Hello PCF friends,
I am thrilled to share that I have began the development of my Tiger Palace Primary T1 tournament set. My goal is to accommodate ~40 players for multi-table tournaments by the end of this year, with further plans to expand to around 80 players by Summer 2025. I would be grateful for any insights regarding starting stack distributions, tournament structures, and chip denomination counts. I'm amazed at how knowledgeable the members here at PCF are, and I greatly appreciate the supportive atmosphere here. Please feel free to share your thoughts on any, or even all, of the questions below. Thank you all in advance for all the guidance and expertise you guys provide.
The outstanding chips have already been sourced, just waiting for money to move from Canada to USA for payment settlement. This is not a wanted post.
Questions I am thinking about:
Chips Pic:
Relevant threads on T1 structures:
15/12/9/7 T1000 starting stack recommendation by BGinGA: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/thre...rnament-set-stacks-t1-base.44089/post-1134244
10/13/5/1 T300 starting stack recommendation by BGinGA: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/thre...ment-400-300-200-75-25-set.98968/post-2049623
15/12/9 T400 starting stack recommendation by BGinGA: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/opinions-needed-poker-chip-breakdown.124017/#post-2549679
3hrs T500 starting stack STT structure by TX_Golf_N_Poker: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/thre...aying-t1-base-tournaments.108888/post-2247883
3hrs T500 starting stack STT structure by BGinGA: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/t-1000-deepstack-t1-base.32014/post-586508
I am thrilled to share that I have began the development of my Tiger Palace Primary T1 tournament set. My goal is to accommodate ~40 players for multi-table tournaments by the end of this year, with further plans to expand to around 80 players by Summer 2025. I would be grateful for any insights regarding starting stack distributions, tournament structures, and chip denomination counts. I'm amazed at how knowledgeable the members here at PCF are, and I greatly appreciate the supportive atmosphere here. Please feel free to share your thoughts on any, or even all, of the questions below. Thank you all in advance for all the guidance and expertise you guys provide.
These chips will be felted during weekly free events at my local University’s poker club (I’m an Alumni there) and possibility at smaller events on the main campus of the University’s poker club. This is not a “wanted thread”, just looking for advice on what I need to buy before I post a “wanted thread”.
| Denomination | Target Quantity | Starting Stack ($400) | Chips needed for 40 | Notes |
| $1 | 600 (200 secured) | 15 | 600 | |
| $5 | 500 (100 secured) | 12 | 480 | |
| $25 | 300 (200 secured) | 6 | 240 | |
| $100 (NCV) | 200 (200 Secured) | 2 | 80 | |
| $500 | TBD | N/A | TBD | To be decided if needed |
| $0.25 | 100 (100 secured) | N/A | N/A | May relabel the $0.25 as $1,000 chips. |
The outstanding chips have already been sourced, just waiting for money to move from Canada to USA for payment settlement. This is not a wanted post.
Questions I am thinking about:
- Based on the current chip breakdown above, I am going to start with a 15/12/6/2 breakdown for $1/$5/$25/$100, for a total starting stack of $425. This might not be the optimal breakdown but will do for now to introduce players to these chips as early as December 2024.
- With that being said, is there a solved most optimal “T1 MTT tournament starting stack” that I can use? Target is 3.5hrs for 40~50 people (and 4.5hrs for ~80 people if I expand the set). If it matters, there are no antes, and at most only 3 or 4 rebuys in total each event (these are given out as prizes alongside bragging rights) so essentially a freeze out for most players. I will build the set toward this breakdown if one exists.
- I’m pretty much committed to a $300~$600 starting stack size but am flexible on the chip distribution. I cannot make the starting stack $1,000 with the 15/12/9/7 breakdown because the $100 chips are upwards of >$1.1k a rack. For budgetary reasons, if it is possible to leverage economies of scale with multiple tables I would like to reduce the amount of lower denomination chips players start with (but not so much so as to cause change making issues).
- I saw the following tournament blind structure recommendations for a STT $500 starting stack structure posted on this forum.
- Are there any nuances in adopting single-table structures to MTT structures? My thoughts are that tables run parallel so there shouldn’t be any material change in the total time of the tournament (at most maybe an extra level or two for final table).
- I may add a 1/2 breakdown to accommodate the newer players if time is not an issue, to let them play longer.
-
2/4
3/6
5/10
8/15
12/24
(Color up $1s)
20/40
30/60
50/100
75/150
(Color up $5s)
100/200
150/300
250/500
350/700
450/900
600/1200
Source: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/thre...aying-t1-base-tournaments.108888/post-2247883 -
2/4
3/6
4/8
6/12
8/16
(color up $1s)
10/20
15/30
20/40
30/60
40/80
(color up $5s)
50/100
75/150
100/200
150/300
200/400
300/600
Source: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/t-1000-deepstack-t1-base.32014/post-586508
- In terms of growth, the next “hurdles” in player count is 50 (large events at my regular venue) and 80 players (small events at the main campus). When it comes to growing the set…
- How many barrels of $500 chips will I need (if any) at this time (for ~40 players), and how many should I anticipate to need at ~80 players? Should these be acquired before any additional chips?
- In what order should I be looking to acquire additional chips? I have plenty of $1 and $5 chips, but few $25 and $100 chips for reference. Starting stacks can be modified as needed, the end goal though would be the stacks that you PCF experts recommend from Question #1.
- Is it rude to acquire sample sets to ‘cherry pick’ the chips I need and sell off the rest?
- I may consider making this a T0.25 set but that might be another discussion. It's a little bit easier acquiring the $0.25 fracs than the $100/Black NCV chips.
- Background: I wasn’t going to buy these students any more chips but after I bought T100k plaques for ~$10 each I figured I might as well buy these chips because they’re around the same price point at that point. We now use T20,000 china clay stacks for big events, but for smaller events they’re still using ~T500 stacks with T1 / T5 / T10 !?!/ T25 / T100 dice chips so figured this would be a nice upgrade.
- Security: I have cash sets these chips will not be used for cash.
- Chip Sizing & hotstamps: This might be uncultured but I will not consider 43mm chips nor hotstamped chips. I don’t like them.
- Denominations above $500: I don’t think I’ll need $1,000 chips but if I get any they would have to be relabeled yellow ones or yellow NCV ones. Doubt I’ll need more than barrel or two.
- T1 Structure: I get that T1 tourneys are unpopular on PCF and not used in casinos, but I like the way these chips are designed so we'll roll with it. Also it just so happens that the students were previously using this format too so it works out.
- Seating chips have been ordered in the latest group buy here.
- Budget: I’ll be in for ~$12.2k out of pocket by the end of this month, and to double from 40 ~ 80 may be another ~13k. This hobby is expensive.
Chips Pic:
Relevant threads on T1 structures:
15/12/9/7 T1000 starting stack recommendation by BGinGA: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/thre...rnament-set-stacks-t1-base.44089/post-1134244
10/13/5/1 T300 starting stack recommendation by BGinGA: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/thre...ment-400-300-200-75-25-set.98968/post-2049623
15/12/9 T400 starting stack recommendation by BGinGA: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/opinions-needed-poker-chip-breakdown.124017/#post-2549679
3hrs T500 starting stack STT structure by TX_Golf_N_Poker: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/thre...aying-t1-base-tournaments.108888/post-2247883
3hrs T500 starting stack STT structure by BGinGA: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/t-1000-deepstack-t1-base.32014/post-586508
