Dialing in My Home Cash Game Chip Set – $0.25/$0.50 Stakes Advice Needed (1 Viewer)

[John2121]

I’m putting together a cash game home set for 8-10 players with $0.25/$0.50 blinds and a $100 buy-in per player. I want to use 4 denominations: $0.25, $0.50, $1, and $5 chips. If less denominations is needed please let me know as well. How would you recommend breaking down the starting stacks and total bank, and what’s a good chip count per denomination to order for smooth play and rebuys?
Thank you all!
- J

 

[cpac54]

Delete the $0.50 and add a $20/$25 chip.

 

[Eriks]

25c x 100-200 - 100 is fine but if it’s a limpy game you might like to have more in play
$1 x 200
$5 x 200-400 - 200 is perfectly alright. Some will say double that or even more (which is ridiculous)
$25 x 80-100
$100 x 20 - prob not needed but if you wanna future proof/game plays big

 

[suchj0sh]

Delete the $0.50 and add a $20/$25 chip.

Yep. We do $50 buy-ins, so the $25 isn’t as important in my game. But with a $100 buy-in I think you’d want them.

Starting stack could be like:

$.25 - 8
$1 - 23
$5 - 10-15
$25 - 0-1

 

[upNdown]

25c x 100-200 - 100 is fine but if it’s a limpy game you might like to have more in play
$1 x 200
$5 x 200-400 - 200 is perfectly alright. Some will say double that or even more (which is ridiculous)
$25 x 80-100
$100 x 20 - prob not needed but if you wanna future proof/game plays big

This is correct

 

[allforcharity]

The simple calculation is 600 chips minimum for every 10-player table.
100 smallest chips to cover blinds
200+ each of your workhorses (the next two denoms)
Balance goes to highest denoms.

There is wiggle room. You can reduce a couple barrels of high denom to your workhorses if your bank needs aren't high. You can also drop the fracs to 80.

You can reduce fracs if their value is only half the workhorse, e.g. in a 0.50/1 game, you only need 40-60 half-dollars if you don't use quarters.

 

[Newenne]

This is the best summary thread I've seen for 25c/50c. Really good guidelines.
Nice pointers about the wiggle room to reduce high denoms and fracs.

Agree with all of it that you can make do with the above.

For this it would be minimum 600 chips to cover 10 players. My favourite 600 breakdown is
25c x 100
$1 x 200
$5 x 200
$25 x 80
$100 x 20

Starting stacks when I have this breakdown whilst hoping I have no more than 8 players:

25c x 12
$1 x 22
$5 x 15

When 9+ handed you would run out of fracs and dollars so you could give the 9th, 10th players more $5s and have them make change but that tilts me. Instead I would

25c x 8
$1 x 16
$5 x 16

ORRR

For my sets recently if I want more than to 'make do' it helps my OCD greatly if I can give a full barrel of quarters and $1s to each player as part of their first buy in (only).

So my starting stack is
25c x 20
$1 x 20
$5 x 15

So it starts to be 'nice to have':

700 chips
25c x 200
$1 x 200
$5 x 200
$25 x 80
$100 x 20

800 chips
25c x 200
$1 x 200
$5 x 300 (futureproofing as they become the workhorse in bigger stakes)
$25 x 80
$100 x 20

900 chips
25c x 200
$1 x 200
$5 x 400
$25 x 80
$100 x 20

1000 chips
25c x 200
$1 x 200
$5 x 400
$25 x 180
$100 x 20

Or you might like more higher denoms if gravitating away from low stakes. In which case you start to lose fracs as well.

 

[cpac54]

I used to be firmly in the “2 racks of fracs” camp, but I found that most of the fracs just end up sitting in one or two players stacks.

Nowadays I don’t put more than 120 into play for our 0.25/0.50 game.

I just give the first 6 players a full barrel with their buyin and the other players make change from them at the table. Way easier for me.

 

[jamesjkim]

I also like just 1 rack of fracs. I usually have 8 players and give everyone 12x $0.25. If I have 9, 7 players get 12x and 2 players get 8x. This is to avoid change making early.

most of the fracs just end up sitting in one or two players

Totally agree with this statement and change making is inevitable.

 

[suchj0sh]

I’ve been a whole barrel of fracs for everyone guy, but I’m having a game with my HSI secondaries this afternoon and using just 1 rack. Will report back with my thoughts later!

