Poker night breakdown opinions (2 Viewers)

Chipman22

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Hi all, I'm sorry if this is a topic you guys must be bored with but.....

I have a poker night next week and I'm expecting there to be 8 players.

Wanted to run my chip breakdown and distribution by you guys to see if it was OK.

So my current set is as follows:
25x200
100x300
500x100
1000x200
5000x200
25000x20

For the buyin I was thinking £35 which would get you £25000 starting stack in the following breakdown:
25x12
100x12
500x5
1000x6
5000x3

Pictures of this are attached.

Also I was thinking of running a cash game the week after this is my idea for the cash game breakdown:
£25 buyin gives you:
25x20
100x15
500x1

25chip is equal to 0.25
100chip is equal to £1
500chip is equal to £5

What do you guys think? Have I got it right???
And do I have enough to facilitate any rebuys? If I do what would a rebuy be the same amount as original buyin with same amount if chips.
Bit new to this as never held my own poker evening

Cheers for your help!!!!
 

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This video from another PCF'r is what you want. There are many opinions but I think his methodology is a pretty solid place to start.

For a 25¢ cash game, I do 12/12/3 for my pregame prep stacks 25 chips = $30 buyin stack.

12x25c
12x1.00
3 x 5.00

Min buyin is 25 but everyone buys in for 30~50$. This is a perfect starting point for me and I just add a couple 5s to the starting stacks to match the buyin they want as necessary. Feedback from players is this is better than when I gave out a barrel of quarters and dollars for 25$ stacks, there were just too many quarters in play.

I have been using a similar tournament set. Mine is
120x 25
120x 100
50x 500
70x 1000
20x 5000

Using this with the chips being 'cents' face value it gives me a $2,000 bank. Plenty for our one table 25/50 night. Your set is plenty big for this format, I found that nobody wanted more quarters or dollars on the table after the initial buys. Just stick to your 500s and 1000s for any rebuys and you should be good.

Preped for game night in the pic. Right 2 rows are 12/12/3,next to the left is 12/12/3/1 with an extra 1,000¢ for 40$stack, next two are 12/12/3/2. All 10 initial buyin everything after is a combo of my 20 remaining 500s (5$) 60x1000s(10$) or 20x 5000s (50$).
 

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Last edited:
Never ever use the same set as both a cash and tournament set.

For the most part, I agree with this, but couldn’t you theoretically do it as long as the denoms don’t play across both games? Example: Use $20s or nothing above 5s in the cash game and $25s in the tourney?
 
For the most part, I agree with this, but couldn’t you theoretically do it as long as the denoms don’t play across both games? Example: Use $20s or nothing above 5s in the cash game and $25s in the tourney?

As long as you do that it's fine. The risk is someone drops a 100 chip on the floor on tourney night, not found until cash night. Wouldn't even have to be malicious and the host is on the hook. As long as the tourney denoms are NEVER EVER redeemable for cash itls essentially two different sets.
 
I like having deeper stacks for cash games. Who doesn't like more chips on the table? Deeper stacks of chips and a higher perceived amount of cash on the table usually results in better action and a looser game. A 12/12/3 breakdown for a $30 buy in, for example as the OP outlines, is way too short stacked and may start out really tight, but as a couple of stacks dwindle, it delves into a shove fest quickly where hands are decided on sheer dumb luck rather than skill.

I'm no authority on the matter, as my crew and I tend to play micro stakes with $10 or $20 buy ins at a time though :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:
 

This video from another PCF'r is what you want. There are many opinions but I think his methodology is a pretty solid place to start.

For a 25¢ cash game, I do 12/12/3 for my pregame prep stacks 25 chips = $30 buyin stack.

12x25c
12x1.00
3 x 5.00

Min buyin is 25 but everyone buys in for 30~50$. This is a perfect starting point for me and I just add a couple 5s to the starting stacks to match the buyin they want as necessary. Feedback from players is this is better than when I gave out a barrel of quarters and dollars for 25$ stacks, there were just too many quarters in play.

