Tourney Tourney Coloring Up Advice (2 Viewers)

[PokerDogDoc]

I couldn’t find a previous thread discussing this adequately, so wanted to get some advice.

About to start my first monthly home T5000 MTT later this summer and struggling with coloring up.

Attached are screen shots of my proposed starting stack chip structure and blinds. Numbers in parentheses indicate total chips needed to make the max number of starting stacks. My current total chip stock is also noted. Seating up to 15, BB ante, no rebuys.

Questions:
1) When I color up T25 Green, do I also add in more of the T1000 Orange? Or is it better to just add in some T500 Purple?

2) When I color up T100 Black, I was definitely planning on bringing in T1000 Orange... but what about T5000 Pink (how many)?

3) Do I have enough chips to do this? In general, is there a “formula” for determining how many chips you need to be able to adequate color up?

I tried using the PCF forum chip calculator, but couldn’t get it to work for my scenario.

Thanks for the help...
-Clint

 

[ekricket]

I couldn’t find a previous thread discussing this adequately, so wanted to get some advice.

About to start my first monthly home T5000 MTT later this summer and struggling with coloring up.

Attached are screen shots of my proposed starting stack chip structure and blinds. Numbers in parentheses indicate total chips needed to make the max number of starting stacks. My current total chip stock is also noted. Seating up to 15, BB ante, no rebuys.

View attachment 644942

View attachment 644943

Questions:
1) When I color up T25 Green, do I also add in more of the T1000 Orange? Or is it better to just add in some T500 Purple?

2) When I color up T100 Black, I was definitely planning on bringing in T1000 Orange... but what about T5000 Pink (how many)?

3) Do I have enough chips to do this? In general, is there a “formula” for determining how many chips you need to be able to adequate color up?

I tried using the PCF forum chip calculator, but couldn’t get it to work for my scenario.

Thanks for the help...
-Clint

You just have to make sure that you have enough of the chip you are coloring up to can cover all the denominations below it. For example if you color up to $100’s make sure you have enough $100 to cover all the 25 and 5’s. You can buy some from the table too if you don’t have enough.

Ypur goal should be to color up to chips that you won’t have to take off later. Sometimes, like at the $100 level it’s ok to give out one or two singles, but I ududakly make people round up to 1000 if they are 600 or more. No point in putting 500’s on if your just going to take them off never used 4 levels later.

 

[Kid_Eastwood]

I couldn’t find a previous thread discussing this adequately, so wanted to get some advice.

About to start my first monthly home T5000 MTT later this summer and struggling with coloring up.

Attached are screen shots of my proposed starting stack chip structure and blinds. Numbers in parentheses indicate total chips needed to make the max number of starting stacks. My current total chip stock is also noted. Seating up to 15, BB ante, no rebuys.

View attachment 644942

View attachment 644943

Questions:
1) When I color up T25 Green, do I also add in more of the T1000 Orange? Or is it better to just add in some T500 Purple?

2) When I color up T100 Black, I was definitely planning on bringing in T1000 Orange... but what about T5000 Pink (how many)?

3) Do I have enough chips to do this? In general, is there a “formula” for determining how many chips you need to be able to adequate color up?

I tried using the PCF forum chip calculator, but couldn’t get it to work for my scenario.

Thanks for the help...
-Clint

1) T1000.
2) T1000 too. T5000 shall be for T500.

 

[PokerDogDoc]

You just have to make sure that you have enough of the chip you are coloring up to can cover all the denominations below it. For example if you color up to $100’s make sure you have enough $100 to cover all the 25 and 5’s. You can buy some from the table too if you don’t have enough.

Ypur goal should be to color up to chips that you won’t have to take off later. Sometimes, like at the $100 level it’s ok to give out one or two singles, but I ududakly make people round up to 1000 if they are 600 or more. No point in putting 500’s on if your just going to take them off never used 4 levels later.

Thanks, ekricket... Good advice on not putting chips into play that will be soon be taken off... my idea was similar to yours at the "Green" color up... not many T100s, mostly getting the stacks of T25s off with the player adding in a few T100s and replace them with T500s (+/- T1000s, as needed).

And it would seem to me that I've got enough chips to cover that color up.... would you agree?

1) T1000.
2) T1000 too. T5000 shall be for T500.

Thanks, Kid... I wasn't really planning to stop play and color up the T500s given the relatively short duration of the tourney, but maybe we could do it on a case-by-case basis based on stack size.... do you ever do that?

Also, I'd like to keep at least some of the T500s in play when we're at the 1k/2k blind level... I know that personally I like to be able to make bets that are in some fraction of the SB amount (i.e. a bet of $4500 (2.5 BB) wouldn't be possible if you color up all the T500s and only have T1000 and T5000 in play.... your thoughts on this?

 

[ekricket]

Thanks, ekricket... Good advice on not putting chips into play that will be soon be taken off... my idea was similar to yours at the "Green" color up... not many T100s, mostly getting the stacks of T25s off with the player adding in a few T100s and replace them with T500s (+/- T1000s, as needed).

And it would seem to me that I've got enough chips to cover that color up.... would you agree?


Thanks, Kid... I wasn't really planning to stop play and color up the T500s given the relatively short duration of the tourney, but maybe we could do it on a case-by-case basis based on stack size.... do you ever do that?

Also, I'd like to keep at least some of the T500s in play when we're at the 1k/2k blind level... I know that personally I like to be able to make bets that are in some fraction of the SB amount (i.e. a bet of $4500 (2.5 BB) wouldn't be possible if you color up all the T500s and only have T1000 and T5000 in play.... your thoughts on this?

