I live in DFW TX. My friend wants to host a poker game for a few people at work. We all make decent money and I'm sure no one would mind losing up to $50 to play poker. I thought 10NL would be perfect. I'll probably buy the poker chips. I've been pushing him to host "Poker by the Pool" night. None of them know how good I really am so it should be an easy pay day.

My question:

What's the ideal chip denominations for 10NL and how many color chips?

Max Buy in is $10

My initial thought is to make 5c chip, 10c chip and 25c chip denominations?

How many of each is ideal for each player? I'm trying to figure out how many chips I need to buy of how many colors

5c/25c/$1 is better as 5c and 10c chips are too close and redundant to be practical. Just use two 5c chips for bb. I'd suggest starting stacks of something like:

5c - 20
25c - 20
$1 - 4

Multiply that by the number of players you're going to have plus allow for rebuys with larger denom chips and you should be good to go.

Edit:

I prefer to use counts of 20 as above because most chip racks group chips in quantities of 20 so it makes buyins easier to give out.

0.05/0.25/1 denoms

15/13/6 is the starting stack I go for and works fine for me, alternatively you could go more towards 20/20/4.

You can buy some 5s for rebuys and stuff. More than 4 denoms shouldn't be necessary, but maybe a couple of 20s or so for backup.

How many you need then depends on the number of players. For a max 10 player game 500 should be fine. (150/200/100/50 or so)

Great! Thanks guys

Dude, $0.05/$0.10 is way too low for anyone making "decent" money. You don't need three different chip types. Play a $0.25/$0.25 game with $0.25 chips and $1.00 chips. Easy! Plus these chip amounts make it very easy to transition to a $0.25/$0.50 game in the future if you'd like.

You need to set min and max buy in. I'd say $50 (200bb) max buyin, and $20 (80bb) min buy in. You don't want people buying in for like 40bb it whatever game you play.

+1

Our typical game is 0.25-0.50NL with an initial buyin of $40. We have 0.25, 1.00, and 5.00 chips. One stack of 0.25, one stack of 1.00, and three 5.00 chips makes $40.

I agree with the poster who said $10 isn't a big enough game for anyone making decent money. I think you'll get bored quickly because the stakes aren't high enough for anyone to care that much.

+1 to everyone who said $0.05, $0.25, and $1 denominations for a $0.05/$0.10 NLHE game. A $0.10 chip would be a waste of space and probably a hassle.

However, there's still the question of whether the stakes are right. "Decent money" means different things to different people.

Are you sure that a $10 max buy-in is appropriate for your group? The amount of money they're playing with should be small enough that it doesn't brutally hurt to lose, but big enough that it's still exciting to have it on the line. If these guys would be comfortable playing for $50, your $10 game may be like tiddlywinks to them.

If you're set on $10, I say go for it, but keep it in mind that you may need to increase the stakes if your crew seems unmoved by the amount of money in play.

As others have said, having a $10 max buy-in game is way too small. You'd be hard pressed to buy lunch for $10 (at least where I live).

Minimum buy-in should be at least $25.

This may be a little nitpicky, but I honestly think $20 is way better than $25 as a minimum. A nice convenient amount like $20 would entice more rebuys. Cap it with a $100 maximum, and you're good to go. But you need bigger blinds or you'll have nosebleed deep stacks right out of the gate.

Congratulations, OP! Your $0.05/$0.10 NLHE with a $10 max has evolved into a $0.25/$0.50 game with a $20–$100 buy-in spread!

Truly, though, if you think your guys would be comfortable with that, consider it (maybe with a $20–$50 range if you think $20–$100 would be too much). The higher stakes may even attract players who wouldn't be interested in the $10 game because it's too small.

Better to start too small and move up than start too big and try to keep the group together while you move down a notch.

Ask your players what they think and listen carefully. Keep your finger on the pulse of the game. DO NOT take advice from the big winners about needing to raise the stakes. The weaker player need to set the risk levels.

And remember, the goal is to have fun. -=- DrStrange

Most folks are comfortable enough with .25-.50 stakes with an up to $50 cap on buy in and rebuys. Float this and see what kind of reaction you get from your potential group. If folks are unsure or seem uncomfortable you can always start smaller like Dr. S posted.

A lot will depend on how often you plan on meeting up. We play the above stakes weekly and we are fine. Few of us have really large amounts of money to risk on rec poker so these stakes work well for us.

As to chips we use $20 racks as our base.

20 Black chips .25 $5.00
10 White Chips 1.00 $10.00
1 Red Chip 5.00 $5.00
We have $25 Green chips that are almost never used except by some luckbox showing off.
Folks add to their basic $20 rack as they prefer (Usually with Red Chips ) up to $50

Best of luck with your game. Use this forum at lot. Free information goldmine for home game hosts and player!!

You could also start at .25/.25 or even a single .25 blind. That way you avoid having to buy .05 chips. Also, if you want to keep the game small, consider playing all games pot limit or spread limit. That will make the game much better for new players.

