thanks for reading the thread

... ?

For a $0.50/$1/$2 game with 10 players and a bunch of degenerates, I'd want at least $4-5K in my chipset. Maybe something like:

$0.25 - 100 (blue? or whatever)
$1 - 150 (white)
$5 - 150 (red)
$25 - 50 (green)
$100 - 50 (black)

You'd have $7,175 in chips, and your game could play as big or as small as you wanted.

If you had 10 players playing $0.25/$0.50 buying in for $50 apiece, you'd have $500 in play, and you'd use all your blue and white chips, and about half your red. You'd have the rest of your red chips and all of your green chips available for easy rebuys.

Or maybe a year from now, your game evolves into a $1/$1 game. Do you still want to only have $1,500-$2,000 in chips? You're not using your blues at this point, and you'd like have all your white, red, and green on the table (it's "only" $2,150 - that's not *that* much money for a 10-handed $1/$1 game) in play, and you'll be glad you have those blacks you never thought you'd use.

Nothing worse than running out of chips. And you'll be glad you have the blacks to use as higher denomination chips too if your group ever decides to run a makeshift sit-and-go or something.

IMX at the higher levels they lead to frequent interruptions at the final table for colour-ups.

I'm guessing that they are really light in higher-level chips, then.

Racks ftw. recently switched to racks in our own game, it's a significant improvement when game ends and folks are counting chips to cash-out. Particularly helpful if it's a fixed-limit game like ours in which only one chip color is in play.

Less cumbersome to drop some racks on the table than to bring over the big chipset case, which when open the lid obscures view. Not necessarily a big deal, but annoying.

Racks are more precise in that each slot holds exactly 20 chips; one chip light is immediately obvious, and impossible to insert a 21st chip. This isn't true of most chip cases in my experience. So it'll be much easier to immediately determine if there's chips missing.

It's just cooler. Makes it more "casino-like"...adds an intangible professionalism to the game environment.

As long as you have decent chips, I can agree. The downside of racks is the increased storage space needed, for larger-volume sets, slightly less transportability... and no security locks, unless you get a carrier as well.

bit of a hijack here, but rather than start a new thread I thought I'd post one here.

Any recommendations for what to order for a 500 chip cash game set that could be used for 25nl , 50NL and 100nl? I'll play 25NL as .25-.25 (no 10cent SB). Figure 10 players.

I was thinking something like:

.25 - 140
$1 - 160
$5 - 100
$25 - 80
$100 - 20

(probably don't need the blacks but i want a few just in case the games start to play a little bigger, plus I like how they look).

I'm wondering if that's enough quarters and dollars.

I only have 100 quarter chips, and that is enough for 10 players. We've used that many for two tables of 6. You might want to dial those back and get more 5s.

If you're going to have a game with antes, you might need more than 100.

If anything, I'd go with 120 x $5 and 60 x $25, but all-in-all, it looks good to me.

Y would you need .25 chips at all in a .50-$1 game?

Also in my home cash game, we play .10-.20c which is tiny, but often has pots well over 100$ with lyk 2-3$ opening raises... jus the way ppl play, i dont really want 2 raise the blinds coz i would be giving away more by playing tight then i need 2, and can still get action with these 10 BB raises pre...

Also the chips we use are 10c, 20c, $1, $5, $25 and cash play as i usually run outa chips after a few rebuys

ouch why did it open this thread, that chart of you hurts my eyes (and feelings).

Plenty of supergood advice in here though, follow it. 25c, 1$, 5$, 25$ is all you need for all games below 1/1.

I just got invited to a $1/$2 NL degenerate game [$200 max to start] that was horribly organized and I'm tasked with classing it up a bit. They did stuff like "Blacks are worth $10, and every other color is worth $1." Insanity.

I have a ton of suited plastic chips and an extra 650 chip case, I want to put together a decent set to run the game out of. I'm not too familiar with how a NL game works and I haven't been happy with any of the breakdowns I've come up with.

How is this?

200 white chips @ $1 = $200
300 red chips @ $5 = $1,500
140 green chips @ $25 = $3,500
10 black chips @ $100 = $1,000

$6,200 total.

For a starting stack I'd guess $20 white, $130 red, $50 green? Does this suck?

I've been in casino NL games where black chips are discouraged or outlawed because they're too inconspicuous, but I think some would be necessary just in case the game got a little crazy. HELP.

I think this is my first post in this forum since like 2004. Welcome back?

Welcome back!

With no dealer or rake, you don't need more than $100 in whites. I'd do 300-400 reds, and then 200-300 greens. I wouldn't use blacks. If you run out of chips, cash can play.

I'd also use acrylic racks. They make counting and verifying chips a breeze. It's for everybody's protection.

For starting stacks, don't worry about exact breakdowns. Give $80 in reds, $20 in whites, and $100 in greens to the first five players. Then reds and greens for the others. The change will find its way around. This way is a lot faster and easier and less error prone.

And of course you are the ONLY person who touches the bank. You get cash for chips, you get chips for cash, and you are responsible for shortages.

Good luck and have fun!

General Advice if your normal game is $0.25/$0.50 or $0.50/$1:

1. Consider using non-denominational chips (100 of them is plenty for up to 10 players) so you can designate them as quarters or half-dollars.

2. Don't buy any $100 chips. You should order enough $20 or $25 chips to go around at these stakes that you will never get to use $100's. The main problem (rare, but costly if some thief were to pull it off) I can see with using $100 chips is someone might sneak in chips from outside (if your chips are pretty generic and are widely available.) The other solution is to allow cash to play (but only $100 bills, not $20's.)

3. I would even put out that many $20's or $25's because $5's should the workhorse in your game so make sure to order plenty of those.

Lose the .50 and $10 and apply them to $1 which is where the bulk of your use will be.

Sarge

There's no reason to have a lot of chips for the small-blind, unless you want people to bet things like $2.75 into pots.

If you do, that's fine, but with only one person per hand ever having to put in 50c, and then that person sometimes even calling the bet, you only need each player to have a few quarter chips, and he can almost always get change.

Unless you're raking quarters, then you only need a handful of small-blind chips. Assuming a 10-person game, 100 quarter chips would be more than enough, since you can just give everyone $2 worth of them and never look back. Players will make change between them if someone ends up with a bunch of them (which they will).

Then your only question is if the game is going to be mostly white-chip or red-chip on later streets. If someone bets $20, do you want them to put in a barrel of white chips, or do you want them to put in four red?

If you want a mostly white-chip game, then put almost all of your remaining chip budget into white chips, saving a little room for red or green chips for color-ups, and don't let people color-up unless they've got plenty of white.

I've got black chips in my set. They've never been in play, even when playing with a couple grand on the table at similar and larger stakes than yours.

I see numbers like 500 total chips above, which is sort of awkward for a game that might use lots of white chips, but I'd do something akin to:

100 quarters.
250 whites
250 reds

...but the REAL deciding factor is how your players like to play. What size bets are normal, and what types of stacks do you want to see - visually.

tl;dr all of it but imo you dont need a heap of quaters, they're only reallly used for the small blind and you could get away with around 4 for each player, and if someone runs out for their small lind they can just change with someone who has more,