Chip breakdown for a lifetime of poker.

[messenger309]

I posted this in the Pre Order thread but I think it deserves it's own thread. I was trying to figure out how many chips you
need to allow for a lifetime of limit increases in your home game. Assuming you start at 1/2 or 25NL.

I have been thinking about this also. How many chips do you need for a lifetime of poker?

The tourney question is easily answered. I run one table SNG's. 1000 chips to start with unlimited rebuys for the first three rounds plus an add on. My players are pretty loose so we typically put about 30000 chips in play. For this part of my game I plan on:
150 $5
200 $25
100 $100
50 $500
25 $1000
I like my players to have at least 30-40 actual chips to play with at the start so a starting stack would be 15 red,21 green and four black. Most guys take a rebuy right away: 5 black and a purple.
This setup also allows for larger non rebuy tourney's. The extra chips cut down on people needing change all the time and speeds up play.

Cash games are a little trickier. If you only play NL then your life is easier. Just buy enough of each denom to keep people from needing change all the time. I plan on 150 .25, 250 $1 chips. Once your game gets higher in limits you just move into your tourney set up anyway.

If you play limit, you need a lot more chips if you plan on having enough around to allow your game to grow in limits. Lets assume the average buyin is the textbook 40BB. If you start at 1/2 each player needs $80. For 8 players that is 640 chips if you use the same denom. This is a good choice for a cardroom but out of reach for the home host I think. Better to give each player 30 $1 and 10 $5. This means you need about 250 $1 chips plus a 100 or so .25 for the blinds.
3/6 can be played with a mix of $1 and $5 easily but 2/4 is gonna be a nightmare of change making and a lot of hands in the pot. 5/10 is doable with your tourney setup but 10/20 is going to have the same problem as 2/4. Any two chip/4 chip
structure is going to need a lot of chips. The local casino's near here simply spread 2/5 instead.

So far I am up to 825 chips and I plan on a 1000 so you can tweak your setup as you need.

Bottom line is a 1000 chips should be good for a lifetime of poker.

Rob

[bubbafry]

I just received my Paulson samples today and they are fan-freakin-tastic, definitely blow the Nevada Jack Clay samples out of the water.

Anyway, I've been putting a lot of thought into this too (maybe too much!). I will probably only buy a nice set of clay chips once or twice in my life. I don't want to spend $1k and be pissed in 2 years because I don't have enough purples or something and won't be able to get more Pharaoh's Club chips. I agree tourneys are the easy part. It's no problem to adjust your starting stacks and blinds to match your chipset. As you mentioned, the biggest problem is when you want to play limit, because you need a large quantity of 1 or 2 denominations. I think I'm going to skip the 25c and $1 chips so I can buy more of the higher denoms, and then just use $25 as 25c and $100 as $1.00. I really would like to get all the different denoms and have a complete set (especially if they have different shaped inlays), but my practical side tells me to just buy more of fewer colors. When I play tourneys, I also like to have lots of chips (35-40) to start. This is what I'm thinking right now:

blanks - 200
$5 - 200
$25 - 325
$100 - 200
$500 - 75

With this setup for tourneys <= 10 people, I could do either T1000 tourneys (starting with 5 x 20, 25 x 16, 100 x 5) or T2500 ( 25 x 20, 100 x 20). Blanks could be used as $1000 if necessary, but probably not needed.
Tourneys with 11-20 people (probably less common for me but you never know), I would probably have to do T1000 and use the blanks as $5's and have the same starting stacks as above.
For limit cash games, whatever the basic unit is, I could either add in the blanks or use them as 2x basic unit. For example, 1/2 limit, $1 would be my basic unit and I would use my blanks as $2. Since I have $100 x 200, each person at a 10 person table could get $1 x 20 and $2 x 20 = $60 or 30BB (which I feel is plenty for a home game), plus some quarters for the blinds. This way I can avoid using $5's which I think are difficult to use in 1/2 games. For 2/4, I could use the blanks as $4 and give everyone $1 x 20 and $4 x 20 = $100 or 25BB which might not be ideal but still plenty comfortable for a home game. Any limit that uses 25c as the basic unit would be no problem because I have plenty of $25's and could use blanks as 50c if needed.

Anyway, those are my long-winded thoughts. If anyone notices anything particularly bad about my breakdown or has any ideas for a better chip breakdown for a flexible 1000 chip set, I'd appreciate the input.

[PokerChamp22]

I'm looking to be a little more conservative and build out if needed. What do you think of this:

$25 X 150
$100 X $175
$500 X 75

Total of 400 chips for now.