 

[detroitdad]

I’m putting together a cash game home set for 8-10 players with $0.25/$0.50 blinds and a $100 buy-in per player

These are the stakes and buy ins that my group plays.

I am sure this has already been said. PLEASE do not get .25 and .50 chips. It is a waste of your money, and effects the efficiency of the game.

I have multiple cash sets. They all pretty much use the below breakdown.

100 x .25
200 x 1
300 - 300 x 5
40 x 20 or 25

You will be able to play multiple stakes with this breakdown.

 

[Bacon Dad]

effects the efficiency of the game

What is meant by “efficiency”?
Is it time related?
Or is it a counting issue and better to just keep it stupid simple?

 

[detroitdad]

Is it time related?

yes

Or is it a counting issue

yes

stupid simple?

absolutely!

 

[TheBigTater]

600 is the minimum but 800 is the goldilocks amount.

100 x fracs for blinds (eliminate when higher stakes)
200 x $1
400 x $5 (200 minimum)
80 x $20 or $25 (160 x future proof)
20 x $100 (40 x future proof)

you may not use the $100's right away but the game stakes will eventually go up and with 400 x $5 it make adding on once higher stakes games kick in easy enough with just needing to adding a few more barrels of more $20/$25 or $100 and eliminating the fracs (of course until your stakes get much, much higher)

 

[Kam]

Agree with all of the above. I hosted a 8 player 0.25/0.5 $100 max buy in, match half the large stack game last night. 1 player bought in for $50, everyone else did $100. Multiple rebuys/add ons for 6 out of 8 players.

My micro-smallish stakes set is below - opposite of chip efficient:

100x NCV
200x $0.25
200x $1
400x $5
60x $25
40x$100

Planning a micro game in August with friends who’ve never played poker, so the NCVs will come into play then as probably 5c or 10c.

Last night, I went with these as the initial $100 starting stack, barrel of 0.25, barrel of $1s, 15x $5:

I prep the standard buy in amounts in racks, so easy to hand out as folk arrive/buy in.

The top 4 racks were my ‘reserve’:

After the initial buy ins, everyone got a barrel of $5s or whatever amount they add on for in $5s.

Big stack (who bought in for $100) was on a heater, got an All In bluff+ beat another caller for a 3 way pot:

His stacked end up like this at ~$500 basically 4 barrels of fracs by the end of the night that didn’t really get used in his stack. So to echo the comments above, they usually gravitate to one or two players:

At the end of the night, this was what was left in my reserve bank - I was surprised we even got that close to the $25s for a $0.25/$0.5 game, however half the table are used to playing higher stakes, so rebuys/add ons weren’t given a second thought:

I prefer having m0ar chips on the table, but the logic by everyone else is all correct and I think it comes down to personal preference. No one was knocking over stacks of fracs by accident or asking to chip up. I wouldn’t have an issue with that anyway.

You can certainly go with 2 racks of $5s and use the $25s. I might mix it up in the future and try with maybe 12 fracs per person and after the 3rd rack of $5s issue $25s and see if it makes any difference.

GL!

 

[upNdown]

You can certainly go with 2 racks of $5s and use the $25s. I might mix it up in the future and try with maybe 12 fracs per person and after the 3rd rack of $5s issue $25s and see if it makes any difference.

Personally I think 3 racks of fives are the sweet spot at these stakes, but that might be partly because I only have 8 seats at my table.

We play .25/.50 with buyins up to $100. I have 320 $5 chips and I’ve never gotten them all out on the table. I’ve have at least a couple of nights where we’ve had over two grand on the table - that’s a lot for those stakes. But at some point, I’ll always start selling $20 chips and maybe even the occasional $100, just because I like to see them in play.

 

[jamesjkim]

I like 2 racks of $5s because I could never get $25s or $100s in play otherwise lol.

 

[buzzmonkey]

For a similar game, I have

$0.25 - 120
$1 - 200
$5 - 300
$25 - 120
$100 - 60

We'll likely never get all of the $25s on the table and we may never see the $100s in play, but you never know.

 

[suchj0sh]

I’ve been a whole barrel of fracs for everyone guy, but I’m having a game with my HSI secondaries this afternoon and using just 1 rack. Will report back with my thoughts later!

I’m on team 1 rack of fracs now. I don’t feel like the change making was any more a burden than when everyone has a whole barrel to start.

