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The Beginners Guide To Mapping Out A Cash Game Chip Set - 5c/10c to $5/$10 (8 Viewers)

LeLe said:
Yup this is more than enough 600 chip usually can cover up to 3 stake level
Click to expand...
I am a little torn on what 600 chip breakdown to go for if it needs to be in increments of 25:
100 x €0,05
125 x €0,25
200 x €1
125 x €5
50 x €25
Or
100 x €0,05
150 x €0,25
225 x €1
100 x €5
25 x €25

Any other (better) suggestions?
 
P0k3rch1p said:
Thanks!

So this would suffice?
100 x €0,05
120 x €0,25
220 x €1
120 x €5
40 x €25
Click to expand...
Looks good to me if you're after equal starting stacks for everyone, as I am myself.

You can minmax it a little more if you don't care if every player starts out with the exact same starting stack composition, but that's personal preference. I'd just throw some extra higher denom chips in if I felt it was close, but wouldn't cut down the low-denom chips so much to force me to give out different stack compositions to people.

E: Definitely don't start with the "multiples of 25/50/X" shit. You can do that if you have lots of extra cash to spend on chips, but then you'll do that with multiples of 100. And the multiples-of-25 thing is particularly stupid for most denoms. If you pull that with 25c chips you never end up with a good number when you sum up the denoms. You essentially have 5+ chips lying around that will rarely see use.
 
Last edited:
I'm currently considering buying a 500 chip cash game set and can't really make up my mind which denominations I should choose. As background info, most of the games played will be 0,20€/0,40€ with 20€ buy-ins. Currently the chips in play are 20c, 1€, 2€, 5€ and 10€. Usually there are around 6-10 players involved. I think the maximum of total buy-ins for a single game has been around 500€ so far. I have been considering following as a base:

100 x 0,20€
100 (or 125) x 1€
75 (or 100) x 5€
50 x 10€
25 x 25€

How should I fill the remaining chips? Could I make the set to also support 0,10/0,20 games in some way by changing the distributions in the base and adding new values in between existing ones? Apparently the site I'm planning to order from doesn't limit the number of chips to intervals of 20 or 25.
The relevant possible values for the chips are 0.10, 0.20, 0.50, 1, 2, 5, 10 and 25. I think 50 is already bit out of reach for the games planned.
 
Definitely ditch the 10€ denomination, it's very inefficient. The step up from 5€ is just 2x and the step down from 25€ is also not that big. This is especially important if you don't want to buy too many chips. Also, the more different denominations are on the table at the same time, the harder it is to count out stacks and bets. (For the same reason, a 2€ or 50€ denomination is also not a good idea, the stepping is too small. If you were to add another denomination on top of the 25, you best use a 100€ chip)

You may want to double the amount of 1€ chips. The number of 20c chips is fine. For the 5€/25€/X denoms, you will want to compare the total value of those chips to the amount of cash that could end up on the table. Do keep headroom in mind - in case your games grow bigger in the future. If your current record for money on the table is 500€, aim for 1000-2000€. Try to fill with as many 5€ chips as you can and then top off the rest with 25€ chips to reach the target total chip value. (You always want a multiple of 5€ chips vs. 25€ chips, like at least 4 times as many 5€ chips as 25€ chips - this minimizes the need to make change.)

If you also want to support other microstakes, I would outright stay away from the odd 20c denomination and instead go with a 25c and 5c chip. That's the most flexible option. I would take 100x 5c and 120x 25c in that case, still aim for about 200x 1€ and again fill up the remainder mostly with 5€ chips and top it off with just enough 25€ chips to get to the target total chip value.
 
Defiantly agree with skipping the 10 as well. at these stakes I would guess your 0.2/1/5 chips will be the most common. If you are set on 500 chips just do 100/200/200 of 0.2/1/5. That will give you a bank of 1220. Or maybe 100/200/160/40 of 0.2/1/5/25 to boost the bank to 2020 (or 100/200/175/25 for a bank of 1720), but either will cover what you state your largest games are to date, and will offer some upward flexibility if the stakes go up.
 
If you really can't get a 5c chip and are bound to the denominations listed, then if you absolutely need to go lower than 20c/40c in stakes, you'd best take this limited set of denominations to make it halfway efficient: 10c/50c/2€/10€/50€.
 