I have been using a similar tournament set. Mine is
120x 25
120x 100
50x 500
70x 1000
20x 5000

Using this with the chips being 'cents' face value it gives me a $2,000 bank. Plenty for our one table 25/50 night. Your set is plenty big for this format, I found that nobody wanted more quarters or dollars on the table after the initial buys. Just stick to your 500s and 1000s for any rebuys and you should be good.

Preped for game night in the pic. Right 2 rows are 12/12/3,next to the left is 12/12/3/1 with an extra 1,000¢ for 40$stack, next two are 12/12/3/2. All 10 initial buyin everything after is a combo of my 20 remaining 500s (5$) 60x1000s(10$) or 20x 5000s (50$).
Dude youre awesome
 
I like having deeper stacks for cash games. Who doesn't like more chips on the table? Deeper stacks of chips and a higher perceived amount of cash on the table usually results in better action and a looser game. A 12/12/3 breakdown for a $30 buy in, for example as the OP outlines, is way too short stacked and may start out really tight, but as a couple of stacks dwindle, it delves into a shove fest quickly where hands are decided on sheer dumb luck rather than skill.

I'm no authority on the matter, as my crew and I tend to play micro stakes with $10 or $20 buy ins at a time though :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:
The set I use is actually exactly double what I listed above, I split it in half to run this exact experiment over a couple weeks of my weekend game since a player has expressed interest in buying half of it, which I always intended to sell when I bought the 800 piece set.

Having run the same set of chips with 20x quarters and 20x dollars as the starting stacks and also with 12/12/2~3 as the 25$+ alternative, all players agreed that playing 9 handed with 180 quarters and 180 dollars was too much. Yeah the stacks were bigger but you end up with a couple people with a majority of these that have either small stacks of 10 spread out taking up too much room or tall stacks that keep getting knocked over. Depending on your table size and the people playing you may get different results. Our game normally has at least a couple rebuys in the first couple hours and we found that 12x9 for 108 each 1s and quarters was much better than 180 each and there were minimal issues getting change made. Our game typically tops out around 1000$-1200$ in play and at some point in the evening I'm pulling some portion of those 108x 1s & .25s off the table at someone's request.

YMMV & if you have a 800+ set, which I do, and want to hand out barrels vs some other method I would ask the players "do you feel like there's too many quarters, or do you think we need to put more quarters on the table" and cater to them a little.
 
One rack of quarters is sufficient for a 1-table game. Up to 8 players can have 12 quarters each, and if 9-12 players then 8 quarters each. Allows you to spend more for workhorse chips like $5s. Change-making really isn't so bad - never really slowed the game down enough to notice. Besides, during a break you can take a minute to rebalance the quarters around the table, if you wish.
 
The set I use is actually exactly double what I listed above, I split it in half to run this exact experiment over a couple weeks of my weekend game since a player has expressed interest in buying half of it, which I always intended to sell when I bought the 800 piece set.

Having run the same set of chips with 20x quarters and 20x dollars as the starting stacks and also with 12/12/2~3 as the 25$+ alternative, all players agreed that playing 9 handed with 180 quarters and 180 dollars was too much. Yeah the stacks were bigger but you end up with a couple people with a majority of these that have either small stacks of 10 spread out taking up too much room or tall stacks that keep getting knocked over. Depending on your table size and the people playing you may get different results. Our game normally has at least a couple rebuys in the first couple hours and we found that 12x9 for 108 each 1s and quarters was much better than 180 each and there were minimal issues getting change made. Our game typically tops out around 1000$-1200$ in play and at some point in the evening I'm pulling some portion of those 108x 1s & .25s off the table at someone's request.

YMMV & if you have a 800+ set, which I do, and want to hand out barrels vs some other method I would ask the players "do you feel like there's too many quarters, or do you think we need to put more quarters on the table" and cater to them a little.
Agreed that it's game dependent. Players in our game actually prefer the big denom chips and often ask for the $25 chips before I even get halfway through the bank's 140 $5s. We also only roll with 100 quarters.
 