Do cash games of $50NL, using the following stacks:

$25 (.25c) chip X 12 = $3
$100 ($1) chip X 17 = $17
$500 ($5) chip X 6 = $30

Then for tourneys use:

$25 X 12 = $300
$100 X 12 = $1200
$500 X 1 == $500

Total of $2000 in chips, using this blind structure:

1) 25-50
2) 25-50
3) 50-100
4) 75-150
5) 100-200
6) 150-300
7) 200-400
8) 300-600
9) 500-1K
10) 1K-2K
11) 1500-3K
12) 2K-4K

The most players for either setup would be 10 max.

Should I go to 500 chips total and add some more $100 and $500 for the cash game?

[X-Files]

I am going to get 1000 for my set also. I think I will get the $5 - $1000 chips and some white and blue non-denom's. I still can not decide what quantity of each to get. I do not see my self running a tourney but I guess it could happen. I think 1000 chips should make a very flexible set especially with non-denom's.

Anybody else have any comments on quantities?

Can others post the quantities of the Pharaoh's Club Paulson chips they are planning to order?

[jojobinks]

what i'm thinking for the pharoahs.

$5: 200
$25: 200
$100: 50
$500: 50

i might add some non-denoms or more 100s if i can drum up the cash.

[bubbafry]

[ QUOTE ]
Should I go to 500 chips total and add some more $100 and $500 for the cash game?

[/ QUOTE ]

I would if you ever plan on playing higher stakes, since you wouldn't have enough for $100 buy-in x 10 as it stands, maybe this might work for you:

25 x 150
100 x 200
500 x 100
1000 x 25 (or maybe substitute one of the blanks instead if you're getting the Pharaoh's)

But I might not be the one to ask right now because I getting kinda chip happy. The chips look awesome, and I want as many colors as possible in usable quantities. At first I was going to get 500, now 1000 and seriously considering 1250.

The Pharaoh's Club chips are the same colors as the Trademark Standard Stock Paulsons (assuming Ten keeps the $1 white and the trademark site is accurate), so you could always add to your set later with those if you're not so sure now.

[Philwannab]

<I run one table SNG's. 1000 chips to start with unlimited rebuys for the first three rounds plus an add on.>

Rob-

How do you structure the unlimited rebuys? My group plays tournaments 100% of the time. I like the rebuy idea but we never have anyone out in the first three rounds of blinds. What structure do you have to make this work or is it how loose your players are and they know they can rebuy so they "go for broke"?

[messenger309]

The first three levels are usually 10/20 15/30 25/50. Since you can rebuy right away most guys start with 2000. You can reduce starting chips to 800, or have the first three levels double, i.e. 10/20 20/40 50/100. My guys are very aggressive but not that loose and there are rebuys. The main reason we went to rebuys was so that everyone got to play for at least an hour. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

You have to experiment a little until you find a structure you like. Every structure has it's pluses and minuses and it's own unique strategy.

Rob

[House of Payne]

Unfortunately there isn't a one size fits all on this. Each person needs to tailor it to their own needs. Buy-ins, Tourney vs. Cash game, and even what cash games make a big difference. Seven card stud with an ante will require a different set than Hold'em.

I have been playing with this quite a bit gearing up for the new Egyptian buy. I think I finally determined it for my specific needs. The set needs to handle 3 different situations. We have a regular dealer choice game that currently buys in for $40 or $60 and requires antes of either .25, .50, or $1, and limit bets that are the size of the ante. The second situation is a group that plays $1/$2 limit hold'em with one blind of $1. Lastly, I run a tourney from time to time and uses a T2000 format where the blinds start at $25/$50.

Here's what I decided.

For the dealer's choice night I need 8 people at:
12 X Non-Denom Blue = $3
12 X $1 = $12
9 X $5 = $45

So I'd need 96 blues, 96 whites, and 72 reds. Need extras so round to 110, 110, 100 (maybe a 300 set with 105, 105, 90?)

For the Tourney nights
20 X $25
10 X $100
1 X $500

For 10 people I'll need 200 greens, 100 blacks, and 10 purples. With spares: 230, 115, 15, and maybe 10 yellows.

Hold'em will be 10 people with 60at:

20 X $1 = $20
20 X blue ND (value $2) = $40

Total needed 200, 200. With spares 215, 215.

Therefore, my set will probably look like this:
215 Blue Non-Denom
215 White $1
100 Red $5
230 Green $25
115 Black $100
15 Purple $500
10 Yellow $1000

Or a total of 900 needed.

But my ultimate would be 1400 chips:
225 blue
225 white
225 red
435 green
225 black
40 purple
25 yellow

This could handle 1/2, 2/4, and 5/10 stud, 1/2, 2/4, 5/10 hold'em and 20 person tourneys. This would be the breakdown for a lifetime of my poker. All I need is $1400!