Poker Chip Breakdown for 10c/20c and beyond.. (1 Viewer)

[jcf1713]

Hey yall,

Me and some friends have started a twice monthly poker game. None of us are experts but we all enjoy the game. I've read the optimal chip breakdown and just wanted to get some thoughts.

- NLHE
- Usually it's between 6-10 people
- We do 10c/20c blinds with a $10 buy in. No limit on re-buys, and re-buys don't happen a lot at our games as of now.
- It's a pretty social and slow game, so we don't see a ton of hands either.

I've got a 500 chip dice set, but looking to upgrade to ThePokerStore's Olympus Chips 500 set.

Currently I'm thinking of using the Olympus like:
- $5 = 5c
- $10 = 10c
- $50 = 50c
- $100 = $1
- $500 = $5

I am still trying to figure out what denom's to use and how many of each. I'd like to stay flexible in case we start doing bigger blinds. There's been talk of us doing a $40 buy in to make things a little bit more interesting, but that would not be the normal. $10, or maybe eventually $20 will probably be the standard.

A few questions..
- Should I invest in the 5c (aka $5) chips? I'm not sure if we are ever going to play 5c/10c, since 10c/20c has been working for us. I guess this is a subjective question, but would love your thoughts on it.
- Should I keep the 10c chip or just go all out get a bunch of nickels instead? We've never had issues playing with color coded 10c & 20c chips.
- What do you think would be an ideal breakdown for 500 chips for our situation?

thanks for reading, can't wait to invest in some new chips!!!

 

[dinosaur]

Looks like you’re starting where I started. I would suggest get a $1/$2 set break down and expect to start playing .25/.25 after a little bit. So get a rack of quarters now or later.

It’ll look something like:

100 quarters (now or later)

200 dollars
200 fives (pcf minimum is like 400 but you only NEED 200)
80 twenty fives
20 hundos

This should cover your 10c/20c game with the 1s-100s. Divide by 10 for actual cash value.

And later if/when your game bumps up, you can have a 25c/25c set with no division needed.

Purchasing dimes was an unnecessary step that I took. Still have them, but rarely see them anymore. After you purchase your set with quarters, get out of here. Otherwise you will own more than you will ever need.

Best of luck.

If I did it over again - I’d wait a couple of months to see how things work around here and pick a full set that works for me and get out. But here I am like many others - trapped by the pretty colors.

 

[owlbee]

Hey yall,

Me and some friends have started a twice monthly poker game. None of us are experts but we all enjoy the game. I've read the optimal chip breakdown and just wanted to get some thoughts.

- NLHE
- Usually it's between 6-10 people
- We do 10c/20c blinds with a $10 buy in. No limit on re-buys, and re-buys don't happen a lot at our games as of now.
- It's a pretty social and slow game, so we don't see a ton of hands either.

I've got a 500 chip dice set, but looking to upgrade to ThePokerStore's Olympus Chips 500 set.

Currently I'm thinking of using the Olympus like:
- $5 = 5c
- $10 = 10c
- $50 = 50c
- $100 = $1
- $500 = $5

I am still trying to figure out what denom's to use and how many of each. I'd like to stay flexible in case we start doing bigger blinds. There's been talk of us doing a $40 buy in to make things a little bit more interesting, but that would not be the normal. $10, or maybe eventually $20 will probably be the standard.

A few questions..
- Should I invest in the 5c (aka $5) chips? I'm not sure if we are ever going to play 5c/10c, since 10c/20c has been working for us. I guess this is a subjective question, but would love your thoughts on it.
- Should I keep the 10c chip or just go all out get a bunch of nickels instead? We've never had issues playing with color coded 10c & 20c chips.
- What do you think would be an ideal breakdown for 500 chips for our situation?

thanks for reading, can't wait to invest in some new chips!!!

edited because I'm stupid

I'd go with the actual denoms printed:

100 x 5c
100 x 25c
200 x $1
100 x $5

 

[jcf1713]

Looks like you’re starting where I started. I would suggest get a $1/$2 set break down and expect to start playing .25/.25 after a little bit. So get a rack of quarters now or later.

