Cash Game Rebuy single large Denom Chips (1 Viewer)

Joined
Jan 6, 2023
Messages
1,571
Reaction score
2,001
Location
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Question,
I used to think when a player rebuys I need to recreate the starting stack (for me it has been tourney denominations of 8, 8, 6, 6, 2) but I've been learning that a rebuy of one $20,000 chip is a good practice? I also think I want to move to a cash game so guys aren't sitting around waiting but that's another thing. So help me understand how that happens and is it different for tourney or cash games? The guy with the cash box takes your cash re-buy and gives a large denom chip. Then what? does the player sit down and make change? This takes a ton of pressure off me to have the chip supply to support multiple buy ins of 8, 8, 6, 6, 2 but I've never done the large denom. I'm assuming they just make change with the big stack or something like that? What's best practice and how's it work mechanically.

thanks in advance.

About me: I'm new to the forum, I have a home game of 5 years, tourney style mostly, buy ins are new to me.
 
You don't need to recreate a starting stack for a rebuy (you of course can), however you do need enough smaller stuff in play that a 20k can even be broken. Not sure the best practice for tournament but it's probably minimum somewhere around 2.5-3x the size of the big chip already in the average stack.

You can streamline rebuys to something like 0,0,0,5,3 or even just hand four 5ks. That way the rebuy player can just break 5k at a time and everyone else has a little over 4x this on average. Save your 20k chip for a late color up.

Cash games are a little different in this regard since the blinds don't increase, nothing really gets colored off, and the number of players doesn't necessarily shrink. You just put enough of the two smallest chips in play from the jump and keep adding bigger stuff as people add money. The same principle applies, for instance you gotta have enough 5s in play before a 20 comes in but that's usually about 150-200+ chips depending on your preference. Your 3rd and/or 4th denomination can just keep piling on until you run out or feel like adding another color :)
 
Last edited:
So the blinds don’t move and nothing gets colored up? This is really foreign to me wow. So my plan on cash is to keep the $20 buy in the same as they are used to for tourneys. Just friends and family. Thinking a 10 Nickel, 18 quarter, 15 dollar starting stack. And with 5/10 cent or 10/20 cent blinds are you saying they would never change? Thanks again. Excited to try this but may need more research. I wanna run thinks somewhat typical but low steaks and no one sitting around watching.
 
This is the beauty of cash games! No schedule, no clock, no one has to be eliminated they can keep buying in as many times as they want. They can cash out when they want too. Blinds generally don't change the whole night.

Your starting amount seems just fine. I use $100 buy ins 12/17/16 of .25/1/5 for .25/.50 blinds so it's basically the same shifted a denomination. All rebuys/top offs get all 5s till there are around 200 of them on the table then I move to 20s. So you could just rebuy people with $1s until there's around 200 or so or you run out then break out the 5s.
 
FWIW my set up $50min/$100max buy in, stacks .25x20, $1x20, $5x5(or x10). Can rebuy to $50 anytime, full rebuy is $5x10. I have enough chips if someone wanted the same starting stack I can do that for half the table.
 
I think this might work out well for us. Thanks so much for sharing. So I’m assuming I’ll need a stocked bank for cash outs and making change right? Winner take all was easy. I’ll need nickels and single dollars for breaking payouts correct? How do you set this up prior?
 
I think this might work out well for us. Thanks so much for sharing. So I’m assuming I’ll need a stocked bank for cash outs and making change right? Winner take all was easy. I’ll need nickels and single dollars for breaking payouts correct? How do you set this up prior?

Personally I keep a change bank of 5, 10, 20 bills along with some singles since I get a lot of 100 bills coming in for buys ins. But every chip on the table is supported by cash in the box from a buy in.

We don't mess with quarters just round off. Often a player will round down to the 5 at cash out and kick the change my way as host.

You can certainly pay to the nearest nickel, quarter, or dollar it's up to you guys.
 
You can streamline rebuys to something like 0,0,0,5,3 or even just hand four 5ks. That way the rebuy player can just break 5k at a time and everyone else has a little over 4x this on average. Save your 20k chip for a late color up.
^ This is the best way to go - don't use the highest denom chip for rebuys. Using 5k chips will make it so that most players can help break 1 when needed, or the dealer may be able to break it out of a pot relatively quickly. A single chip for the whole value of a rebuy can be difficult to break, especially if the chips are pretty evenly spread around the table (if there is a single big stack, they can and should typically be the person making the change).
So the blinds don’t move and nothing gets colored up?
Might be semantics, but the blinds do still move around the table, they just don't increase throughout the night. Sometimes if there are a lot of rebuys and a lot of money on the table, the players may choose to increase the blinds, but this should only ever be if everyone is in agreement.
Thinking a 10 Nickel, 18 quarter, 15 dollar starting stack.
I think this is a great starting stack for a 5/10 game. If you decide to go bigger, instead of 10/20, I would just go with 10/25. This will tend to cause people to bet using the 25c and $1 chips instead of using the nickels in their bet size. Helps with chip management on the table.
I’ll need nickels and single dollars for breaking payouts correct? How do you set this up prior?
My go to is to always have the cash box stocked with maximum potential change needed. For a 10-player game, you'll need:
40 Nickels (if people are good with rounding off nickels, skip these and just do 40 quarters which is a roll)
30 Quarters (see above)
40 Ones
10 Fives
10 Tens
-------------
$200 in cash box.