100 quarters (or any lowest denom in your cash game) is usually plenty for a single table -- just hand out a barrel of 20 chips each to the first five players to buy in, and let everybody else get change from them at the table.

Sorta pointless to have preset starting stacks in a cash game; not everybody buys in for the same amount, and even if they do, those chips start moving around table after the very first hand.
 
Never ever use the same set as both a cash and tournament set.
I hear what you're saying, but if I don't trust the people I'm inviting into my home for a friendly game of poker, then I have bigger problems. Do I also lock up the good china? Bolt my artwork to the wall? Hide everything else of any value in my home? Plus, if my guests are dishonest, then what's to stop them from just going online and buying a sleeve of $25 chips exactly like the ones I'm using?
 
I like having deeper stacks for cash games. Who doesn't like more chips on the table? Deeper stacks of chips and a higher perceived amount of cash on the table usually results in better action and a looser game. A 12/12/3 breakdown for a $30 buy in, for example as the OP outlines, is way too short stacked and may start out really tight, but as a couple of stacks dwindle, it delves into a shove fest quickly where hands are decided on sheer dumb luck rather than skill.

I'm no authority on the matter, as my crew and I tend to play micro stakes with $10 or $20 buy ins at a time though :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:
I like your thinking here. I'm looking at micro stakes games too. I'm assuming you're doing nickel/dime blinds. Do you happen to have 5 cent chips? I was hoping to find a set I liked with nickels, but no luck yet. So my plan was to use the $5 chip as the nickel. Or maybe buy a couple hundred el-cheapo 5s from a different set? So what is your distribution when you play micro stakes?
 
I hear what you're saying, but if I don't trust the people I'm inviting into my home for a friendly game of poker, then I have bigger problems.

Here a situation that can happen that requires no dishonesty. T25 chip gets dropped one night unnoticed. Next game is cash night. Player drops chips in the same corner, picked them all up including the one from tournament night without thinking about it. Host is now on the hook for this and it's totally preventable by separating the sets.

And yes, I know we want to believe our friends are trustworthy and will stay so forever, but sometimes people change in ways we don't always notice.

Plus, if my guests are dishonest, then what's to stop them from just going online and buying a sleeve of $25 chips exactly like the ones I'm using?

Well now you have answered the question of why you shouldn't use stock chips with large denominations.
 
Here a situation that can happen that requires no dishonesty. T25 chip gets dropped one night unnoticed. Next game is cash night. Player drops chips in the same corner, picked them all up including the one from tournament night without thinking about it. Host is now on the hook for this and it's totally preventable by separating the sets.

And yes, I know we want to believe our friends are trustworthy and will stay so forever, but sometimes people change in ways we don't always notice.



Well now you have answered the question of why you shouldn't use stock chips with large denominations.
I suspect that 95% of home games are played with stock chips. And yet, I'm not seeing anyone posting to "never ever play cash games with stock chips." So why bother to say "never ever use the same set for cash and tournament games." There will always be exceptions to the rule, so wouldn't it be better to just warn people of the risks without all the drama?
 
I hear what you're saying, but if I don't trust the people I'm inviting into my home for a friendly game of poker, then I have bigger problems. Do I also lock up the good china? Bolt my artwork to the wall? Hide everything else of any value in my home? Plus, if my guests are dishonest, then what's to stop them from just going online and buying a sleeve of $25 chips exactly like the ones I'm using?

No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying, as a host, you have a responsibility to your players to keep your game secure. It doesn't matter even if someone wants to cheat, you can just about eliminate the possibility with a little preparation.
 
No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying, as a host, you have a responsibility to your players to keep your game secure. It doesn't matter even if someone wants to cheat, you can just about eliminate the possibility with a little preparation.
I'm very interested in this subject, but it's off-topic for this thread, and I apologize for hijacking it. Is there another thread where this is discussed in detail?
 

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