Sanity check on quantities for microstakes crossover set (1 Viewer)

[CSW]

Hello, friends. I could use a quick sanity check on quantities for a starter chip set that I am ordering as a gift for my sister. This will be a microstakes crossover set for both tournaments and cash games. Proposed set are details directly below with some context on my sister’s game below that (which will explain my rationale for the set being a bit heavier on the low-denomination chips).

All thoughts are welcome. Thanks in advance for your assistance. This community has been instrumental in helping me to create a thriving home game over the past few years, and I'm looking forward to helping my sister set up her own.

Proposed Set

Denomination	Number of Chips	$ Value	Tournament Value
5​	200​	$10.00​	1,000​
25​	160​	$40.00​	4,000​
100​	100​	$100.00​	10,000​
500​	40​	$200.00​	20,000​
TOTAL BANK	500​	$350.00​	35,000​

Proposed Starting Stacks

Cash game (based on $20 buy-in, but actual buy-ins would likely be more like $5-10)

Denomination	Number of Chips	$ Value	Total chips (10 players)
5​	20​	$1.00​	200​
25​	16​	$4.00​	160​
100​	10​	$10.00​	100​
500​	1​	$5.00​	10​
Total	47​	$20.00​	470​

Tournament (proposed T2,000 starting stack)

Denomination	Number of Chips	Tournament Value	Total chips (10 players)
5​	20​	100​	200​
25​	12​	300​	120​
100​	6​	600​	60​
500​	2​	1,000​	20​
Total	41​	2,000​	400​

Context for my sister’s game

My sister is in her senior year of college and currently plays every week or so with between 5 and 10 players. They started out playing with no money on the line (mostly cash games), but my sister has gradually pushed for some real stakes to make the game more fun and interesting. So far, she has gotten them up to a $4 buy-in for a recent tournament.

Ideally, she would like to get them playing for $5-10 (so that she can avoid having to introduce a 1-cent chip). And when she graduates in May, she will be starting a job at a big accounting firm, where she has some friends who will likely be playing at stakes more similar to my own game (probably around $20).

My intent is to create a set that could be used for a 5-cent/10-cent cash game (with a buy-in as low as $5) as well as tournaments.

As you would expect for a group of very new players, the game plays very passive (almost all limping pre-flop, lots of min-betting post-flop, etc.). And none of the players is super experienced in dealing (even my sister), so I'd like to avoid too much change-making. As a result, I think the set should have slightly more lower denomination chips than I would otherwise plan for.

And I think $350 is plenty of bank for now and for some modest growth before she would need to add some chips.

I think that is most of the information that should be helpful in evaluating the set. But feel free to ask any questions that I missed.

Thanks again, everyone.

 

[demonnic]

I would just do it as a T5 set and then when playing for microstakes cash use them as cents instead of dollars. So the 5 is $0.05, the 25 is $0.25.

Could about get away with that same breakdown, and no weird conversion from the value on the chip to the cash value in game.


ETA: N/M, I went back and reread the chart and was not understanding it the first time. Seems fine to me as a set though I'm no expert on starting stack breakdowns. Gonna leave the above up as evidence of my failure.

 

[Phoe9x]

Ok this table is a bit confusing to decipher but I think I got it.

You have denominations 5, 25, 100, 500. They can either play as cents or face value tournament points.

With only 500 chips, you have to make some sacrifices. Either less chips at the bottom for efficiency, or less chips up top for coverage. 100/140/200/80 would get you a good set, starting stacks of 10/14/6/0 would get you a $10 buy in, and you have plenty of headroom.

 

[Kid_Eastwood]

Hello,

If you want to cover multiple things with just one set, there is a risk that a player takes a tournament chip and then sneaks this chip into his/her cash stack in a next game.

If this risk is accepted, in my opinion, the most flexible breakdown would be a T1 tournament set / NL100 (1-1) cash game.

1 x 120
5 x 240
25 x 120
100 x 20

Freezeout Tournament - T300 on starting blinds 1-1 (300BB)

Starting stacks (up to 8 players) :
T1 x 15
T5 x 12
T25 x 8

Starting stacks (9-10 players) :
T1 x 10
T5 x 13
T25 x 8

You color-up the T1 with T25 and T5 with T100.

Rebuy Tournament - T200 on starting blinds 1-1 (200BB)

Starting stacks (up to 8 players) :
T1 x 15
T5 x 12
T25 x 4

Starting stacks (9-10 players) :
T1 x 10
T5 x 13
T25 x 4

Rebuy = T5 x 5 + T25 x 7
You color-up the T1 with T25 and T5 with T100.

