Hey guys,

I'm going to buy some new poker chips for home games. I pretty much have my mind set to buy the Nexgen Classic Poker Chips. I would use them for home games which would be mostly for tournaments. However, I would also like to have an occasional cash games. The most people attending would be 9 or 10 and would probably average 6 to 7 players.

What denominations should I buy and how many chips for each denomination should I buy? Also, is it necessary to go all the way up to the millions like a $1,000,000 chip if I am running small home game tournaments when we try to get two to three tournaments in a night if peeps are willing to chop every once in a while?

The blinds will increase every 30 mins and sometimes 20 mins for quicker games.

By the way, I usually play 1/3 nl cash games in casinos but my friends that would be playing are mostly amateurs that I am trying to get more interested in poker so we may have to play some microstakes cash games.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

You only need four denominations for your set. You can just use 5/25/100/500 and play .05/.10 micro cash or tournaments.

Get 200-5, 150-25, 100-100, and 50-500 and you'll be set.


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I've found that cash is generally better in a home game. With tournaments, players that bust early have to sit around and it's less enjoyable. Keep the stakes comfortable and play cash all night

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Our home game has always been a single table tournament NLHE since 2003. We just enjoy this much more than a cash game even though it does make players sit around when busted but we are a very close knit group of friends so there is always stuff to BS about or play video games or whatever. We have a pretty fast structure so most games take 2-3 hours and we'll do 3 per night......usually 8-9 guys. We start with 1500 (2,000 for last game of the night); 20 minute levels; 10/20 start; and 4 denominations of chips: 5 (20), 25 (16), 100 (5), 500 (1, or 2 for last game). Oh, also, when it gets to heads up and both players are pretty even in chips we encourage chops.

This. Don't buy a set with too many denominations. I use 50/100/500/1000 chips for our home games
10 50s
20 100s
5 500s
5 1000s
for 100BB buy in works fine. Then give out 10 1000s for a rebuy and and make change at the table. That should keep the amount of chips you need to buy to a minimum. If you're playing with beginners at 6-8 players having a dozen or so rebuys on hand should be enough.
(just checked our stats: we play 4 hours and the most rebuys we've seen in one night were 8. Of course if you're playing tournament then rebuys aren't an issue and you may want to have 1 larger denomination on hand for the final levels)

There will always be folks who prefer either cash or Tournaments. And a lot of folks do both. Everything depends on YOUR groups preferences only. Personally Tournaments make me crazy and our many years long home game is a cash game only structure. If you want to start up a cash game consider .25-.50 blinds. Maybe a $50 max buy in and re buy limit. We use .25 , .50 , 1.00 and 5.00 chips almost exclusively. I have a sleeve of 10.00s and a sleeve of 25.00 but they are seldom used. Good luck. This forum is a goldmine of usefull information , FOR FREE!

PS I use Brybelly Eclipse chips off Amazon. You can go lots cheaper and LOTS more expensive. These are good "middle of the road" style and quality.

I use Claysmith chips. When the home game started, we did tournaments exclusively. When we switched to primarily cash, the denoms make things more complicated than I expected. Alcohol is probably the main issue, there. I am planning to order some custom ceramics from brpropoker.com

Depending on your budget, I would go with those. For me, they are worth the extra cost. At the very least get samples and see what you like.

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We use Majestic chips from Apache. I did buy a sample set of ceramics from BR Pro and they are nice. I haven't bought a full set of ceramics but may in the future to switch between the two because they are totally different feel than the Majestics.

I will most likely transition to cash games eventually once i get my newer player more acclimated to the game. I have seen where a lot of players in the past being comfortable woth losing only $10 to $20 a night. Believe me I love cash games and i want to eventually end up there. Plus I am trying introduce my girlfriend into the game and I think she will be more comfortable with tournaments to start.

I'm worried about the weight of the chips and really want to be close to the weight of a casino chip. I really do like the ClaySmith sets on what I see online. I just want to make sure they are good for shuffling as I am constantly playing with my chips while plying. It would be good to make sure they could do some nice chip tricks even though I really don't do the chip tricks. I just like a good feeeling chip that is not to slick like a dice chip.

