Tourney Opinion Request: What minimum chip denom do you prefer playing with in a tourney chip set? (1 Viewer)

[Keyser Soze]

I’m wondering what most people tend to prefer in a home game tourney environment. I’ve usually played with $5 chips being my lowest denom and using $25’s, 100’s, and 500’s in a 40/40/10/10 ratio.

Would it seem weird or uncommon to have a tourney set using $25’s as the lowest denom and $100’s, $500’s, and $1000’s rounding out the set?

Any feedback is appreciated!
-Cole

 

[gopherblue]

There are a number of tourney breakdown threads on PCF, but generally speaking, most folks prefer tourney sets that start with 25s. So: 25/100/500/1000/5000. But there are plenty that use 5s. Personal preference, really.

 

[atomiktoaster]

It's probably somewhat more common to do 25/100/500/1000 than starting at 5. That's more standard at casinos, but you see both structures around here for home sets. There's a long list of pros and cons about each, if you want to dig into it.

 

[justsomedude]

I see both pretty regularly, but really, it just depends on your starting stack size and overall tournament structure. For example, for a T2000 tournament like @Kyle runs at his house, the T5 makes sense for the lowest denom. For my T10000 - T25000 tournies, the T25 makes sense as the lowest denom.

There is no right or wrong here. It really just depends on how you want to run/structure your game.

For my T10000 tournaments each player gets a starting stack of 12/12/5/6 of t25/t100/t500/t1000.

 

[upNdown]

25 is my preferred lowest denom for tournaments. And every tournament I've played in a casino or cardroom has used the 25 as the lowest denom. Except some faster formats wgere the blinds start at 100/100, and then the lowest chip is the 100.
So no, it wouldn't be weird or uncommon.

 

[v1pe]

T25. I don't mind a T100 in a deepstack structure.

 

[pltrgyst]

I prefer the 5s, so you can have four 4/5x denoms, and avoid needing both $500s and $1Ks.

Starting with 1s works just as well, too.

 

[Quicksilver-75]

100.

 

[Old State]

We always started with $5 even though $25 or higher is most common in casinos. If it’s a tourney only set you might as well start with $25s. When I first got my chips many years ago ASMs were the only custom option and everything else sucked. Several friends and I who had custom sets had one set for cash and tourneys. That is looked down on now but we NEVER had an issue with anyone taking chips or trying any funny business.

At the end of the day the denominations are meaningless. The structure of the tournament is what’s most important. Having denominations that lend themselves to easy color ups and logical levels are what I would look at.

 

[DoubleEagle]

T$25. Been that way for probably 15 years.

 

[Coyote]

The orthodoxy is indisputably 25/100/500/1000/5000, the world over. Period.
You could have an abysmally deep structure if you start with 5s plus the above and play till the end of time with multiple re-buys if time is not an issue

Always a heretic, a lover of simplicity and inflation-hater, I opted for 10/50/200/1000 in my custom tourney sub-set. I only did so because my 1/5/20/100 denominations will be cash and I wanted the two sub-sets to be clearly distinguishable.

 

[GenghisKhan]

Most sets sold here are 25/100/500/1000. And most custom group buys I've looked at in the past did not have enough interest in having 5s made. So the sets started at 25.

So it's not unusual to start with a 25.
I bought some 5s to go with my sets hoping it would give more flexibility instead of always running the same tourney starting stacks. I've yet to use them but it's nice knowing I have that option, lol.

So it's totally up to you.

 

[upNdown]

It’s worth mentioning that if you’re building a tournament t set with casino cash chips, you’ll probably want to start with $5’s, because the higher denom casino cash chips are rarer and more expensive, quite often significantly so.
If you’re doing it with tournament chips or fantasy chips, do what you like.

 

[navels]

True story: I played a home game tournament a few weeks ago and brought my ES Secondaries and played TD since the guy who usually does wasn't going to be there. This set is of course T25+.

He showed up and was genuinely concerned that everybody would be confused by the chip denominations and claimed that he had "never seen" tournament chips that didn't start with . . . wait for it . . .

Spoiler

T1

 

[Nex]

I'm much more used to T25 and related common blind/ante levels, so naturally would feel a little more comfortable with that, but I would not object to a T5 min denom either - particularly if it looks good I don't think there is any difference technically. A blind structure you build with T25 min denom can be scaled down for T5 as well. Lower numbers, nearly same properties.
(Totally a coincidence that I'm ordering a bunch of T5s for my tournament set too...)

 

[Mr Tree]

I generally think of T25 as the start of point, but that being said scaling it to whatever chip is the base is kind of a non issue to me. You still assess your stack vs the blinds and bet in multiples of the blinds/percentage of stack the same way regardless of where you start.

 

[ChipTalker]

Another vote to start with T25 but can make do with many options.

 

[upNdown]

True story: I played a home game tournament a few weeks ago and brought my ES Secondaries and played TD since the guy who usually does wasn't going to be there. This set is of course T25+.