For your kind of game, the 10E could very well be the top value chip, provided there are enough of them.
You could get a readily available $ 1/5/25/100 set (from filthy plastics all the way up to Paulsons) and play the values as Euro dimes.:)
 
Nex said:
If you really can't get a 5c chip and are bound to the denominations listed, then if you absolutely need to go lower than 20c/40c in stakes, you'd best take this limited set of denominations to make it halfway efficient: 10c/50c/2€/10€/50€.
Click to expand...
If you are looking for downward flexibility, but still prefer the common 1 and 5 denoms my set uses 0.10/0.50/1/5 and works pretty well. For 0.10-0.20 blinds I can use 100/60/240/100 of 0.10/0.50/1/5
 
I'm honestly impressed about the activity here in forum, thank you for all the answers!
Nex said:
If you also want to support other microstakes, I would outright stay away from the odd 20c denomination and instead go with a 25c and 5c chip. That's the most flexible option. I would take 100x 5c and 120x 25c in that case, still aim for about 200x 1€ and again fill up the remainder mostly with 5€ chips and top it off with just enough 25€ chips to get to the target total chip value.
Click to expand...
I probably need to stick with the 0,20€ chips since most of my games are these 0,20/0,40 games from our team's bus trips. Suggesting lower stakes could be considered (0,25/0,25 could actually work and give future flexibility into the set with possible additions) but I presume that most players still want to keep excitement of actually having a chance of winning something more than pocket changes and stick to old habits. That's why for example 0,05 chips maybe wouldn't get a too good reception in those games. It seems kind of clear that I can't combine flexibility to different microstakes with "only" 500 chip set so I'll leave micro chips for now and reconsider them again if I ever find myself in a home game group playing micros.

Currently the games are being played on an old dice set, which probably explains so many denominations at the moment because of color distribution, and it also poses problems with worn dark blue and black chips when it gets dark. I guess many colors give the chance of having close values and reduce number of chips in play. I kind of understand that aspect but at the same time I've managed to get confused with the values as I'm most often the person calculating side pots so I'll take the matter into my own hands and ditch the close values that exist at the moment for some reason or another. I'll just deal with the whining about new chips myself if that happens. :)
 
I'm honestly impressed about the activity here in forum, thank you for all the answers!

I probably need to stick with the 0,20€ chips since most of my games are these 0,20/0,40 games from our team's bus trips. Suggesting lower stakes could be considered (0,25/0,25 could actually work and give future flexibility into the set with possible additions) but I presume that most players still want to keep excitement of actually having a chance of winning something more than pocket changes and stick to old habits. That's why for example 0,05 chips maybe wouldn't get a too good reception in those games. It seems kind of clear that I can't combine flexibility to different microstakes with "only" 500 chip set so I'll leave micro chips for now and reconsider them again if I ever find myself in a home game group playing micros.

Currently the games are being played on an old dice set, which probably explains so many denominations at the moment because of color distribution, and it also poses problems with worn dark blue and black chips when it gets dark. I guess many colors give the chance of having close values and reduce number of chips in play. I kind of understand that aspect but at the same time I've managed to get confused with the values as I'm most often the person calculating side pots so I'll take the matter into my own hands and ditch the close values that exist at the moment for some reason or another. I'll just deal with the whining about new chips myself, if that happens. :)
 
For 20c/40c stake game, the recommend breakdown for 500 chip set is

100 x 20c
200 x $1
100 x $5
100 x $20

Giving you $2600 in bankroll, swap a barrel of $20 for $100 if you think you need more bankroll

However getting 20c denomination will be hard as they are very uncommon denomination, 25c on the other hand are common
 
LeLe said:
However getting 20c denomination will be hard as they are very uncommon denomination, 25c on the other hand are common
Click to expand...

It wasn’t that difficult after quick googling to find a supplier with Euro denominations. To be honest, there are still not many them but they do exist in Europe. Euros as a currency have 0,20 coins instead of 0,25’s USD has, which apparently is the basis for most of the cash sets available.
 
Singapore don’t have 25c coin too, we have 10c 20c 50c $1. But I don’t think I ever seem any 20c denomination in Asia, I did see a lot of 50c chip rather than 25c around here

I mostly play 10/20c or 50c/$1 to $1/$1 stake so sometime we just convert all denomination value down like $1 as 10c & $5 as 50c for lower stake
 
Quad Johnson said:
If it were me, I would increase the number of quarters and ditch the nickels all together. I would personally do a 25c/25c game before 10c/25c just to reduce chip denoms.

For 25c/25c, I would get chips as follows.

Starting Stack
20x 25c ($5.00)
20x $1 ($20)

Initial buy in is easy peasy, one barrel of quarters and one barrel of dollars. Anything beyond that (up to $50/200 big blind buy in) can be $5 chips.

