Cash Game Chip denomination breakdown (1 Viewer)

[darrnit]

Hello!

I am thinking of ways I could run a medium-stakes home cash game with micro-stakes chips I purchased recently. The goal is to start with a $50 buy-in then gradually increase to a larger game as players grow more comfortable. I have 400 chips total, with the following breakdown:

(100) 5c
(100) 10c
(100) 25c
(100) 50c

After brainstorming for a bit, I thought this breakdown would be best—for minimal confusion of chip values, solid bankroll, and playability:

25c —> 25c
50c —> 50c
5c —> $5
10c —> $10

I understand there are issues with this, most notably the jump from 50c to $5 and both 25c and 50c being in play. My line is reasoning is since I only have 100 of each some redundancy may be beneficial. Not confident on how this would play out.

Additional context that may be helpful (Feel free to critique!):
*Planning on taking a 5% rake off the top of every buy-in (Partially because logistically making a $47.5 starting hand is much easier with these breakdowns) and offering a free drink token to compensate
*Hoping to accommodate 8 players that have 0-2 years of experience playing poker
*Chips are NCC New China Club Mold chips that I got for $135, so additional chips would hopefully be in the same realm

Would love to hear some thoughts from your own experience and potentially breakdowns that make more sense for what I am trying to do. Also cautiously open to purchasing more chips but am trying to work with this until at least I build a semi-reliable player base.

Thanks so much!

 

[Cratty]

IMO bite the bullet now and buy chips with a proper breakdown/denoms.

 

[springbox]

Your starting chip choices are odd, and your new ones are also confusing. There's a reason the most common progression is 5c/25c/$1/$5/$25. Having 25c and 50c is redundant as they're very close together, ditto with $5 and $10. And then you have a 10x jump from 50c to $5? Why not just 25c/$1/$5/$25(or $20)? You'll get more use out of the same quantity of chips. 400 is also a bit light for an 8 player game, but workable if you're budget constrained. Agree with Cratty, probably just bite the bullet and get some new chips in denominations and quantities that make sense for your game.

Also, taking a rake will generally be unpopular here, although usually a rake is an amount subtracted from each pot not from buy-ins. You're better off with a door or seat fee, which may be acceptable depending on the level of service and supplies you're offering. Although a free drink token is odd, are people paying you for drinks past the first one? If you're tight on $ for hosting, just tell people it's BYOB, or say there's a $2.50~$5 seat fee to pay for drinks and snacks. If you're looking to make $ from hosting, I would not suggest it in general, but it's not workable for a $50 buy-in game anyway.

 

[allforcharity]

Redundancy is not beneficial, especially when fracs can easily be the most expensive part of a set.

Nickels and quarters if you do 0.05/0.10
Dimes and half dollars if you do 0.10/0.20

 

[darrnit]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

IMO bite the bullet now and buy chips with a proper breakdown/denoms.

I think I eventually will, hoping to save up money for it in the coming month. Do you think it would be best to get a whole new set or add on to this? To my understanding it seems only the 25c chips would be used for this sort of game.

Your starting chip choices are odd, and your new ones are also confusing. There's a reason the most common progression is 5c/25c/$1/$5/$25. Having 25c and 50c is redundant as they're very close together, ditto with $5 and $10. And then you have a 10x jump from 50c to $5? Why not just 25c/$1/$5/$25(or $20)? You'll get more use out of the same quantity of chips. 400 is also a bit light for an 8 player game, but workable if you're budget constrained. Agree with Cratty, probably just bite the bullet and get some new chips in denominations and quantities that make sense for your game.

Also, taking a rake will generally be unpopular here, although usually a rake is an amount subtracted from each pot not from buy-ins. You're better off with a door or seat fee, which may be acceptable depending on the level of service and supplies you're offering. Although a free drink token is odd, are people paying you for drinks past the first one? If you're tight on $ for hosting, just tell people it's BYOB, or say there's a $2.50~$5 seat fee to pay for drinks and snacks. If you're looking to make $ from hosting, I would not suggest it in general, but it's not workable for a $50 buy-in game anyway.

Yes, I agree my choices are odd. I may have overestimated the value of the chips sort of making sense in terms of what the chip reads. I was planning on charging for drinks just to cover them, not necessarily to profit. Your model may be more appealing for most, however.

Redundancy is not beneficial, especially when fracs can easily be the most expensive part of a set.

Nickels and quarters if you do 0.05/0.10
Dimes and half dollars if you do 0.10/0.20

How many nickels would be enough for a .05/.10 game with 8 people?

 

[springbox]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!


I think I eventually will, hoping to save up money for it in the coming month. Do you think it would be best to get a whole new set or add on to this? To my understanding it seems only the 25c chips would be used for this sort of game.


Yes, I agree my choices are odd. I may have overestimated the value of the chips sort of making sense in terms of what the chip reads. I was planning on charging for drinks just to cover them, not necessarily to profit. Your model may be more appealing for most, however.


How many nickels would be enough for a .05/.10 game with 8 people?

I usually hand out 10 nickels for my 5c/10c games, so 80. If you wanna do 15 per player you could go up to 120, but I find most people do their betting in quarters at 5c/10c.

 

[FreeBop59]

How many nickels would be enough for a .05/.10 game with 8 people?

Some threads I’ve found helpful for .05/.10, .10/.20, and .10/.25 include

@Quad Johnson’s Beginners Guide To Mapping Out Cash Sets:
https://www.pokerchipforum.com/thre...ut-a-cash-game-chip-set-5c-10c-to-5-10.30897/

10x 5c (50c)
18x 25c ($4.50)
15x $1 ($15)

This would be for a deeper (200 Big Blind) buy-in of $20 at .05/.10

@Kid_Eastwood ’s starting stacks for .10/.10 and .10/.20:
Post in thread '5¢/10¢ or 10¢/20¢'
https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/5¢-10¢-or-10¢-20¢.60666/post-1190443

A starting stack of NL20 is 20 x 10c / 10 x 50c / 13 x 1

This would be for a medium (100 Big Blind) buy-in of $20 at .10/.20

 

[Machine]

also you can find my New Members Start here link in my signature, and I have a Cash breakdown thread as well.

Happy chipping

 

[Colquhoun]

IMO, 5¢ chips are for 5¢/10¢ games, and that's it. If you want to play 10¢/20¢ or 10¢/25¢...just go right to 25¢/25¢, as they play almost identically and are far easier to manage as a player and as a host.

 

[Kentucky]

Welcome to the world of hosting.

I see a lot of conflicting thoughts in your OP. I think you need to work out what it is you want to do.

If you want to play some poker with friends. Have at it. Get some cheap chips from Amazon for ~10c a pop. That’s a set of 500 for one buy in and better than messing around with denominations that don’t work. Even crap poker is still poker. Heck, I love me some freeroll bar poker with dice chips.

If you want nicer chips then you’ve come to the right place. If you want your buddies to pay for them then it’s probably better to be up front about it and ask for donations instead of trying to take some off the top. Or just save up and buy them yourself (for the good of the game and because you like nice things).

If you’re charging to save up for chips, but trying to hide it by giving out a “free beer”, again I think you need to be up front.

If you’re charging $2.50 because you don’t have enough chips for a $50 buy in, that’s dumb…

In the end you’re hosting because you want to play more than your buddies so you’re prepared to make the effort they aren’t. And if you like playing and like nice things you’ll end up buying nicer chips and cards and all the rest. And you’ll tell yourself that you’re a winning player and that the chips you bought come out of your winnings. But you know that’s not true, not really. At least that’s what my friend told me. <cough>.