He showed up and was genuinely concerned that everybody would be confused by the chip denominations and claimed that he had "never seen" tournament chips that didn't start with . . . wait for it . . .

Spoiler

T1

He doesn't get out much. Or watch poker on TV. Or play in anybody's tournament but his own.

 

[Beakertwang]

I don't mind either way, as long as we start with 100 big blinds or more. I'd be perfectly happy with T200 starting stacks, and 1/2 starting blinds. In fact, I'd prefer that to starting with with "high roller" denoms. Math with all those zeros is extra hard.

 

[upNdown]

I don't mind either way, as long as we start with 100 big blinds or more. I'd be perfectly happy with T200 starting stacks, and 1/2 starting blinds. In fact, I'd prefer that to starting with with "high roller" denoms. Math with all those zeros is extra hard.

Me too. High roller sets? Are we playing make-pretend or are we playing poker?

 

[BGinGA]

True story: I played a home game tournament a few weeks ago and brought my ES Secondaries and played TD since the guy who usually does wasn't going to be there. This set is of course T25+.

He showed up and was genuinely concerned that everybody would be confused by the chip denominations and claimed that he had "never seen" tournament chips that didn't start with . . . wait for it . . .

Spoiler

T1

LOL .... I thought you were going to say ....

Spoiler

reds

 

[Beakertwang]

Me too. High roller sets? Are we playing make-pretend or are we playing poker?

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/aria-super-high-roller-43mm-ceramic-tourney-set.29224/

They do look terrific, but still...

 

[Nex]

Are we playing make-pretend or are we playing poker?

Looking at all the weird types sitting at the WSOP tables and in casinos, we are indeed playing make-pretend. Some exclusively, some also playing poker alongside...

 

[upNdown]

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/aria-super-high-roller-43mm-ceramic-tourney-set.29224/

They do look terrific, but still...

Right. I have more beef with Aria for starting their high roller tournaments with high denominations, than I do with somebody copying them for home use.
They did it even worse with the big one for one drop tournament - everybody started with 5 million chips. Why? I don’t know.

 

[v1pe]

I don't mind either way, as long as we start with 100 big blinds or more. I'd be perfectly happy with T200 starting stacks, and 1/2 starting blinds. In fact, I'd prefer that to starting with with "high roller" denoms. Math with all those zeros is extra hard.

I actually find it much easier to count in increments of 25 and 100 I think.

 

[BGinGA]

Anything works, really. T.25-base, T1-base, T5-base, T25-base, T100-base, T500-base, T1000-base, or even T5000-base (or higher, although I haven't personally seen any sets higher than that).

They all have advantages and disadvantages. T25 is most common, T.25 is most efficient (imo), T1 and T5 are often the least expensive to build using casino chips.

One drawback to T5 sets is that a lot of the resulting blind levels sort of dictate that more difficult-to-calculate and/or compile bet and raise amounts are necessary, at least when compared to some of the other base number sets. Counting in 25 increments just comes more naturally than counting in increments of 5. A plus to T5-base is that you don't need to address the funky T500/T1000 chip progression issue, since T1000 chips generally aren't required.

One of the reasons high-roller tourney sets have become more popular in home games is that the higher denomination chips (T1000 and up) in most sets are much nicer than the lower denominations (T25 and lower), especially casino sets -- so you get more of the cool chips in play. Plus you get to sling around hundreds of thousands in bets, making the average joe feel a little more baller like the guys/gals on TV.

 

[ChipTalker]

Anything works, really. T.25-base, T1-base, T5-base, T25-base, T100-base, T500-base, T1000-base, or even T5000-base (or higher, although I haven't personally seen any sets higher than that).

They all have advantages and disadvantages. T25 is most common, T.25 is most efficient (imo), T1 and T5 are often the least expensive to build using casino chips.

One drawback to T5 sets is that a lot of the resulting blind levels sort of dictate that more difficult-to-calculate and/or compile bet and raise amounts are necessary, at least when compared to some of the other base number sets. Counting in 25 increments just comes more naturally than counting in increments of 5. A plus to T5-base is that you don't need to address the funky T500/T1000 chip progression issue, since T1000 chips generally aren't required.

One of the reasons high-roller tourney sets have become more popular in home games is that the higher denomination chips (T1000 and up) in most sets are much nicer than the lower denominations (T25 and lower), especially casino sets -- so you get more of the cool chips in play. Plus you get to sling around hundreds of thousands in bets, making the average joe feel a little more baller like the guys/gals on TV.

Agreed, i did a T1Million that has same exact structure as my T10K just to use the diff color chips. At the end of the day was fine for a change now and then but T10K is still king for me.

 

[grantc54]

Me too. High roller sets? Are we playing make-pretend or are we playing poker?

Why can't we do both?

 

[upNdown]

Why can't we do both?

As long as you’re running a good structure, use whatever denominations you like. Meanwhile, I’ll work on keeping my grumpy opinions to myself