Cash game - 100 on blinds 1-1

Up to 6 players :
First buyin : 1 x 20 + 5 x 16
Next 7 rebuys : 5 x 20
Next 30 rebuys : 25 x 4
Then next 20 rebuys : 100 x 1

--> almost 10 buyins per player

Up to 8 players :

First buyin : 1 x 15 + 5 x 17
Next 5 rebuys : 5 x 20
Next 30 rebuys : 25 x 4
Next 20 rebuys : 100 x 1

--> more than 7 buyins per player

9-10 players :

First buyin : 1 x 10 + 5 x 18
Next 3 rebuys : 5 x 20
Next 30 rebuys : 25 x 4
Next 20 rebuys : 100 x 1

--> still more than 5 buyins per player

And then you can decide how much is worth a full buyin.
Ex. if playing NL5, a player buys 100 chips for $5 and for instance a player wants to cash-out 250 chips, (s)he will receive $12.50 (= (250/100) * $5).

I know it's not perfect but this is quite flexible and really working if the limitations are fine for you (T1 tournament is not for everyone and playing 100BB cash game).

I don't know your budget, but @Poker3254 sells something quite in-line with this breakdown.

 

[CSW]

Thank you guys for taking the time to provide input. Apologies if the chart was confusing for y'all. I tried to be as clear as I could, but I guess my brain organizes things a bit differently.

@Phoe9x , I appreciate the alternative suggested breakdown. I will consider that. My only concern with this specific group is that playing 5/10 with only 50 cents in nickels may be pretty frustrating on the change-making front. It is quite easy for a hand in this group to be limped around pre-flop, then min-bet on all three streets, at which point you end up with a bunch of players left with only 1 big blind worth of nickels for the next hand. Then, the player with all the nickels makes change for everyone, only to rinse and repeat a few hands later. It would be different in a more experienced game with more open raising and larger post-flop sizes, where the need for nickels is less pronounced.

@Kid_Eastwood , I have never considered a set like this before. It is an interesting concept, and I'll take a look.

 

[springbox]

I'm going to agree 200 5s/nickels is just too many, both for cash and tournament. 100 is really sufficient, but I understand with limp happy players you might want more. I wouldn't go over 150, 15 per player is enough, and as people play more they'll get better at change making and learn to call with an oversize chip, and hopefully understand that betting min betting the river is nonsense.

I'd change your tournament stacks to 15/13/6/2, giving the following minimums

150 x 5
130 x 25
100 x 100 (60+40 color up chips)
20 x 500

So for 400 chips you can run the tournament, but with no rebuys. I'd add more 500s to support a few rebuys, then beef up the 25s and 100s for cash purposes.

150 x 5
150 x 25
150 x 100
50 x 500

Cash buy-ins being 15/13/6/0. Personally I typically hand out starting stacks of 10/18/5 for a $10 game.

I listed in multiples of 25 because many chips are sold in those quantities, but if you can do 20s maybe cut 10 500s and add 10 5s. That will let you hand out a barrel of nickels for up to 8 players.

 

[CSW]

Thanks, @springbox . Very helpful thoughts. After looking closer at this and considering everyone's feedback, I think I'm going to cut 60 nickels from my initial plan and add those as dollars. (I'm ordering in multiples of 20 because I am a sucker for even barrels, and because I'm ordering semi-custom ceramics from BRPro, so I am not limited to multiples of 25.)

So, the order will be:

140 x 5s
160 x 25s
160 x 100s
40 x 500s

That allows my sister to do starting stacks of either 15/13/11/1 or 15/13/6/2 with up to 9 players (I don't think she has gotten to 10 players yet, and hopefully by the time she does, some or all of the players will get better at the game and more comfortable with making change, so she can use stacks of 10/14/x/x.) It also has enough extra quarters to compensate for any potential shortage of nickels. It has enough high-denom chips for coloring up (when the game gets sophisticated enough for that). And it creates a total bank of $407, which is plenty for a game that is unlikely to rise above a $25 buy-in any time soon.

And, as a bonus, it allows room for the game to grow to a .25/.25 blind game (with starting stacks of 16/16/x).

Finally, since these are semi-custom BRPro chips, it shouldn't be too hard for her to supplement with more of any denom if she ends up needing them.

Thanks again, everyone. I really do value this community. Some folks on here saved me from making some very costly errors in my custom CPC set a couple of years ago, and I have been thrilled with how the set ultimately took shape.