Sure, I just wouldn’t leave stacks and stacks, but sounds like you are on top of that. The main goal of the whole thing is to make larger bets at the end of the tourney easier to count.
I know people that if the blinds were 5000/10000 and they had 40 5000 chips in front of them and no color up would still try to make that call with uneven stacks of 25, 100’s and maybe one 5000.

 

[Kid_Eastwood]

Thanks, ekricket... Good advice on not putting chips into play that will be soon be taken off... my idea was similar to yours at the "Green" color up... not many T100s, mostly getting the stacks of T25s off with the player adding in a few T100s and replace them with T500s (+/- T1000s, as needed).

And it would seem to me that I've got enough chips to cover that color up.... would you agree?


Thanks, Kid... I wasn't really planning to stop play and color up the T500s given the relatively short duration of the tourney, but maybe we could do it on a case-by-case basis based on stack size.... do you ever do that?

Also, I'd like to keep at least some of the T500s in play when we're at the 1k/2k blind level... I know that personally I like to be able to make bets that are in some fraction of the SB amount (i.e. a bet of $4500 (2.5 BB) wouldn't be possible if you color up all the T500s and only have T1000 and T5000 in play.... your thoughts on this?

15 players, T5000, if freezeout, you shall expext the game to end around level 1500-3000 or 2000-4000. So maybe for the last level they could be colored-up.

 

[PokerDogDoc]

expext the game to end around level 1500-3000 or 2000-4000. So maybe for the last level they could be colored-up.

Yeah, that’s what the tournament generator came up with as the last level (it’s the “starred” level on my screen shot)...
600 chips just seemed like a small tourney set for up to 15 people, but given my structure I think I should be good.
Thanks for the feedback and input.

 

[BGinGA]

Color-up your T25 chips by introducing (up to) 5x T1000 chips, pending the number of total entries/players.

Color-up your T100 chips by introducing (up to) 18x T1000 chips. You're going to need all of those extra 23x T1000s in play once the T1000 becomes the workhorse chip.

And because of that, I'd personally also remove some of those 90x T500s at the same time (during the T100 color-up), using your last 12x T1000 chips to get them into play. The remaining T500s can be replaced with T5000s later.

 

[PokerDogDoc]

Hmmm... I hadn’t thought of doing it that way, but it makes a lot of sense.

Seems to me that coloring up by adding chips 3 levels up from the ones being removed on the initial color up, instead of 2, keeps the chips “ahead” of the play rather than trying to always catch up.

Nice concept. Thanks!

 

[Taghkanic]

For example if you color up to $100’s make sure you have enough $100 to cover all the 25 and 5’s. You can buy some from the table too if you don’t have enough.

Well, you can use some larger denoms in there as well... For players who are up a lot at the break, and already have plenty of chips to make change at the next level, I will tend to color them up to something higher, sometimes even taking off some of their color-ups if they’ve got a ton (or if I can use more to color up shorter stacks).

With shorter stacks I’ll tend to color them up to chips most likely to get into play right after the break.

 

[PokerDogDoc]

Well, you can use some larger denoms in there as well... For players who are up a lot at the break....

With shorter stacks I’ll tend to color them up to chips most likely to get into play right after the break.

Good idea... and I’m definitely understanding this is as much art as it is science, and also dependent on the individual players’ chip stacks.

Wish my local poker club did this... the dealers are taught to put bigger chips into play by swapping out/coloring up on the fly from the pot (during a hand). No problem with that in general I suppose, as it’s designed to keep the play moving along, but sometimes they are a bit overzealous and players are forced to constantly get change from each other as there are too many high denomination chips in play.

That’s why I’m looking to find a good balance.

 

[Taghkanic]

sometimes they are a bit overzealous and players are forced to constantly get change from each other as there are too many high denomination chips in play.

Agree, I hate a game where change has to be made every hand, sometimes almost every street, just to satisfy some purist urge to use the absolute fewest chips possible... It slows things down a ton, especially in a self-dealt game. It also can lead to confusion about bet sizes. (Guy at one end of the table uses a big chip to make a small bet; guy on the other end doesn’t hear properly/isn’t paying attention and thinks villain made a huge overbet, etc.)

This is why I sometimes get perplexed by the threads which try to devise the fewest number of chips and starting stacks necessary for a game. Sure, if one is truly hanging by a thread budget-wise, I get it. And of course there is no need to overspend on a wildly excessive bank. And of course the exercise has a certain intellectual fascination...

But let’s be honest, if money is tight, buying high-end poker chips to host games should probably not be on the menu in the first place.

Anyway: As a host, it’s no fun sweating whether there are enough chips in the box for every situation that might come up. Plus home/amateur players tend to feel more comfortable and have more fun if they have decent size stacks (within reason) even though the actual chip count is the same. So I tend to go maybe 15-20% bigger on set sizes than is technically necessary. /rant

 

[PokerDogDoc]

@Taghkanic .... ^^^ What you said!

And to your other point, it’s why I’ve got more of these now-discontinued chips coming that I picked up at a great discount price here on PCF.

I’ll be able to pad my current set just a bit so I don’t have to sweat shortages, and I’ll sell any excess stacks here.

PCF members have been a great resource for developing my interest in poker chips, helping me choose the right “first set” of chips for my needs and budget, and giving great input and feedback. Happy to be part of the community!