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