Chips for .50/1.00 limit?

[jafager]

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getting 2k of the same color is very very bad advice.

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I like the concept of buying tons of a single low-denomination chip. I set up my nice chips to be flexible -- .50/1.00 through about 5/10. It turns out that one of the groups I play with is uncomfortable even at the .50/1.00 level, so I decided to put together a nano-limit set.

I thought about it and decided that instead of getting three or four different colors, I'd just buy a big bag (1000-2000) of one color and use those for nickels. I think -- especially for very inexperienced "social" players -- that it's a lot more fun to have giant stacks of chips in front of you, and take down giant pots, even if those stacks and pots aren't worth very much in terms of real dollars.

jafager

[The Armchair]

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getting 2k of the same color is very very bad advice.

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I like the concept of buying tons of a single low-denomination chip. I set up my nice chips to be flexible -- .50/1.00 through about 5/10. It turns out that one of the groups I play with is uncomfortable even at the .50/1.00 level, so I decided to put together a nano-limit set.

I thought about it and decided that instead of getting three or four different colors, I'd just buy a big bag (1000-2000) of one color and use those for nickels. I think -- especially for very inexperienced "social" players -- that it's a lot more fun to have giant stacks of chips in front of you, and take down giant pots, even if those stacks and pots aren't worth very much in terms of real dollars.

jafager

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That's exactly why I suggested it. I have a standard set of 500 dice chips -- 150 white, 150 red, 100 green, 50 black, 50 blue.

It's kind of silly. Blinds are .25/.50, or one green and two green. If you buy in for $20, you get 12 green (.25 each, or $3), 12 white ($1 each), and a red ($5). 25 chips is _nothing_, and it takes a lot away from the fun of the game. Even when we are lucky to be 10-handed, that is a mere 250 chips. (Actually, it is fewer, because I don't have enough green chips for ten people.)

When you sit down at, say, a 2/4, and buy in for 25 BB, you're getting 100 chips. When you sit down at a .5/1, you should get the same proportion, and if you can do that for a home game, you should.

[jojobinks]

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[ QUOTE ]
getting 2k of the same color is very very bad advice.

[/ QUOTE ]

I like the concept of buying tons of a single low-denomination chip. I set up my nice chips to be flexible -- .50/1.00 through about 5/10. It turns out that one of the groups I play with is uncomfortable even at the .50/1.00 level, so I decided to put together a nano-limit set.

I thought about it and decided that instead of getting three or four different colors, I'd just buy a big bag (1000-2000) of one color and use those for nickels. I think -- especially for very inexperienced "social" players -- that it's a lot more fun to have giant stacks of chips in front of you, and take down giant pots, even if those stacks and pots aren't worth very much in terms of real dollars.

jafager

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That's exactly why I suggested it. I have a standard set of 500 dice chips -- 150 white, 150 red, 100 green, 50 black, 50 blue.

It's kind of silly. Blinds are .25/.50, or one green and two green. If you buy in for $20, you get 12 green (.25 each, or $3), 12 white ($1 each), and a red ($5). 25 chips is _nothing_, and it takes a lot away from the fun of the game. Even when we are lucky to be 10-handed, that is a mere 250 chips. (Actually, it is fewer, because I don't have enough green chips for ten people.)

When you sit down at, say, a 2/4, and buy in for 25 BB, you're getting 100 chips. When you sit down at a .5/1, you should get the same proportion, and if you can do that for a home game, you should.

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with the breakdown i suggested way above, and assuming 10 people...

each player gets 20 quarters and 30 $1s. 50 chips and 35 bbs. if you want to get it to 50bbs, they get 3 reds also. if i were going faux clay, i'd get more of everything, and then you wouldn't need the reds, but use an extra 10 $1s and and extra 20 quarters, for a stack of 80 chips.

it hardly seems, then, that having denoms makes stacks smaller.

[captswifty]

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I agree with everything, except the $.50 chip, not needed, just get more $.25 chips

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Defiantly. I have a game that started out at the same limits you're trying, and I got .25 and .50 chips. We only used the .50 chips once, and it was a pain. Just get more .25 chips, and get some $5.00 ones also.

For the amount of chips, I'd go with

250 .25
200 1.00
50 5.00

If you're not going to get chips with dollar amounts on them, this shouldn't be a problem. If you're going to have dollar amounts on the chips, that number of chips might be problematic if your game ever moves up to something like $1/$2. If you think that might happen in the future, I'd go with only 200 of the quarters, and 250 dollars.

[smoore]

What a lot of the people replying to this post know, but aren't saying is: Having a chip denomination that's only 2x the next lower chip is a waste.

Just follow the "standard" breakdown of 1-5-25 (100 is just cycling back to "1"). If you look at most "sane" chipsets, they always follow this... 25-100-500-1000-5000 -or- .25-1-5-25. If you follow this, you only ever break the progression going from 500 to 1000, that's just the way it is.

Now, .50 chips and $10 chips definitely have thier place... if you're going to play 1/2 limit, a whole mess of .50 chips is perfect... you can post the small blind with one chip but a Big Bet is only four chips, it's easy. $2 is a PITA if you're using .25 chips. $10 chips would be perfect for a 20/40 limit game. I would buy "pink chips" ($2.50) in a heartbeat if I thought my friends would play 5/10 limit poker.

