What is the perfect chip mix (600 chips) for a 1/2 or 5/10 cash game? (1 Viewer)

[rendangzi]

The bank being short (intentionally or accidentally, among friends or not) due to chip count issues isn't a problem until it is, and then it's a big one not easily (or inexpensively) corrected.... just sayin'. Only a fool doesn't consider game security --- and your game, you, and your players all deserve it. Most will expect it.

Done up front, It's the cheapest way of doing business. Dealing with it after-the-fact is costly, and may even wreck the game.

Long-term, get 800 chips, which should easily cover both of your games and easily fit in a 1000-ct display carrier:

100 x $1
300 x $5
200 x $25
100 x $100
100 x $500

Yup, will top up a rack of $25s. Will evaluate if there's any merit in having more 5$ at the table after a few weeks of using this denomination set-up. Previously my games had always had $10s in them so this will require some testing

 

[doublebooyah85]

I have a set for similar stakes, but my game is definitely smaller than yours. I think to play 5/10hkd with straddles up to 80, and potentially 30 rebuys you need a bigger bank than my set is made for.

My set is for stakes from 1/2- 5/10 or maybe even a small 10/20 game. Total bank is 24100.(+8000 with the 4 plaques if needed for value storage on crazy nights)

1x 100
5x 200
25x 200
100x 80
500x 20
(+4 plaques. 3x 1000 and 1x 5000)

I think it's an American thing to have racks and racks of chips on the table. Obviously it would be fun for me as well, as a chip lover, but IMO not necessary to have a functional game. It comes down to what people are used to, and how they are used to using the chips for betting. For example in my game some people are annoyed if I give them a full barrel of 5s in the start stack, as they don't see the need for it. They would rather just get 10, and a couple of 25s to go with them. In the US people might use 16x $5 chips to put out an $80 bet. Over here people will certainly just use 3x $25 and a $5 for the same bet.

For a 5/10 buy in of 1000, I would do this for the first 10 buyins:
20x $5
10x $25
4x $100

Then the next 10 buyins with:
10x $25
5x $100

That means for the first 20 buyins (already quite a bit) you'd have used 200x $5, 200x $25, and 90x $100.

The next single buyin can be the remaining 10x $100s, and after that start using the $500s. With a full rack of $500s, you can handle another 50 buyins, which honestly seems like a pretty big overkill to me, so I would rather have more $25s on the table. The $25s will be used more, as the $500s are mostly for value storage and will mostly be used in the really big/all in pots. The $25s will be used in every pot, and it's therefore nice to have a bit more of those at the table to avoid having to make change between the players to often.

If you are certain you want to keep it within 600 chips and be able to run 1/2, I would probably do
100 x $1
180 x $5
180 x $25
100 x $100
40 x $500

Thats a total bank of 35 500. (35 buyins) if you want, add a handful of $1k and $5k chips to increase the bank a lot with very little cost just to be confident you have enough chips for the crazy nights.

Another more high denom heavy option is:
100 x$1
160 x$5
160 x $25
100 x$100
80 x$500

Total bank ~55000 / 55 buyins.

YES! RACKS AND RACKS!!!