Buying poker chips home game need advice. (1 Viewer)

[ScottieRay]

Here is a little background. For the past 6 months or so I have been hosting a bi-weekly Texas Holdem game at my house with between 6 and 10 people (6 to 8 commonly).
The normal buy-in is about $20 but we reload chips as needed. Generally, the Big winner or loser is about $100.00. We have been using the basic white, red, blue, green, and black cheap chipsets and they work ok, but I'm wanting to buy a nicer chipset with the correct monetary values on the chips (there is always the one guy who cant figure the values out). My question is how many chips do I need to buy and how many of each value? I do know I want the smallest value to be $.25. Our Blinds are .25 - .50.

I was thinking $.25, $1, $5, $10. Possibly also 50 cents as well?

1. How many Chips do I probably need?
2. What values should I purchase?
3. How many should I buy for each specific value?

please let me know your thoughts and opinions on these questions, any insight would be much appreciated.

 

[Trihonda]

In short. Nope. Don’t buy chips that have values that are double the chip before. Normal progression has chips increasing in value 4-5x the previous. So $.25/$1/$5/$25 etc.. most efficient for your budget AND these play better.

 

[rjbf65]

Very similar game that a buddy of mine hosts. Same chips and everything. Sounds like a set of 500 chips would work great for you.

.25 - 100
$1 - 200
$5. - 200

$1225 total bank.

 

[Trihonda]

Very similar game that a buddy of mine hosts. Same chips and everything. Sounds like a set of 500 chips would work great for you.

.25 - 100
$1 - 200
$5. - 200

$1225 total bank.

I’d make it an even 6 racks and add a rack of $25’s.

 

[Blaster]

Good advise above, you don't need a .50 chip, however I would recommend getting at least some $20's or $25's, to allow the game to grow in the future ( more people and/or .50/$1), & they may make the set a better fit for an occasional tournament too

 

[allforcharity]

And what's your budget? The good news is that it is still possible to get 500-600 chips set with denominated, slugged composite chips for under $100. A new China Clay set (like Milanos, Majestics, or Pharaohs) of the same size would be $200-250. If going one of these routes, it would be good to buy your set of chips all at once because there are differences in appearance with different manufacturing batches of these types of mass-produced chips.

Oh, and has nobody yet said this?

GET SAMPLES.

 

[JustinInMN]

Yeah I agree. .50 and 10 chips are a waste if your structure requires .25. I think the 100-quarter, 200-single, 200-five, 100-twentyfive (or twenty) is perfect for your game, you can bank 3725 (186 buy-ins of 20), or 3225 (161 buy-ins of 20) if you go with twenties.

For 20 buy in:
5 players get 20 quarters and 15 singles,
Everyone else gets 20 singles.
Adjust for larger amounts using fives. And issue rebuys in fives when the singles run out.

In your case I might consider trying to find 20s if that's the standard buy in, but I know that's not common in stock sets.

If you have to get 25s you'll just have to make a point to color up some 5s with 25s when the bank runs low to accommodate 20 buy ins. Getting 20s would save that issue, but I know not all sets offer 20s.

(Easier rebuys after the 5s are spent may be the one argument for going with a 10 chip over a 25 in this particular case, but as @Blaster said in general 20 and 25 are preferred if the stakes grow, even if only occasionally.)

All that said, if you're pretty sure you will NEVER have more that 1200 in play, just quarters, ones, and fives should be good.

 

[softchewy]

Not sure what is a "nicer" chipset to you, but I'd suggest determining which is more important.. total number of chips or quality/desire for a particular set.
Or just let us know your budget and what chips you like or are thinking of, that will help with the.breakdown.
Doesn't sound like you need a rack of $25s with those buy-ins/stakes.. honestly you probably don't need any.
Might be better to add more $1s or $5s if needed, you know because more chips.
If the big winner is usually $100, then probably no one really has more than two barrels of $5s in front of them at any time.
If you want, add a couple of barrels of $20s (match the buy in) or $25s if you prefer. I prefer matching actual US currency values for cash games, so $20s for me over $25s, but again both work.
No need for $.50s unless you want larger starting stacks / more chips in play.. won't slow the game very much
Figure out what the total bank usually needs to be (most that has been put in play in your 10 player games) then add 20% or so.
For a $20 buy in game, I would prefer more $1s (again more chips), but only you know what the betting is normally like.
If cost is a consideration or completely not a factor, adjust totals accordingly

100 x $0.25
300 x $1
200 x $5
40 x $20

or if you want complete racks

100 x $0.25
260 x $1
200 x $5
40 x $20

 

[chipjoker]

I ran my game with this break down for many years, .25/.50 @ $40-100 buy in. 9 players.

