Cash Game 5¢/10¢ to 25¢/50¢ NLHE breakdown advice (1 Viewer)

[mnebesny]

I'm going to be buying cash set of the New China Club tribute chips through the upcoming Cards Mold group buys. This will be my first cash set (other than dice chips ) so I have a few questions and am looking for general advice.

My group only really plays NLHE, and I want it to be a one table microstakes set with 5c/10c blinds. However, in the interest of future-proofing, I'd ideally like it to be playable up to 25c/50c. Looking to have around 600 chips in the set as a benchmark, but the group buy is a good deal I'm not against more chips...the bigger the better, right?

From what I've read, the best breakdown for what I want would be something like this:

100 x 5¢​

200 x 25¢​

200 x $1​

80 x $5​

20 x $25 (I'll have to buy 25 minimum as per the group buy rules but I want to have nice even barrels and racks in the actual set)​

​

Is this a good breakdown? Any suggestions are appreciated.

Also, there's artwork for a 10¢ and 50¢ chip. What purpose do they serve? Would they allow me to play 10¢/20¢ blinds or something? They're nice chips and I'd love to have that option, even if it means more chips , but at the same time, I only have so much money and so much storage space (I live in a small apartment).

 

[Coyote]

Pretty nice breakdown!
If you want to further future-proof it against growth in stakes, I 'd say have 120x$5, at the expense of some 25c and $1s (make both x180), assuming they don't come in increments of 25, the latter being just a minimum.

 

[davislane]

The way I understood the GB was that you have to order in increments of 25. I could be wrong on this.

Edit. I am wrong.

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/thre...-consolidated-info-thread.65544/#post-1303551

 

[Beakertwang]

Your suggested breakdown has a bank of $1155. That’s pretty light for a .25/.50 game. I’d bump the total up to 700 chips, and do 140 $5’s, and 60 $25’s for a bank of over $2400.

If you definitely don’t want to go over 600 chips, I’d do:
5¢ x 80
25¢ X 140
$1 x 180
$5 x 160
$25 x 40

Or some variation of this.

 

[mnebesny]

Your suggested breakdown has a bank of $1155. That’s pretty light for a .25/.50 game. I’d bump the total up to 700 chips, and do 140 $5’s, and 60 $25’s for a bank of over $2400.

I'm completely fine with 700 chips. Tbh with the group buy prices the extra rack is only an extra $30 or so. Thanks for the advice

 

[Beakertwang]

I'm completely fine with 700 chips. Tbh with the group buy prices the extra rack is only an extra $30 or so. Thanks for the advice

And honestly, 100 nickels is more than enough, in my experience. Most opens in my game are to 50¢, and no nickels are used after the flop. But you’re right, at this price, it’s hard to go wrong.

 

[mnebesny]

And honestly, 100 nickels is more than enough, in my experience. Most opens in my game are to 50¢, and no nickels are used after the flop. But you’re right, at this price, it’s hard to go wrong.

The way I see it, it's easier to buy more now than to regret it later, especially in this case when the price is good...

 

[shorticus]

I’d definitely drop some quarters for $5’s. You know your game better than we do, but I’d consider going with something like what’s listed below.

100/140/200/140/20

If it were me, I’d just build my set for a .25/.50 game and just add a rack of nickels. That should work out just fine.

 

[JustinInMN]

I do really like the first thought of 100/200/200/80/20 of 0.05/0.25/1/5/25. The truth is you will need a couple hundred quarters as workhorse chips for 0.05-0.10 so I really wouldn't skimp there. But 800 chips seems a reasonable set for this wide of a range, so I would suggest this 100/200/300/160/40 of 0.05/0.25/1/5/25. That's a bank of 2155 or 35 buy ins of 60. Should be good for a single table.

 

[mnebesny]

Thanks to everyone for all the advice, lots of great info.

I'm still confused as to why there are 0.10 and 0.50 chips. What purpose do they serve?

 

[FDLmold]

Thanks to everyone for all the advice, lots of great info.

I'm still confused as to why there are 0.10 and 0.50 chips. What purpose do they serve?

I had them made so I can run 10c/20c. Nickels and quarters are useless at those stakes when you can have 10c and 50c chips!

 

[ReallyGoodUsername]

 

[JustinInMN]

I'm still confused as to why there are 0.10 and 0.50 chips. What purpose do they serve?

I actually ended up doing my customs with a dime-half breakdown. Here's a thread I did on this idea last year.

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/dime-half-single-alternative-micro-breakdown-idea.39237/

I went this way because 0.50-1 games are popular in my circle, the 0.50 frac is useful in 2/4 limit for stud orbits, and 0.50-0.50 would play about the same as 0.25-0.50, which is the other most popular game.

So I looked at doing 0.50/1/5 as a way to handle the main games and not needing as many fracs. (Fifty of the 0.50 chips per table is plenty at any stake because of the presece of the single.). Then I just got dimes to accomodate the micro game at 0.10-0.10. (Which has since become 0.10-0.20.)

If you were to consider a 0.10/0.50 breakdown instead of 0.05/0.25 you could do a breakdown of something like 100/60/240/180/20 of 0.10/0.50/1/5/25 to yield a bank of 1680. (Or 100/50/250/175/25 if you have a quantity restriction of multiples of 25, yielding a bank of 1785.)