Everyone's favorite chip?

The Claysmith chips are too heavy, imo. I would get ceramics based off my experience.

The Majestic chips from apachepokerchips.com have a very good reputation, so I recommend getting samples of them along with ceramics.

Nexgen Pro are a good budget option too.

Hobbyphillic on youtube has a bunch of in-depth videos on chips that you should watch for more information.

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As for me, when I host a home game, the cash game is usually a 25¢/25¢ round-by-round NHLE/PLO game; my cash-game chip set is a Claysmith 100 x 25¢, 200 x $1, 200 x $5, and 100 x $25. (My plan if I end up hosting a $1/$2 game is to use a rule that $100 bills on the table play.)

My tournament chip set is 200 x 100, 200 x 500, 200 x 1k, 200 x 5k, and 200 x 25k; since my tournament is a single-table round-by-round NLHE/PLO tournament, this set allows me to run an extremely deep tournament structure (starting stack 150k, starting blinds for NLHE 100/100 with 100 BBA, starting blinds for PLO 100/100) with unlimited rebuys for a few hours (for level 13 NLHE is 1k/2k with 2k BBA, PLO is 1k/2k).

The third and fourth posts in eneely’s stickied FAQ thread have some wonderful and relevant links and advice for you, some of which is counter to what’s in the thread so far. I tend to agree with using standard denominations for tourneys (smallest chip at 25, no “half denomination chips” until the 500s (never ever any 50s!). A lot seems like preference, but the linked discussions also go into the whys.

So just me telling you of an alternative view point that I happen to agree with. Feel free to ignore. Good luck with the game!

Before the 2+2 reorganization there were a million threads on this topic (well, at least 2 a year), but it seems like they're gone. Here's my set-up

Tournament chips can play for both tournament or cash, so they're more flexible imo.

Tourney starting stack per person, 10K starting stack:
8 chips x 25
8 x 100
8 x 500
5 x 1000

Cash game, $50 buy in. The number on the chip is cents:
12 x 25 (equals 25 cents)
12 x 100 ($1 chips)
7 x 500 ($5 chips)
and for people who buy in for more than $50 or rebuy, 1000 denomination chips equal $10

(Obviously you could do the same set up as the tourney, but I have found that in cash games, it's a bit easier to have more small chips, as we play .25/.50 blinds. In a tourney the 25 chips are useless after an hour. This is off topic, but don't use the 3rd blind level as 75/150, it's just a PITA. Go 25/50, 50/100, 100/200. And don't get into antes.)

I don't think you should ever need more than 4 different chip denominations, otherwise it's just cluttering the table. My cash games do use 5 denominations, 5000-denomination chips for the 3rd/4th rebuy on crazy nights, but mostly cuz I bought a 1000 chips set (used to host 3 table MTTs). But only get them if you get a 500 chip set and have an extra barrel. They're really not necessary.

Oh, and after third level and sixth level we will color up and remove the $5 chips and $25 chips.

10/20
15/30
20/40
color up
25/50
50/100
75/150
color up
100/200
200/400
300/600

This structure allows some play during the first hour and then the blinds really start to ramp up during the second hour.

Thanks guys for all the responses. I ordered several chips samples to make sure of what I liked. I liked the Dunes, Majestic and the NEXGEN chips the best. I liked the feel of the NEXGEN chips the best so I went with them for the price. I guess it’s all subjective. Anyway, thanks again for all of the suggestions. This forum is. A great resource and I am glad it is still available as a free source of information.

Where is the best place to buy Nexgen chips?

I ended up buying mine from thepokerstore.com but I am not sure that is the best place. Just know that the $500 chip is out of stock at every place I checked until April. If someone knows of a place where I can order them before then please let me know. That is another reason I did not choose the Majestic chips by Apache. They were out of a couple of denomination or there was a good chance Imwas going to spend more.