If all you'll ever play is limit, just get two colors of chips... racks and racks of your "normal" chip and then a rack or two of the next denom up. so for .50/1 limit you'd buy 500 .25 chips and 100 1. chips. It's an interesting coincidence that a rack of .25 is the same actual value as one stack of 1. chips. yay!

If you want to expand to NL poker also, you'll likely need three colors. My set is:

225 0.25 (stupid because there's one extra)
225 1.00
75 5.00

I have never, ever, EVER put all of these chips into play in an 11 player NLHE cash game with a max buyin of $25. I also have 150 nickels for tournaments (start with $20 in chips, blinds .10/.20) and 25 $20 chips in case I can ever talk people into a .50/1 or 1/2 NLHE cash game. 700 total chips and it's fit every NLHE game I've played for my limits. I chose $20 for the top chip because the USA doesn't issue $25 bills.

[tomb1]

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What a lot of the people replying to this post know, but aren't saying is: Having a chip denomination that's only 2x the next lower chip is a waste.

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Bingo!

Next chip should be 4x or 5x the previous chip. Use your money to buy more of the lesser chip instead of the in-between chip.

Now, if you want different denoms for a completely different game, that's OK. But (for example) don't use $5 and $10 chips in the same game.

[jeffseib]

I also have a .50/1 limit hold'em game that I host every Saturday. I bought the suited 11.5 gram chips. I have 150 white, 150 red, 100 green and 100 black. This was prob. not a good choice. I originally thought that we would be playing some tourneys and would need some bigger demominations later in the game.

Currently we use the white as .50 and the red as $1. The black are used as $5 value holders. I have had up to 13 players at a time without any real problems, at least as far as chips go. If I had it to do over, I would buy 250 white, 200 red and 50 black. Those black chips come in real handy when someone new shows up late. They buy in for $20 (4 black chips) and then they make change from the big stack at the table. The game hardly has to stop.

BTW if you live in the SF Bay Area, send me a message; we are always looking for new players.

Oh, another suggestion about blind structure. If you have a lot of loose passive players at your game, try two .50 blinds. This gives them slightly better odds and they will enjoy the game more, as they will last a little longer.

[bolgenmod]

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I also have a .50/1 limit hold'em game that I host every Saturday.

BTW if you live in the SF Bay Area, send me a message; we are always looking for new players.


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I used to live in Oakland (grad school at Cal), but now I'm in upstate NY -- too bad!

Thanks for all the excellent suggestions. I thought about the pink chip game (a game I've only read about) when someone suggested just one color: stacks and stacks of chips do make for a nice gambooling game. But I and others in our group like to color up during the game if we're winning: makes you feel good that your buy-in is all there in one stack and yet you have plenty more to play with. And we have those poker tables with the built-in chip wells that only hold so many chips. Not to mention that it makes cashing out easier, especially since I'm the banker!

I'm not buying chips with denoms, so I can basically make a purple chip worth a penny, if I want to. Based on the suggestions on the thread, I thought I'd go like this:

400 .25 chips
200 1.00 chips
100 5.00 chips

700 should be plenty!

As for colors, I don't know why but I hate the white chips. Maybe because the white chips at the casino (I've only played 3-6) seem so absolutely filthy. I'm no clean fanatic (my brother is so crazy about clean that he carries around that anti-germ stuff Purell and uses it on his hands just about any time he touches anything!), but those chips make me want to wash my hands every 5 minutes. So I don't want to buy any whites: I have had to wash our KEMS, but I draw the line at washing chips!

So my perhaps crazy idea was to get greens for .25, blacks for 1.00, and reds for 5.00. I know that's not "right," but it does have some relationship to casino values. And anyway, who cares? Is that too confusing to invert the values and have red the highest?

Anyway, thanks again for all your help. Last time I/we bought chips, we bought about 500 whites that we never use (I wasn't the only one who hated them), so I wanted to avoid a similar mistake.

[smoore]

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400 .25 chips
200 1.00 chips
100 5.00 chips


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Completely sane and realistic.
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So my perhaps crazy idea was to get greens for .25, blacks for 1.00, and reds for 5.00. I know that's not "right," but it does have some relationship to casino values. And anyway, who cares? Is that too confusing to invert the values and have red the highest?


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I like the green/black fine but the red would confuse me for a little while, you could just get purple for your $5 chips. You could also do yellow/blue/red (I hate white chips too).

[bolgenmod]

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400 .25 chips
200 1.00 chips
100 5.00 chips


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Completely sane and realistic.
[ QUOTE ]

So my perhaps crazy idea was to get greens for .25, blacks for 1.00, and reds for 5.00. I know that's not "right," but it does have some relationship to casino values. And anyway, who cares? Is that too confusing to invert the values and have red the highest?


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I like the green/black fine but the red would confuse me for a little while, you could just get purple for your $5 chips. You could also do yellow/blue/red (I hate white chips too).

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Purple is a MUCH better idea. Thanks for all the great feedback -- I really appreciate it.