100 - .25
100 - $1
100 - $5
40 - $25
10 - $100 THIS WORKS. no need for .50 chips, get more .25's

Here is what I would do now:
100 - .25
120 - $1
140 - $5
40 - $25
10 -$100 This adds 220 to the bank

4345 total

Adjust any of these by adding a few more 1's and/or 5's. If you ever get larger games (buy ins) like my games. My players buy-in $100 so you should have no problem with these.

 

[Lemonzest]

I would probably do this:

100 x $0.25
200 x $1
200 x $5
40 x $20 or $25

 

[Shaggy]

You will see that most agree in general on the proper breakdown for a game with the stakes you outlined. The only variations you will likely hear about are based on how the game plays. If the game is more limpy, people will propose more quarters. If its more aggressive, people will propose the minimum quarters (one rack) and focus on adding workhorse chips (either $1 or $5 depending on how aggressive the game is). This will also often include $20 or $25 and maybe even $100 as a big denom chip predominantly used for rebuys.

For my 25c/50c game that is moderately aggressive with $100 buy-ins and generally ~$1500 in action, I like the following breakdown:
100x 25c
120x $1
130x $5
40x $25
10x $100

This is the bare minimum for my game... but notice it is only 400 chips. Buying a set like this allowed me to get into the nicer chips without breaking the bank. If you can afford a 500 chipset, I'd up it to the following (for my game):

100x 25c
150x $1
200x $5
40x $25
10x $100

 

[Steve Birrer]

Two comments not made already.

1. Just understand that even with the denominations printed right on the chip some guys just don't get it. There is a guy in my home game who after about 4 years still has to ask all the time what the values are....lol.

2. Whatever denominations and count you go with I strongly suggest you buy from a current stock of chips. You can find closeouts and get some nicer deals but then down the road you decide to expand a bit and you can't find anymore chips to match.

 

[softchewy]

Two comments not made already.

1. Just understand that even with the denominations printed right on the chip some guys just don't get it. There is a guy in my home game who after about 4 years still has to ask all the time what the values are....lol.

2. Whatever denominations and count you go with I strongly suggest you buy from a current stock of chips. You can find closeouts and get some nicer deals but then down the road you decide to expand a bit and you can't find anymore chips to match.

Some solutions..
1. just don't answer him anymore... unless he has special needs, he can and will figure it out.
2. don't worry about that.. if it happens.. just upgrade to a nicer set of chips

 

[jlb2782]

This is almost my exact situation. Liking the info in here.

 

[JustinInMN]

Maybe some explanation behind common ideas would help.

1) Limit the denominations and spread them out.

Stacks need to be counted accurately in all-in situations and obviously cash outs. Limiting the number of denominations helps this greatly. If someone has 58.50 it's much easier to count 6 quarters, 17 singles, and 8 fives, than 2 quarters, 2 halves, 17 singles, 4 fives and 2 tens.

It's always faster to count more chips of few denominations than few chips of several denominations. I think 2-3 denominations is good, 4 is still okay, 5 is my personal point of unworkability.

2) Don't overbuy blind chips.

There is probably more controversy on this one, but I think having too many blind chips in play slows the counting process as well. I think a barrel per player is excessive and 10-12 is the sweet spot. Take .25-.50, a player with 12 quarters may make 6 limps without acquiring other chips. That's good enough for 2-3 rounds. The later rounds will probably have most bets in whole dollars. And with a little practice players can learn change procedures. This frees up more room in the set for bigger workhorse denominations.

So this is why most of us have settled on some variation of 100 quarters, 200 singles, 200 fives for .25-.50.

Hope this offers some extra insight on the "why."

 

[Japanese lily]

$25　160
$100 160
$500 80
$1000 160
$5000　40

 

[allforcharity]

$25　160
$100 160
$500 80
$1000 160
$5000　40

This is a good tourney set. I think the OP was looking for cash, though.

Unless, of course, you play cash for $10,000 buy-in, then by all means go ahead.

 

[Japanese lily]

Oh, I see.