It’ll look something like:

100 quarters (now or later)

200 dollars
200 fives (pcf minimum is like 400 but you only NEED 200)
80 twenty fives
20 hundos

This should cover your 10c/20c game with the 1s-100s. Divide by 10 for actual cash value.

And later if/when your game bumps up, you can have a 25c/25c set with no division needed.

Purchasing dimes was an unnecessary step that I took. Still have them, but rarely see them anymore. After you purchase your set with quarters, get out of here. Otherwise you will own more than you will ever need.

Best of luck.

If I did it over again - I’d wait a couple of months to see how things work around here and pick a full set that works for me and get out. But here I am like many others - trapped by the pretty colors.

Thanks so much!! This does seem like a great plan to help future-proof the set up.

I think the Olympus chips will satisfy my itch for a good while.. Or so I hope!!

edited because I'm stupid

I'd go with the actual denoms printed:

100 x 5c
100 x 25c
200 x $1
100 x $5

It's tempting but I think with the current blinds of 10c/20c, it may be a little much to have 4 chips just to equal the big blind?

 

[owlbee]

Thanks so much!! This does seem like a great plan to help future-proof the set up.

I think the Olympus chips will satisfy my itch for a good while.. Or so I hope!!



It's tempting but I think with the current blinds of 10c/20c, it may be a little much to have 4 chips just to equal the big blind?

Don't think using nickels only for 10c/20c is a problem.

Also, I don't think Olympus has a $50 chip. So doing what you want won't work, unless you want to have one chip equal face value while the others represent something else. Could cause confusion.

With a $10 buy-in a 20c big blind means only 50 big blinds. Quite a short stack.

Could keep it at $10 buy-in and decrease the blinds to 5c/10c for 100 big blind stacks.

Or increase the buy-in to $20/$25 and just go 25c/25c for blinds and not worry about nickels. I'd definitely recommend against getting both 5c and 10c chips.

 

[bmacpoker]

So I think it's been said already, but really the best bet is 5c/10c if you're doing microstakes. That's what my crew did for a long time, and still do if we have some super casual friends that don't want to buy in for more than $10-$20.

The next progression is honestly 25c/25c. Or maybe 10c/25c? But at that point, just do 25 for each. The thing is, the game won't play *that* much different. Just larger buy ins, mostly.

 

[Kid_Eastwood]

Hi,

With $10, buyin, 10c-20c is too high for NLHE imho.
I'd go with 10c-10c.

I've myself a set I created to cover :
10c-10c €10
10c-20c €20
50c-50c €50
50c-€1 €100

With enough workhorse chips to also play limit games.

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/the-bank-sunfly-polyclay.53844/

On the other side of the spectrum, I've also a more potable set that can accomodate 8 players on NL games.
$1 x 80
$5 x 120
$25 x 80
$100 x 20

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/thre...nd-showcase-thread.90240/page-17#post-2602994

With this set, I always play $100 deep on $1-$1.
And do the math at cash-in or cash-out.

Ex. if we want to play $10 buyin, then each player pays $10 and gets $100 in chips and I do the math the other way around for cash-out.

Non-denomibated chips (my current project at PC) are also a viable option. For NL, 500 chips (in 3 colors) + few plaques get you covered for 8 players. I'll go with 125/250/125/20 (plaques) breakdown to fit a 500 chip case.

My recommendation 1 : custom set
In your case, full table NL games, the following breakdown would be comfortable :
10c x 100
50c x 100
$1 x 200
$5 x 80
$20 or $25 x 20

Which is a bank of $106 (with $20 chips) or $116 (with $25 chips) per player.

It gets you covered for your current $10 games as well as $20 games (1 buyin + 4 full rebuys per player) if you want to increase the buyin at some point.

If you want also plan for $50 games (50c-50c or 20c-50c), just add 120 x $5 and 80 x $20.

My recommendation 2 : $1-based cash set
Exemple of breakdown :
$1 x 100 (100 is workable but 150 or 200 if you more low denom chips)
$5 x 200
$25 x 180
$100 x 20

 

[merkong]

Congrats on a successful micro game. A cautionary tale involves a successful micro game, even innocuously and incrementally, increasing blinds, stakes, and buyins, and see the games demeanor morph and players slowly becoming less appetized.

