Hi ! First of all i want to say that this section of 2+2 is really great, i discovered it some time ago and it 's really interesting and filled with expert people! congrats!

So, i was wondering if you live beasts :P can give me some advice on a chip breakdown for 200+ bb (min bi) cash game, ( from 1/2 and 2/5) 6MAX .

If i missed something in the question let me know




Edit: misspelled the title

Not sure how many chips your looking to go with. For both of those games your workhorse chip will be the $5 chip so your going to want to go with the most of them.

Minimum (500 chips):

$1 x 100
$5 x 300
$20/$25 x 60
$100 x 40

My preference (1k chips) :
$1 x 200
$5 x 600
$20/$25 x 100
$100 x 100

ok. breakdown per player? ( with 1k chips)

Fixed.

Ty

Hopefully pfapfap will chime in, since he does this regularly, but don't think about giving everyone the same amount of each chips, like in a tournament. Get the lower denom chips out with the first buy-ins, then put in more of the bigger denoms after that.

So if you like this many of each chip out (and it seems more than necessary to me):

Give the first 5 players a 20 chip stack of 1s, then the rest in 5s.

For the next buy-ins, just give stacks of 5s until you get 600 out there. Players can make change with the other players to get 1s. Then start giving the 20/25 chips. Same for the 100s.

For any game, no player needs more than a stack of the lower chip. For a 1/2 game, that means 20 dollars per player, the rest in fives. For a 2/5, that means a handful of dollars, a stack or two of fives, and the rest in greens.

Sadly, my casino hasn't yet figured this out. They'll sell $800 in reds to someone at a 2/5 table where everybody already has a mountain of reds. While it may look cool, it's incredibly inefficient and a pain in the neck. Which, to me at least, makes it not look very cool at all.

MOAR CHIPS!

Get a set of 50,000 dollar chips for both games (in an enormous walk-in-sized birdcage, of course). You may need a reinforced table.

In my best Mr. Burns voice..... Excellent...

Where can I get a couple of those walk-in-sized birdcages?

Here we have the two views about chips. On one side we have the "one rack is more than enough." On the other we have the "use moar than enough!"

In my opinion, people are more enamored with a good stack of the biggest chips versus piles of the smallest chips.

I'm sure you can find something that would suffice if you were to scour the internet. If not, an entire room of your house would probably do the trick.

On a more serious note, I'd probably lean toward something like this for the chip breakdown:

100 × $1
600 × $5
300 × $25
Total: $10,600

I'd say that a set of 1,000 is a must to cover these two stakes effectively, with 200BB minimum stacks. Having $10,600 should be very sufficient for $1/$2, but a little short for $2/$5, so maybe adding a rack of blacks would be good:

100 × $1
500 × $5
300 × $25
100 × $100
Total: $20,100

I don't love this, though, because now you need to put a fourth denomination in play to cover the game when it gets big. It would be preferable to me to have a larger set (say, 100-700-700 across the first three denominations, total of $21,100) and avoid the fourth denomination entirely. Of course, I know that some of you guys adamantly advocate for having a rack of $100s around, but it seems extraneous for games that have to use $1 chips.

There's certainly a balance to be maintained. I do recognize the fun in accumulating a nice chip stack. That's why I like starting players off with three or four stacks for the first couple of buyins.

As eneely said, a pile of the smallest chip in play is dumb. Nobody likes that. A couple hundred of the workhorse chip is nice to win, not to bring to the table. A few stacks of the big chip is impressive.

IMHO, a lot depends on the table setup and if you prefer to play with mountains of chips. I'm not sure if cost is a concern. With high denom chips, I hope you are getting at least a semi-custom set or playing with guys who will never consider sneaking chips onto the table. Will cost of the chipset factor in?

Our usual table isn't conducive to very large stacks. We have players buying in for 200 BB, but also have a 10BB max bet (spread limit).
80 SB chips
200 2BB chips
60 10BB chips
40 20BB chips (mistake on my part to get this size)
20 50BB chips that don't usually get used unless I skip the 20BB chips

I do use 4 denominations on the table, as the chip trays hold about 100 chips stacked and there isn't enough room on the table for everyone to have stacks on the table.