 

[KHarp1]

I'm still in the "moar frac's" group just because I like more fracs, but, a really good number is 120, that gives you 12 per on a 10 player game.

We mostly play the same stakes, .25/.50, 100 buy in, some only buy once, some may go 5-6 deep, but, the $100's rarely see action, maybe a couple a game. 2 racks of 1's, 2 racks of 5's (always buy more racks of 5's, they'll see the most action over time, if you're budget allows) 3-4 barrels of 20/25's, and one barrel of 100's just incase a big game ever breaks out. That will cover you for most games at those stakes.

 

[CardRally]

@Kam, What and why are these? Thanks

 

[Tonystark137]

@Kam, What and why are these? Thanks
View attachment 1532296

Rabbit and an all in chip I think

 

[CardRally]

Rabbit and an all in chip I think

I’ve never seen a rabbit chip. Use it to reveal the turn/river when a hand ends on the flop/turn? So people aren’t constantly asking to see what would have come?

 

[Tonystark137]

I’ve never seen a rabbit chip. Use it to reveal the turn/river when a hand ends on the flop/turn? So people aren’t constantly asking to see what would have come?

Just a reason for more chips. Some hosts "sell" rabbit chips. or limit rabbit to not slow the game down.

 

[detroitdad]

$0.25/$0.50 blinds and a $100 buy-in per player. I want to use 4 denominations: $0.25, $0.50, $1

I host these stakes.

100 x .25
200 x 1
200 x 5
80 x 25
20 x 100

 

[Kam]

@Kam, What and why are these? Thanks
View attachment 1532296

I got 3 overlabel chips (you don’t need any of these, just an excuse to get more pretty chips on the table).

1. All In chip - I like m0ar chips, so folk can end up with messy stacks. This one does get used quite a lot, put it in vs 4/5 barrels of chips.
2. Rabbit Hunt - as others said. I give everyone a ‘free’ rabbit hunt chip. If you want to see the turn/river of a hand, then you can toss in the rabbit chip. After that, it’s 2x Big Blind to buy one or to rabbit hunt, and that amount is donated to the next pot. My players have all been extremely confused and ambivalent by this chip, but it serves it’s purpose which is to keep the pace going. We have 2 decks in rotation and get through more hands than if we stopped to rabbit hunt just to see if that flush got there etc… would recommend just having a rabbit hunt ‘fee’ vs a separate chip. Not sure if will keep.
3. NIT - on one side is ‘NIT’ for that game, on the other side is seating #. We used this a couple of times in the last game… we put the NIT button out, I got dealt pocket rockets immediately and loudly proclaimed in an Oscar-worthy fashion, ‘Well since it’s the NIT game, I’ll buy the pot’ and raised 20xBB pre. My aces got cracked about 60 seconds later after ending up all in on a 9-high flop. I kept the NIT button out…

 

[CardRally]

@Kam, thanks for the explanation! Certainly some great looking chips worthy of a place on the felt.
I’m definitely going to keep these ideas in mind the next time I see a shuffle stack for sale that I want buy don’t really need.

 

[Kam]

@Kam, thanks for the explanation! Certainly some great looking chips worthy of a place on the felt.
I’m definitely going to keep these ideas in mind the next time I see a shuffle stack for sale that I want buy don’t really need.

Yeah cool. The one other accessory chip some folk have is a ‘Show ‘em’ chip. So in theory you toss the chip out if someone won a hand and doesn’t need to show, but you reeaally want to know if they actually had it or were bluffing. After thinking through it, decided not to try that one, think folk are split on the others, but most don’t like the idea of being forced to show since it’s such a big part of the game.

GL!

 

[parazyd]

Yeah cool. The one other accessory chip some folk have is a ‘Show ‘em’ chip. So in theory you toss the chip out if someone won a hand and doesn’t need to show, but you reeaally want to know if they actually had it or were bluffing. After thinking through it, decided not to try that one, think folk are split on the others, but most don’t like the idea of being forced to show since it’s such a big part of the game.

GL!

Is this like a 1 chip per player per game kind of thing?

 

[Felt_Lizard]

Personally I think 3 racks of fives are the sweet spot at these stakes

Agree. $5's are becoming the new $1's.

Fracs are slowly being phased out and Vegas Casinos are already hot stamping all the $1's.

.25 and .50 are becoming the new 5c.