A bigger game that ratchets down financially is less prone to issues and gets stronger while a smaller game that moves into deeper pocketing can develop a murkier identity and lose some of its innocence and ultimately players.

Word.

 

[jcf1713]

Don't think using nickels only for 10c/20c is a problem.

Also, I don't think Olympus has a $50 chip. So doing what you want won't work, unless you want to have one chip equal face value while the others represent something else. Could cause confusion.

With a $10 buy-in a 20c big blind means only 50 big blinds. Quite a short stack.

Could keep it at $10 buy-in and decrease the blinds to 5c/10c for 100 big blind stacks.

Or increase the buy-in to $20/$25 and just go 25c/25c for blinds and not worry about nickels. I'd definitely recommend against getting both 5c and 10c chips.

Oof you are completely right about the non-existent $50 Olympus chip!

Okay right now I'm leaning towards just decreasing the blinds and going with the actual denoms... The only thing would be that since it's a slow paced social game, I kinda like the 10c/20c blinds because it gives a bit more energy/action. But then I could just up the buy-in & do 25c/25c...

We are all good friends who seem to all have ADHD and I'm constantly having to remind people to call or check because they are mid-story. Thank you so much for your input.

So I think it's been said already, but really the best bet is 5c/10c if you're doing microstakes. That's what my crew did for a long time, and still do if we have some super casual friends that don't want to buy in for more than $10-$20.

The next progression is honestly 25c/25c. Or maybe 10c/25c? But at that point, just do 25 for each. The thing is, the game won't play *that* much different. Just larger buy ins, mostly.

Did you feel that the action was a bit slow with 5c/10c or no? We just already play so slow because we're all talking too much during the game. I guess it probably wouldn't be too much different from 10c/20c however. 25c/25c would prob be best for us, most of us are somewhat broke ski bums however.

Hi,

With $10, buyin, 10c-20c is too high for NLHE imho.
I'd go with 10c-10c.

I've myself a set I created to cover :
10c-10c €10
10c-20c €20
50c-50c €50
50c-€1 €100

With enough workhorse chips to also play limit games.

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/the-bank-sunfly-polyclay.53844/

On the other side of the spectrum, I've also a more potable set that can accomodate 8 players on NL games.
$1 x 80
$5 x 120
$25 x 80
$100 x 20

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/thre...nd-showcase-thread.90240/page-17#post-2602994

With this set, I always play $100 deep on $1-$1.
And do the math at cash-in or cash-out.

Ex. if we want to play $10 buyin, then each player pays $10 and gets $100 in chips and I do the math the other way around for cash-out.

Non-denomibated chips (my current project at PC) are also a viable option. For NL, 500 chips (in 3 colors) + few plaques get you covered for 8 players. I'll go with 125/250/125/20 (plaques) breakdown to fit a 500 chip case.

My recommendation 1 : custom set
In your case, full table NL games, the following breakdown would be comfortable :
10c x 100
50c x 100
$1 x 200
$5 x 80
$20 or $25 x 20

Which is a bank of $106 (with $20 chips) or $116 (with $25 chips) per player.

It gets you covered for your current $10 games as well as $20 games (1 buyin + 4 full rebuys per player) if you want to increase the buyin at some point.

If you want also plan for $50 games (50c-50c or 20c-50c), just add 120 x $5 and 80 x $20.

My recommendation 2 : $1-based cash set
Exemple of breakdown :
$1 x 100 (100 is workable but 150 or 200 if you more low denom chips)
$5 x 200
$25 x 180
$100 x 20

Love your sets and the flexibility!! Thank you for the recommendations. Ideally a custom set would be perfect... Unfortunately right now I'm balling on a budget as we say in the US. Currently I'm leaning toward using actual denoms and changing blinds/buy-ins or

Congrats on a successful micro game. A cautionary tale involves a successful micro game, even innocuously and incrementally, increasing blinds, stakes, and buyins, and see the games demeanor morph and players slowly becoming less appetized.

A bigger game that ratchets down financially is less prone to issues and gets stronger while a smaller game that moves into deeper pocketing can develop a murkier identity and lose some of its innocence and ultimately players.

Word.

Thank you!! Definitely wise words I'll keep in mind. Especially because most of us basically ski bums who live in a very high COLA, people's finances are at the front of my mind.