2/5 NL Buyins and Starting Stacks? (1 Viewer)

[justsomedude]

I've never hosted 2/5 before, but am wanting to expand my Stardust set to try and cover it (just because). That said, what are typical starting stacks for 2/5 NL in casinos, and what kind of buyins should be expected?

I'm guessing $600-$1k per player, but thought I'd just go ahead and ask.

 

[bentax1978]

Depending on the casino, the max buy-in is typically between $500 and $1000. Minimum is usually $200-300.

I typically buy-in for a rack of $5 chips and the balance of what I can buy in for in $25 chips.

For a single table home 2/5 game, ideally I'd have a breakdown something like this:

200 x $1
800 x $5
400 x $25
200 x $100

Of course you can get by with fewer of any of those denoms if you need to.

 

[NayNay]

If you buy from a cage they ask you what you want. I usually get a rack of reds. If I buy deeper I'll ask for 5 red 5 green and they'll give me a rack of reds and a barrel of greens.

I'd expect a full table to need 1000 5s 200-300 25s and a rack of 100s if you have guys thst play super deep.

The 1s all depend if you have a dealer in your game who can move 1s around in pots easily. If not add 200 1s

 

[AWenger]

The Bravo app for poker room lists typically lists the buy-in min and max behind the game. I just checked at 3 of the casinos local to me, and the 2-5 NL Holdem is
$300-$1000 for all three (Maryland Live, Horseshoe Baltimore, MGM National).

 

[derekdd23]

The local casino allows people to buy in at max stack, by the end of a friday or saturday night it is normal to have 15-20k on the table.

My typical buy in is:
100x$5
20x$25
20x$1

For $1020 total(no one ever complains about having 20 extra on the table if the max stack is 1k)

Conversely when I play at the Bellagio the max buy in is $500 and the average table has less than $8k on it.

For a friendly local 1 table I would personally go with Dan's suggestion as I believe it would cover most scenarios. Although I might add a barrell of $500 and $1000 chips.

 

[bentax1978]

My typical buy in is:
500x$5
20x$25
20x$1

I assume you meant 100 x $5, 20 x $25 and 20 x $1

Otherwise your game is even juicer than I imagined...

 

[derekdd23]

I assume you meant 100 x $5, 20 x $25 and 20 x $1

Otherwise your game is even juicer than I imagined...

You are right, got dollars and chips backwards

 

[Jambine]

100 BB is plenty to start a NL game. $500

 

[crussader]

100 BB is plenty to start a NL game. $500

$500 is the standard buy-in. To do it like a casino, you need a boatload of chips. For a home game, I set up my set to do it this way:

Starting Stack

5 x $1
14 x $5
9 x $25
2 x $100

Then get some $500 chips for re-buys

Using the above stack I can support 20 players with the following total chip counts:

100 x $1
280 x $5
180 x $25
40 x $100

Add however many $500s you want for re-buys. I added 20 of them.

 

[Venturalvn]

For a $500 buy-in:
$1 x 20
$5 x 61
$25 x 7

That's 792 chips for a 9 handed game:
$1 x 180
$5 x 549
$25 x 63

That's an easy 1k pc set, filling out the $1s, and adding some $5s for rebuys. 2 racks white, 7 racks red, 1 rack green. Pretty standard for a home set.

For the 600-1k buyin, more greens and some blacks. Really should be able to get this done with 1k chip set. For rebuys go with greens and blacks and make change on the table.

 

[bentax1978]

Really should be able to get this done with 1k chip set

Agreed. If I were going with a 1000 chip set, I'd probably go 200/600/100/100 or 200/500/200/100. Maybe swap the (100) $100 chips out for 80/20 $100/$500 if $500s were available.

 

[Rhodeman77]

For a single table 2/5 game that you wanted to keep at 1000 chips I would cut the $1 down to 100 to have more big chips.

In every casino that I've played $2/5 in the $1's don't play and can't be bet unless there are at least 5 of them. So 10 per player to post 2 of them for a small blind every orbit is more than enough per player.

I am in the "rack and a stack" camp for starting stacks. So a rack of $5's and a barrel of $25's.

 

[crussader]

Would this be for a raked game? If it is not raked, there's no way you need anywhere near 20 $1s per player. The dollar chips are only there to pay the small blind.

 

[bentax1978]

For a single table 2/5 game that you wanted to keep at 1000 chips I would cut the $1 down to 100 to have more big chips.

I 100% agree. My suggestion of 200 ones was primarily because I assumed that OP (or whoever) would want the flexibly to play down to 1/1 comfortably as well. Granted even 1/1 and 1/2 can be played just fine with a single rack of ones.

Honestly, you could do without the ones entirely if you had to and play 0/5 or 5/5 (which should play almost identically to 2/5). We did that once when we used my Aruba Palm Beach chips (which had no $1 chips).

 

[Jambine]

I 100% agree. My suggestion of 200 ones was primarily because I assumed that OP (or whoever) would want the flexibly to play down to 1/1 comfortably as well. Granted even 1/1 and 1/2 can be played just fine with a single rack of ones.

Honestly, you could do without the ones entirely if you had to and play 0/5 or 5/5 (which should play almost identically to 2/5). We did that once when we used my Aruba Palm Beach chips (which had no $1 chips).

Can we just make it a red game? 10/20 structured, buy in $400. Starting stacks 80 red

 

[upNdown]

Honestly, you could do without the ones entirely if you had to and play 0/5 or 5/5 (which should play almost identically to 2/5). We did that once when we used my Aruba Palm Beach chips (which had no $1 chips).

Not to derail, but if it's a game where you're not even allowed to bet in $1 increments, so the $1's are literally only used for the small blind - why on earth wouldn't it be a $5/$5 game??

 

[gopherblue]

Best to be safe--go with my Riverside breakdown:

300 x $1
1,800 x $5
260 x $25
60 x $100

Mountains of bluebirds.

But seriously, most flexible 1000 chip set is @bentax1978's 100/600/200/80/20, assuming $500s are available.

I guess the most important question is: what do you already have, Stardust-wise?

 

[bentax1978]

Not to derail, but if it's a game where you're not even allowed to bet in $1 increments, so the $1's are literally only used for the small blind - why on earth wouldn't it be a $5/$5 game??

$5/5 would be similar to $2/5, but plays just a tiny bit higher. Opening raises are slightly larger since there's $10 in the pot to start instead of $7. Also folding to a raise from the SB costs you $5 instead of $2. Not huge differences, but overall the pots preflop will be slightly higher (and as a result the subsequent street bets will be slightly higher as well. Again, not really significantly different. The $1 chips are really just there for the blinds (and for the rake/tips in a non-home game situation).