via either email or messenger, should include the proposed date, time, length of event and estimated number of players, the venue location and if possible any photos of the designated playing area among other things.

We will advise you on possible cost of entry for the players, starting stacks, re-buys and add-ons, prize payouts, as well as blind structure including breaks, number of tables and dealers needed ( if required ), also we will discuss players expected behaviour and responsibilities.

A week before the confirmed event we will need exact player numbers, all players full names, your final decisions on buy-ins/re-buys etc so this can be entered into the software so it’s pre-prepared in time for the event.

We want to ensure your game runs as smoothly as possible and is as fun for your guests as possible.

Acesist Poker Events.

13/02/2022

Another event coming up in March in Chelmsford.

Still Running league games, also pub and now are being lined up.
10gram Ceramic chips bought from www.POKERSHOP.de
Tournament software by Blinds Up
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30/12/2021

Tonight’s game at the Cricketers, Chelmsford is cancelled due to COVID concerns.

29/12/2021

Back at The Cricketers, Chelmsford on Thursday for another monthly game.

22/12/2021

Another annual Christmas game in Chelmsford.
14 players, 495,000 chips in play after rebuys and add-ons.
Great night for the eventual winner and the others that cashed.

05/12/2021

Another successful Home Game in Chelmsford.
The winner took home £225 as champion of the night.

25/11/2021

02/10/2021

Send us a message for more info.

15/08/2021

A few pics from the first home game in Chelmsford.