I agree with bmichaelhorn that the easiest way to manage buyins is to use chip racks and make your stacks with 20 chip barrels.

I have a friendly game with friends that aren't real invested in the game and we play .25/.25 with $30 Max buy $20 min buy. Works great cause my more serious friends are happy to have more than 100 BB to start but my friends who play cause they find a 20 in their old pants pocket can play too. Also I think the 2 bug blinds induce action.

While the casual players might not understand why, a short stack buy-in format is greatly to their advantage. They figure that out quickly - maybe never know exactly why, but just know they "do better" with smaller stacks.

The most popular game in my cycle is a $0.25/$0.50 $20 max buy-in game. I generally have 8 - 15 players in that game vs 6 - 10 my games with deeper stacks.

DrStrange

My thinking was people were going to bust and rebuy. Maybe I'm overanalyzing it a bit. I didn't want guys losing all of their money to fast. I'm also trying to think what will everyone be comfortable bringing. I think $40 will be pretty standard.

My buddy just bought a nice new house. He paid 50k for a pool and we smoke cigars. The host won't gamble much and I may even pay him some of my winnings to run a game. Poker is more of a reason for others to go by his house, hang out by the pool, eat good food, and smoke some cigars.

I like the idea of .25/.50,,, hell, I'm fine playing 1/2 but I seriously doubt guys will play for a max buy in of $200. The most I can see any one person wanting to buy in for is $20. I just thought losing $20 on a bust would sting more than losing $10 by busting twice. I definitely don't think guys would want to lose more than $50 for the entire session and they'll most likely bring $40. I'll suggest 50NL with a min buy in of $20. Thanks for the advice.

So just to be clear:

Three colors
25c chips
$1 chips
$5 chips

Roughly:
25% of monetary value in 25c chips
25% of monetary value in $5 chips
50% of monetary value in $1 chips

Thanks guys, this should work

Nice Post! I'll consider this one too. Two different chip types will be way better for a home game

If you expect a $0.25/$0.50 game to play small, $0.25 and $1 chips may be enough to have in play.

However, in my experience playing $0.25/$0.25 and $0.25/$0.50, you'll want some $5 chips handy anyway. The total money in play with those blinds can vary wildly depending on your players, and you're still in "not sure" territory. It'd be a shame if there's more action than you expect, but you don't have the chips ready to support it.

Having the same fraction of value in $0.25 and $5 chips will leave you with way too many $0.25. Each $5 chip is equal to an entire stack of $0.25 chips.

One rack of $0.25 chips should be quite enough for a single table of $0.25/$0.50. If you want to make absolutely sure that you have more than enough, two racks should cover you all day. I wouldn't bother with more than that.

For $1 chips, the more the merrier. This is going to be your workhorse, and you should have a ton of them. Personally, I'd want at least four or five racks.

For $5 chips, I'd go with one rack. That'll give you a $500 reserve if you get through all your $1 chips. Unless you're dramatically underestimating the action this crew will generate, I don't see you needing more than that, but a second rack certainly couldn't hurt.

Yeah, I give the first five players a 20 chip stack of .25 chips as part of their buy-in, then the 6th-10th player get only 1s and 5s. 100 quarter chips per table are plenty. I use 200 $1 chips per table.

Here is how I handle $40 buy-ins for our .25/.50 game. I use racks, which means you do not have to count anything except the 5.00 chips. If you have different buy-in amounts, adjust these quantities by adding or removing 5.00 chips.

Buy-in #	.25	1.00	5.00
1-5	20	20	3
6-10	0	20	4
11 +	0	0	8

I don't see any problem with a $10 buyin. I don't understand the "Way too small" comments. If that is what your group is comfortable with, then go with it.

I have been playing with the same core group of guys for almost 10 years and our cash game is always a 10€ buyin (we have even played smaller). I play in a 2/4€ game when I go to the casino, but that doesn't mean I can't have a blast playing 0.05/0.10€ with my friends.

We have some guys in our group that are at a much lower income level and they wouldn't be comfortable playing 25NL or 50NL.

Yup. I've done all of the above: .25/.50, .25/.25 and .25 single blind. Some of my casual tourney players avoid my .25/.50 games ($20 min $60 max) like the plague, but they're happy to pop a twenty or two on the table for .25 single blind.

Yup. Barrel of quarters, barrel of ones, take $5 off the top. Boom - $20 buyin. When you've got about a rack of quarters out, then $20 is just a barrel of ones.

Not that I should be surprised considering the source, but this is by far the best advice in this thread, OP.

I prefer .25/.50 home games myself. Then the occasional .5/1. But if I were running a $10NL game I would probably stick to .25/.50/1 chip denominations. At the home game I use to play in it was .25/.50 and you could buy in for what ever you wanted. $100, $200 but most someone did was $100 and tried bullying everyone then ended up going broke.