I would get for the total count about 550 chips total.

200x 25c ($50)
200x $1 ($200)
100x $5 ($500)
50x $25 ($1,250)

Total Bank: $1,750
Click to expand...
New to the forum and know this is an old post but just ordered chips (before doing enough research cause I was impatient) and this is exactly what I ordered. Better lucky than good!
 
This has been really useful for scoping out my next set, seeing how useful it is to have 600 versus 500, would rather be looking at them than for them

Thanks!
 
You’re heaven sent with this post / breakdown. You’ve saved me so much time using this thread for my games.

THANK YOU!


Side note:
My ocd needle moved a bit here,
5x $1 ($5)
14x $5 ($70)
13x $25 ($325)
1x $100 ($600) — $100 edit
 
P0k3rch1p said:
Thanks for a great summary and input!

I am considering convincing the group to up the blinds and just play 0.25/0.25 so I can ditch the 0.05 chips altogether. Should run even more smoothly. I see the original thread starter mention a breakdown of a 0.10/0.25 game but not of a 0.25/0.25 game.

How many chips (breakdown of 500) in increments of 25 do you suggest If we only play 0.25/0.25 and which starting stacks?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Hey all! Great information. I have a question, though! This is all great, but do the blinds in a cash game stay where they are? They don't move up like a tournament blind structure, right? Can't that just extend the night indefinitely if you don't move the blinds up as the night goes on? A straight .25/.50 blinds every hand doesn't seem like it would lend to fast play. I guess I am confused on how to run just a regular cash game. Ugh!
 
louBdub said:
You’re heaven sent with this post / breakdown. You’ve saved me so much time using this thread for my games.

THANK YOU!


Side note:
My ocd needle moved a bit here,
5x $1 ($5)
14x $5 ($70)
13x $25 ($325)
1x $100 ($600) — $100 edit
Click to expand...
Holy crap I can't believe the hits this thread has gotten. Glad to see it still lives. Thanks for catching that, 4 years later but fixed. Thank you!
 
Huskerdj49 said:
Hey all! Great information. I have a question, though! This is all great, but do the blinds in a cash game stay where they are? They don't move up like a tournament blind structure, right? Can't that just extend the night indefinitely if you don't move the blinds up as the night goes on? A straight .25/.50 blinds every hand doesn't seem like it would lend to fast play. I guess I am confused on how to run just a regular cash game. Ugh!
Click to expand...
No, the blinds never go up in a cash game. The amount of the blinds is how you know you’re in the right game for your budget, or how you know how much cash you should be prepared to loose.
But maybe you don’t really understand the nature of cash games. “Extend the night indefinitely” is exactly what happens - if you don’t pick a time to stop, like 1:00 AM, you might end up playing all night, and lots of people are good with that. It isn’t like a tournament, where somebody wins the tournament by winning all the chips. It’s more like, play for a while, see how much you can win.
 
Huskerdj49 said:
Hey all! Great information. I have a question, though! This is all great, but do the blinds in a cash game stay where they are? They don't move up like a tournament blind structure, right? Can't that just extend the night indefinitely if you don't move the blinds up as the night goes on? A straight .25/.50 blinds every hand doesn't seem like it would lend to fast play. I guess I am confused on how to run just a regular cash game. Ugh!
Click to expand...
To explain a cash game you need to understand Recursion, to understand recursion you must first understand recursion, here is an illustration:

giphy.gif
 
Machine said:
OMFG WE MISSED YOU WB!!!!!!!!

We put you in the New Members Start Here thread
Click to expand...
Thanks for the love. Life changes happened and my game fell apart (hosting problems). We are having our first game in some time with the old boys this weekend so I actually logged in to access this very thread. Was surprised to see 4 pages and 18k views. lol
 
upNdown said:
No, the blinds never go up in a cash game. The amount of the blinds is how you know you’re in the right game for your budget, or how you know how much cash you should be prepared to loose.
But maybe you don’t really understand the nature of cash games. “Extend the night indefinitely” is exactly what happens - if you don’t pick a time to stop, like 1:00 AM, you might end up playing all night, and lots of people are good with that. It isn’t like a tournament, where somebody wins the tournament by winning all the chips. It’s more like, play for a while, see how much you can win.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the clarification. I thought that was the case, but just wanted to confirm what I thought was correct with the experts here! :) Thanks again.
 
@v1pe busted out the Majestic set you sold me for tomorrows tournament. I still cherish them just as much as the day they came in the mail.
 

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