200+ BB BI, 6 max = 1200+ BBs
1/2 = $2400+
2/5 = $6000

I've only played 1/2 in the casino, and everyone tends to get $5 chips for the buy-ins.
A rack of $1 chips (100, with 20 to the first 5 buy-ins) should suffice.
A couple racks of $5 chips (200, with 40 to the first 4 and 20 to the next 2)
A rack of $25 chips is another $2500, and gets you to $3600. Remove 4 red chips from first 5 buy-ins to get to even $25s
If space isn't an issue, and you want 'casino' sized stacks/pots...
A rack of $1 chips
6 racks of $5 chips gets you to $3100.
You can always let hundreds play, or get a rack of $25s.

For 2/5 out of the same set...
Space is an issue:
A rack of $1s ($100)
A couple racks of $5s ($1000)
A couple racks of $25s ($5000) gets you to $6100

If space/cost isn't an issue, I'd go to 6 racks of $5s.


The 'tourney' concept of 8 25s, 8 100s, and a few larger chips should be reserved for tourney play with increasing blinds. I believe the 1/2 game will run great with lots of $5 chips if the players/table/game can handle stacks of 20 and not splashing the pot. With bigger denoms, there are risks. In our game, the biggest chips can influence how tight/loose the game plays. most of our players will splash around all night with the smaller chips, but give actual thought into betting/breaking larger chips.

I would like to emphasize the importance of chip security. With those buy-ins you will have a minimum of $6,000 on the table at the beginning of your 6-MAX $2/$5 game, who knows how much it will be before the game ends. This will necessitate a lot of high-value chips, which in turn might tempt some unscrupulous players to try and sneak chips on the table.

There are two ways to combat this:

a) Create a custom set for your game. This need not be prohibitively expensive, especially when considering the stakes you are playing for. N.B. I see no real security in so-called semi-custom sets, especially at these stakes. Even rare chips are at times available on eBay, usually for a fraction of their printed price.

b) Buy the chips you need from a casino. This has the added benefit that you can return the chips to the casino and get your investment back. The downside is that the chips could be a very tempting target for thieves.

I would also see to the security of the game. With so much cash around you are a very real target for robberies.

Agreed.

If it were within my price range, I would've loved to put together a set via Sidepot: http://www.buypokerchips.com/custom-...chips-s/37.htm. With a unique enough design—i.e., design it yourself or pay a professional, and make sure it's something that's detailed enough to be impractical to replicate at a proper resolution from the chips themselves—combined with colors that are tough to eyeball, you should make it pretty difficult for anyone to introduce outside chips.

I'm not sure what Sidepot offers in the way of security, but you could ask. I imagine that it's possible they'd be willing to "protect" your design if you were to ask, but that's your homework, not mine.

That's crazytown. The downsides are:

1. Though it is redeemable, your chip set will now be locking up $10,000–20,000 of your money. If the casino decides to switch out their chips for some reason, and you don't hear about it in time to cash out, you will be stuck with a < $2,000 chip set that cost you five figures.
2. Giving or receiving cash in that amount generates a Cash Transaction Report for the feds, creating suspicion that you're up to some kind of criminal activity both when you buy the chips and when you cash them out. You'd really have to make multiple trips, and at some point, someone may wonder why you keep coming to their casino, buying chips, and leaving.
3. Some casinos might not be so happy about watching someone walk out their door with 1,000 or more of their chips. The chips are their property, and you're taking them away from their location to use in a game that effectively competes with their games. (While we're here, how do you leave with them? Are you bringing an aluminum case or a birdcage to the cashier window? This isn't just a pocketful of chips, but a whole set.)
4. Your game will now have a minimum of twice as much money in it as the buy-ins—the face value of the redeemable chips in your set, plus the cash amount people buy in with. That's at least twice as much for someone to steal, making you at least twice as valuable of a robbery target. And unless you're cashing them out after every game, your place will now have $10,000–20,000 worth of redeemable casino chips in it at all times, making it a robbery target even when there's no game.