It's unusual, but you will notice it cuts your fractional chips in half, which is saving when you are trying to cover a wide range.

 

[JRReynolds6181]

Your suggested breakdown has a bank of $1155. That’s pretty light for a .25/.50 game. I’d bump the total up to 700 chips, and do 140 $5’s, and 60 $25’s for a bank of over $2400.

If you definitely don’t want to go over 600 chips, I’d do:
5¢ x 80
25¢ X 140
$1 x 180
$5 x 160
$25 x 40

Or some variation of this.

Agreed. More chips on the table is always better, IMO. There are people who say otherwise, I find them suspect.

 

[redeagle]

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about this also for my GB purchase, and here are some things to consider.

• The key trade off I see, is Bank vs Change-making.
• If you run out of bank, that’s it, unless you let actual cash play. While if you run out of low denom chips during play, it just means people making change at the table a bit more often.
• For this reason, make sure you have enough bank for the biggest game you want to play.
• The ceramics can last you a lifetime of play, so some future proofing is worth it.
• If your game changes or moves up over time, you can always get another set ( PCF solution).

At the GB price I’d go for more anyway, since I don’t find storing a single set of 600 versus 800 being much different.

I think the sizing for the 600/700/800 chip set configurations provided by all the guys above is pretty optimal at each set size, but I would recommend going for 700 minimum and 800 if you can budget for that.

 

[JustinInMN]

If you run out of bank, that’s it, unless you let actual cash play. While if you run out of low denom chips during play, it just means people making change at the table a bit more often.

My rule of thumb is to try and get a bank that covers 2-3 max buy ins per player. This would make exhausting the bank extremely rare. Allowing high denomination currency is fine too in an emergency.

So I would determine what your max buy in would be at 0.25-0.50. I do 60 for 0.50-0.50 (120x BB) but I know other hosts on here prefer deeper stacks and do buy ins of 100 or more. That would make a big difference. For 60 buy ins you would be trying to target a bank of say 1500-1800.

 

[allforcharity]

I would future-proof by going to 800 chips.

100x $0.05
200x $0.25
200x $1
200x $5
100x $25 (or 80x $25 and 20x $100 as a capstone)

Bank $3755-$5255. Would cover from 0.05/0.10 all the way to 1/3, probably.

 

[upNdown]

Your suggested breakdown has a bank of $1155. That’s pretty light for a .25/.50 game. I’d bump the total up to 700 chips, and do 140 $5’s, and 60 $25’s for a bank of over $2400.

If you definitely don’t want to go over 600 chips, I’d do:
5¢ x 80
25¢ X 140
$1 x 180
$5 x 160
$25 x 40

Or some variation of this.

Yes.
Of course, every game is different. I've player .25/.50 games where buyins were $20, and I've played .25/.50 games where buyins were $80.

 

[JustDave]

Because the chips were so damn cheap I did:
100x $0.05
200x $0.25
200x $1
100x $2.50(just me being silly)
100x $5
80x $20
20x $100(capstone)

But I have a set that's already built around .25/.50 or .50/1.00. ymmv.

 

[Coyote]

Though not applicable to the chips in question, I wonder if a nice solution for people playing basically fractional blinds games would be to get denominations representing dimes.
So, 1-5-20-100 (and even 500) chips, for games starting from 1/1 to 1/2, 1/3, 2/5, 5/5 and 5/10 (dimes).

 

[redeagle]

Though not applicable to the chips in question, I wonder if a nice solution for people playing basically fractional blinds games would be to get denominations representing dimes.

Nope.

Thanks to everyone for all the advice, lots of great info.

I'm still confused as to why there are 0.10 and 0.50 chips. What purpose do they serve?

To annoy the normal people who correctly play with nickels and quarters, and to provide @Josh Kifer with blue chips he can murder to make into blue $1s.

 

[Saoliver]

Thanks to everyone for all the advice, lots of great info.

I'm still confused as to why there are 0.10 and 0.50 chips. What purpose do they serve?

I have 2 micro stakes sets. one is 5¢/25¢/$1/$5. The other is 10¢/50¢/$1/$5. Either is fine, depending on the game.

 

[allforcharity]

I have 2 micro stakes sets. one is 5¢/25¢/$1/$5. The other is 10¢/50¢/$1/$5. Either is fine, depending on the game.

You see? You can have both. There is strength in diversity!

Power, brother!

 

[BGinGA]

Your initial breakdown is fine for 5c/10c. Add another 100x $5 chips if wanting to also spread 25c/50c and you'll be fine. 600 chips per game, depending on stakes.

Anything above that is gravy, but not required.

 

[Mojo1312]

In a galaxy far, far away, players, every now and then, would fold their SB in a limped pot.

Drop the nickels and quarters in favor of .10 and .50 chips for a .10/.10, .20/.20, .50/.50 or $1/$1 game.


100 x .10
100 x .50
200 x $1
200 x $5
600 chips

Bank: $1260

100 x .10
100 x .50
200 x $1
260 x $5
40 x $25
700 chips

Bank: $2560