This is likely way more than you *actually* need, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared, and this way you'll never be short on change. If you don't want to keep that much cash on hand, cut each denomination in half and you'll likely be covered. A note, you can absolutely use the money in the cash box to cover your buy-ins, but you should take care to make sure you are tracking how much you are in for and that the box will cover it. Nothing more embarrassing than grabbing more chips than you have cash to cover.
 
A note, you can absolutely use the money in the cash box to cover your buy-ins, but you should take care to make sure you are tracking how much you are in for and that the box will cover it. Nothing more embarrassing than grabbing more chips than you have cash to cover.

For sure. I keep my change bank in an envelope separate from the cash box. It's my own personal money so I may use it to buy myself in, but it's no different than if I pulled it from my wallet. The cash box matches the chips on the table exactly always so long as I don't eff something up lol.
 
Tourney or cash, I wouldn't do rebuys with any low denoms. Get all the lowest 2 denoms on the table up front. Rebuys in middle denominations, and the largest values only late in the game. In most T20,000 1- or 2-table tourneys, a T20,000 would never really be playable. I'd do rebuys with 1K and 5k.

Same with a 5¢/10¢ cash game. Get the nickels and quarters on the table first, most rebuys in 1's (some quarters for the first few), and later rebuys in 5's if necessary.
 
We got away from tourneys awhile back and have not regretted it. We’re planning a deep stack larger buyin tourney but it’s still in discussion.

Correct with rebuys. We do all rebuys in $5 chips. People make change.
 
^ This is the best way to go - don't use the highest denom chip for rebuys. Using 5k chips will make it so that most players can help break 1 when needed, or the dealer may be able to break it out of a pot relatively quickly. A single chip for the whole value of a rebuy can be difficult to break, especially if the chips are pretty evenly spread around the table (if there is a single big stack, they can and should typically be the person making the change).

Might be semantics, but the blinds do still move around the table, they just don't increase throughout the night. Sometimes if there are a lot of rebuys and a lot of money on the table, the players may choose to increase the blinds, but this should only ever be if everyone is in agreement.

I think this is a great starting stack for a 5/10 game. If you decide to go bigger, instead of 10/20, I would just go with 10/25. This will tend to cause people to bet using the 25c and $1 chips instead of using the nickels in their bet size. Helps with chip management on the table.

My go to is to always have the cash box stocked with maximum potential change needed. For a 10-player game, you'll need:
40 Nickels (if people are good with rounding off nickels, skip these and just do 40 quarters which is a roll)
30 Quarters (see above)
40 Ones
10 Fives
10 Tens
-------------
$200 in cash box.

This is likely way more than you *actually* need, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared, and this way you'll never be short on change. If you don't want to keep that much cash on hand, cut each denomination in half and you'll likely be covered. A note, you can absolutely use the money in the cash box to cover your buy-ins, but you should take care to make sure you are tracking how much you are in for and that the box will cover it. Nothing more embarrassing than grabbing more chips than you have cash to cover.
This might seem like it goes without saying but until I get a few experiences under my belt with cash games this info regarding setup really helps, thanks. I understand the main points… still have a few blind spots in the details.
 
You don't need to recreate a starting stack for a rebuy (you of course can), however you do need enough smaller stuff in play that a 20k can even be broken. Not sure the best practice for tournament but it's probably minimum somewhere around 2.5-3x the size of the big chip already in the average stack.

You can streamline rebuys to something like 0,0,0,5,3 or even just hand four 5ks. That way the rebuy player can just break 5k at a time and everyone else has a little over 4x this on average. Save your 20k chip for a late color up.

Cash games are a little different in this regard since the blinds don't increase, nothing really gets colored off, and the number of players doesn't necessarily shrink. You just put enough of the two smallest chips in play from the jump and keep adding bigger stuff as people add money. The same principle applies, for instance you gotta have enough 5s in play before a 20 comes in but that's usually about 150-200+ chips depending on your preference. Your 3rd and/or 4th denomination can just keep piling on until you run out or feel like adding another color :)
Thanks man, that's super helpful. We had our first cash game friday night and it went really well. Organically ended up doing something similar and rebuying with larger denoms. After that evening I reset my top four racks to include 8 staged starting stacks of $20 with a stack of quarters and a half stack of nickels as well as dollars. Then once 8 players were at the table I've got an extra stack of dollars and then all fives... think it will work really well seeding the table with low denoms and then as the reloads increase moving to dollars, 5s, and 20s like you say. thanks again.
 
Last edited:
Thanks man, that's super helpful. We had our first cash game friday night and it went really well. Organically ended up doing something similar and rebuying with larger denoms. After that evening I reset my top four racks to include 8 staged starting stacks of $20 with a stack of quarters and a half stack of nickels as well as dollars. Then once 8 players were at the table I've got an extra stack of dollars and then all fives... think it will work really well seeding the table with low denoms and then as the reloads increase moving to dollars, 5s, and 20s like you say. thanks again.
Glad it worked out!
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account and join our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Back
Top Bottom