If you do go this route, despite all of these risks, check around B&M or M&B first. Those guys are a helpful resource for these kinds of matters. Mr. pfapfap probably has some useful input on this issue as well.

Locked doors, lockboxes, and all that good stuff, of course. Beyond that, if you don't already have one, buy a .45, educate yourself, practice with it, and be your own security. For a bonus, invite a friend you trust who is proficient with guns, and tell him that you'd appreciate it if he would carry a concealed piece at your game. Don't tell anyone in the game that anyone else is armed. Only you (and the armed friend, if there is one) need to know.

Re: Security... was really just talking chip security, and wondering if it's a concern. Some games can run with dice chips and never have a problem. If you don't have a chip above $25, it's likely not going to be an issue IMHO, but what do I know.

Back when I got into home poker, I had some ceramic chips printed at a deep discount special. They've held up well, and other than a few sample sets I may have given out... I'm the only one that has them.

i live in a small town and nobody is gonna have the chips i order , and i don't think any of the players i invite to my game would sneak chips in, because i know them very well and i trust all of them btw you're right when there is someone uknown chip security is a concern.

fwiw i was planning to buy chipco ceramic. thoughts?

Edit : probably considering doing a custom set :/

I would say, better safe than sorry. Significant amounts of money can change people. It's not a question of somebody already having the same chips as you. If they are not custom anybody can order them and sneak them into your game.

That said I'm happy you are looking at custom chips. FYI Chipco is no more. But Palm Gaming and Game On Chip Company are both producing similar quality chips. PGI actually bought Chipcos presses and GOCC was formed by several former Chipco employees. I just received some GOCC samples and they look and feel great.

You should probably take a look at Chiptalk.net if you haven't already. No better place for somebody planning a set of custom chips. And don't forget to post pictures once they are made.

Jimulacrum, regarding using live Casino chips in a home game. I didn't say it was the best option, I also mentioned the extra risk of the chips being stolen.


Very few casinos mind that their customers walk out with chips. Think about it, the chips cost the casino far less than their face value. The bigger the chip that is never returned, the bigger the profit for the casino. The chip manufacturers even keep statistics on this for their sales pitches.

There are countless people who have harvested thousands of live casino chips. Just check on Chiptalk. Obviously you will have to do several trips if you want a lot of chips.

If your game is close to the casino you could even have your players get their buy-ins from the casino cage. This would be a very risk free option.

I know they might not mind (at least not for higher denomination chips than $1), but it might look suspicious. They lose chips to people walking out with a few here and there all the time, but I think that someone taking a set of 1,000 off the floor would raise some eyebrows.

This last part you said, though, could be a good option (if, of course, the casino is very close), and it would help keep everything a little less noticeable. I've seen and heard of this being done on cruise ships, for example, where the rake is murder, but they're not especially concerned about people walking off with racks of chips. It would also relieve the host of any real banking duties.

Just get baller live Bellagio set and sleep easy at night.

A funny related story.

I was doing an interview for a sportsbetting company who were planning to launch an online poker room back in 2003 (*sigh*). Part of the interview process involved playing a SNG with the senior managers plus another interviewee.

They cracked open the chip set and I asked "what starting stack / denominations you want to use?". The most senior guy in the room looked at me crossways and asked "Will we not just divide up all the chips equally between us?"

Bump, I'm adding an additional 1k cash set for 1/2, 1/3 and 2/5 games.

1/2 max $300 buy in
1/3 max $400 buy in
2/5 will range from $500 to $1k max buy in (this will run less often)
A very rare 1/1 max $200 buy in

Thoughts on this allocation? It equals out to almost 12k on the table if the full set is ever in play

1's - 200
5's - 600
25's - 150
100's - 50