hey guys,

In the process of building my first poker table (will post pics when done). Also looking to upgrade my poker chips. I've settled on the Milano chips.

Curious, if purchasing a 1,000 piece set, possible to have a good split of denominations for both low limit cash games (.25/.50 and .50/1.00) and tourney? Most likely with be 8 players but 10 players would be possible.

This is what I have for cash game breakdown thus far:

$0.25 - 200
$1.00 - 200
$5.00 - 200

Do you guys see any issues with the above? Concern here is given the low stakes, should I bump up the $0.25 or $1.00 chip count and lower the $5.00 count?


This is what I have for tourney breakdown thus far:

$25.00 - 120
$100.00 - 120
$500.00 - 70
$1000.00 - 50
$5000.00 - 40

Tourney players would start with $30k broken down as 12-12-7-5-4


Curious to hear your thoughts and thanks in advance.

There are a bunch of older chip breakdown threads with good info, so definitely take a few minutes to search this forum for some good info.

The consensus around here seems to be that 500 chips with a 100/200/200 breakdown is pretty solid for a one-table cash game set. This gives you one rack of blinds chips (.25), 2 racks of workhorse chips ($1), and 2 racks of high value chips ($5). You'll have a bank of $1225 which should be enough for most .25/.50 games (though maybe a little light for .50/1).

On the tourney breakdown, I think you have too many T500s, and you also need some extras for color-ups. I also like to round to the nearest barrel (20 chips) to make them easier to store in racks. So I'd do a 12/12/5/6/4 starting stack with a total breakdown of 120/160/60/100/60. This gives you plenty of workhorse chips (T100 for early tourney, T1000 for late tourney) and enough for a ten-man table plus color-ups.

I rounded to an even 500 chips by adding an extra barrel of T5000s. This gives you the option of playing a slightly larger stack or coloring up some of the T1000s when down to 2-3 players.

I agree that the bank will be light for a $0.50/$1.00 game. The starting buy-ins could easily deplete the bank. I host a $1/$1 game where commonly have $2,000 - $3,000 on the table. $1,200 is not enough in my opinion.

Normally I would suggest a few barrels of $25s or $20s but you do not want the $25s to be the same chip as your smallest tournament chip (for security reasons)

Milano does not have a $20 chip that I could find, but it does have a $50. Maybe the tournament set can start with 50/50 blinds and you can use the $25 chip for the cash game (and need fewer $50s than you needed $25s to keep the count at 1,000 chips)

DrStrange

I like one rack of .25's, three 1's, and two 5's for cash.

Hi guys,

Thanks for the advice. Given that this will most likely be a extended family oriented / friends and will not be running cash game simultaneously with tournaments, the $25 chip can be used for the cash games, right?

Searching older threads and reading up on previous posts.

Thanks again for the advice.

Right, if you will never have a cash game running before or after a tournament, you can use the 25 in both. But is that always going to be the case? And mistakes can happen among family and friends, so don't rule that out as an issue.

I see these threads all the time and wonder, why limit yourself to a set number of chips? These chips are cheap enough and depending on where you get them, can buy them individually. Buy what you need to make your game run smooth, don't limit yourself.

If you're worried about fiiting them in a cage or case, just buy an extra rack or storage box to hold the additional 100-200 chips. You can take them out when needed.

OP, I posted before seing your last reply. If you will never be playing cash and tourney at the same time and are considering using some chips for both, then why not just use the cash game chips for your tourney? This way you save on chips.

Instead of a T10,000 starting at 25/50 just do a T100 with 0.25/0.50.

1,000 chips fit into a plastic bird cage - "easy" to carry or for storage. Same idea with two 500 chip "briefcases".

I would never issue tournament chips that might somehow end up on a cash game table, no matter how close the group. That $25 chip is either worth $25 in cash or T25 but not both. Mixing cash and tournament chips is just asking for trouble.

Been there, done that, wished I hadn't -=- DrStrange

QFT

Even if you trust your players 100%, it's never ever ever a good idea to have one chip that plays in cash and tourneys.

Me too. This is pretty much perfect. You absolutelty do not need more than 100 quarters on the table for a 25/50 game. Don't bother breaking down a few bucks in quarters for each player. First five players get a stack of quarters each. Change will make itself around.

For tourney, I don't like anything more than 8/8/4 for the first three denoms. Not only does T3k fit easily into a rack, it's just a good balance on the table, especially if you have a few rebuys. And if you're not using antes, definitely don't need more quarters.

Since 500 and 1000 are so close to each other, you'll find that putting too many 500s on the table results in people eventually having stacks of them that they don't want, which means they slow things down by betting with them, which makes the pot winner take longer stacking them, and then he tries to get rid of them the next chance he gets... etc etc.

With that in mind, having more 500s than 1000s on the table will get really old really quickly. For T30k, I'd do 8/8/4/7/4

That's what everybody says, until that day when a friend starts stealing chips from the bank and hiding stolen cards in other rooms.

Clean procedures aren't because we distrust each other. They're so we don't have to.

I'll add a little me too into this. My case and tournament sets are completely different so there is never an issue. It doesn't matter how much I trust my players. By having different sets, I never have to worry about that being an issue. It's just smart hosting.

I'll agree as well.

I have the same type of chips for cash and tourney, but have a hard split between the denoms used for cash (5c to $5) for our 5c/10c and 10c/25c games, and tourney denoms ($25+). They have separate cases and are handled separately. At no time will a tourney chip be valid in the cash game.

That said, if the cash game stakes ever increase past what I currently can handle, I'll replace it.

If you really want to do this with the Milanos, you could get blanks (e.g. the $50 chip) and make your own $20 label. However, you still have to ensure that the chips used in the cash games are never used in the tournaments.

You really dont need greens for a 25/50c 8-person game, anyway. If you have more than $1200 on the table, then just play cash.

Or get more reds.

Agreed. I run a 25c/50c game where most of the tables buys in for 200BB and brings a couple of bullets. We generally run anywhere from 6 to 10 handed, and I've never had to pull out my $25 chips. My redbirds are my standard high value chip.

ok guys.

I appreciate the advice in this thread. Got me rethinking my strategy here. I've decided to go with a strictly cash game set for now. If the need arises for tournaments, I will pick up a dedicated set (or use my old set of cheap chips).

So for solely cash games, I've decided on the below. As mentioned above, don't want to limit myself here and the Milano's are relatively cheap compared to others.

My hope is that this set can accommodate the widest range of limits ranging from .25/.50 to 1/2.


$.25 x 100
$1.00 x 300
$5.00 x 250
$25.00 x 100

What do you guys think?

I think it's a good idea to keep the tourney set separate. I used my old cheap chips for my tourneys, and we ran some pretty big tourneys with them.

I think you should get a set for the game you expect to run now, not the game you hope to run at some point in the future. Do you have a game now? What are the stakes? How long has it been going? For a 1/2 game, that's not nearly enough reds. And if your 25/50 game has a chance of growing a player base and breaking out to a second table, that's not enough chips for that game, either.

I'm personally not comfortable with partial racks of chips, but I'm weird that way. In this case, it might be warranted as insurance for in case you get an occasional second table, and you can just keep them hidden away until then. So this may be a possibility:

.25 x 160
1 x 400
5 x 200
25 x 40

That's $2500, which is more than I usually got for my 3-table cash game. You should be good.

I'd skip the 25s for my own set, because people who spend all night grinding want STACKS, man, not tiny little chips. It's easier to bet chips when you have a bunch of them, and one chip equalling 50BBs has a significant psychological effect. Hell, we rarely use greens in our 1/2 casino games.

OTOH maybe you want some on hand just in case, or for an occasional novelty.

Thanks pfapfap.

Unfortunately, this is the first time ever running a home game. Heck, table isn't even finished yet and I don't even know if any of my friends will be interested. As for family, most likely 25/50. Heck, even if friends wanted to play, not sure they would want to play 1/2.

I am certainly open to getting 1000 piece set dedicated to cash games. My only concern with getting some now and more later is if they discontinue making the Milano's. Unlikely at this point given they are relatively new but you never know.

SO, this is me being realistic here, unlikely that anyone will want to play 1/2. So I am going with 1000 piece set primarily for 25/50 or 50/1.

.25 x 160
1 x 400
5 x 400
25 x 40

Will probably never use the $25 chips but nice to have I guess.

BTW, just saw your "Garage" video. SICKO!!!

Thanks! Those were fun times. Sigh. Some day, again...

I gotta say, if you're trying to get newbie players into cheap games, you should seriously consider starting with cheap turbo tourneys. $20, takes 90 minutes, payout encourages a chop. Risk is fixed, most everybody gets around his money back, nobody's hurt too bad. Can do a few of these a night.

If you're daring, teach them Chinese Poker to play on a folding card table while waiting for the next SNG to start.

A benefit to doing S&G tourneys is that you can change the format without changing the risk. PLO tends to destroy home games, but if it's the same $20 or $40 S&G, then who cares? Try something new, see how it goes. The risk has already been accepted.

The thing about cash games is that you can't turn regular friends into poker friends. Maybe they'll get the bug, but probably not. You gotta get out into other games yourself, network a bit, recruit those you think would work well together. Don't compete with any of those games, you're just adding to the list of places to play. Be careful about cross-pollination, though. Don't let a shark from one game infiltrate your sweet setup as a guest somewhere else.

Yeah, great vid. Even though it is one specific game, to me it is prototypical snapshot (many snapshots, actually) of a home game. If the Smithsonian ever has a home poker exhibit (and why wouldn't they?!), this video needs to be running in an endless loop as part of it.