How many racks of $5's for a cash set is enough? (1 Viewer)

[Old State]

Dunes may have had $20s that they used for limit games, but these lime ones are 43mm and say BACCARAT on the inlay. I’d be surprised if these particular chips were used anywhere besides baccarat tables.

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Looks like they went out of their way to make specific chips for that game. Interesting. Borgata’s are standard 39mm. It’s very rare to see a $20/40 at Borgata. I see them on the board on weekends but never walked around to find the tables. Like most casinos, 80% of the tables are 1/3 and 2/5…though Brogata now has all bomb pot games

 

[Tonysquander]

3+ racker’s wallet with all the $5 bills they walk around with everyday:

 

[Taghkanic]

The answer is MOAR

 

[Taghkanic]

But for real… I just don’t get the obsession with wanting to have the absolute bare minimum of chips necessary to host, or the tiniest stacks possible on the table.

It’s a challenging intellectual exercise but not one that relates to my actual hosting experience. I’m not a traveling host. My chips pretty much never leave my poker room. I’m not building sets based on what it’s going to cost to check baggage on a flight to Macau.

As host I don’t want to have to scrounge around, or do some elaborate mental math at the box (“Well, Timmy just rebought for the third time and he likes his rebuys in the same starting breakdown as when we down, while Bingo Jimbo isn’t here yet and he wants only big chips when he arrives two hours late, and the dealer needs more 1s and 2s, but I’m running low on those,” &c.).

Also when I created my custom THC inlay-replaced set, it was with the assumption that my stakes might change over time (up or down), and that getting more of the various base chips might not be easy or even possible… So I better have plenty from the get-go for futureproofing.

But yeah, I guess it would be kind of interesting to figure out how to host a game where everyone gets 7 chips in 3 colors to start and if you rebuy you get 3 chips of 2 colors and you can only top off for 1 chip at a time of any of the colors, and there is a half barrel of high-denoms in reserve just in case… and now do the mental gymnastics on how all that would work. For maybe 10 minutes it would be fascinating.

Anyway, my $5s:

 

[Tonysquander]

PCF: Math is hard, making change slows the game down. More workhorse chips for cash but, *gasp* not for tournament sets.

Also PCF: You know what would be fun? Let's play a game with 3 boards, five hole cards, 2 draws, but that might change to one draw if the spider monkey we introduced after the flop blinks three times w/in 5 seconds, and the third board goes away if any two cards match on the turn, and possibly a fourth board is added if they match on the river, and its hi-lo, 8 qualifier.

Easy peasy...and 2 racks is not "bare minimum", it is more than adequate.

#freethe$25

 

[toothpic]

PCF: Math is hard

Says the guy who thinks we walk around with stacks of $5 bills in our wallet.

That would be a hialrious cash out though. Well, hiliarous just once.

Count your 5s.

127.

Ok.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6....

 

[Tonysquander]

Says the guy who thinks we walk around with stacks of $5 bills in our wallet.

That would be a hialrious cash out though. Well, hiliarous just once.

Count your 5s.

127.

Ok.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6....

I’m not sure why you’re worried about $5s at all.

My recollection is you showed up at the table, said something about not coming all this way to fold, blew through two buy-ins, and left.

No change was needed!

 

[toothpic]

I’m not sure why you’re worried about $5s at all.

My recollection is you showed up at the table, said something about not coming all this way to fold, blew through two buy-ins, and left.

No change was needed!

Yea I had to get off the table with those short stacks in play. Was too tilting.

 

[Tonysquander]

 

[toothpic]

2 buy ins in 2 hours isn't bad. Plus you say that like it's a bad thing for the rest of the table.

 

[GamingWithChips]

But for real… I just don’t get the obsession with wanting to have the absolute bare minimum of chips necessary to host, or the tiniest stacks possible on the table.

It’s a challenging intellectual exercise but not one that relates to my actual hosting experience. I’m not a traveling host. My chips pretty much never leave my poker room. I’m not building sets based on what it’s going to cost to check baggage on a flight to Macau.

But yeah, I guess it would be kind of interesting to figure out how to host a game where everyone gets 7 chips in 3 colors to start and if you rebuy you get 3 chips of 2 colors and you can only top off for 1 chip at a time of any of the colors, and there is a half barrel of high-denoms in reserve just in case… and now do the mental gymnastics on how all that would work. For maybe 10 minutes it would be fascinating.

You say that as if this thread wasn’t built on the obsession of having more $5‘s than necessary? Lol

The same obsession that says having 4-5 stacks of $5 in front of you all game where 2-3 of those stacks sit untouched and collecting dirt is needed for a good game of poker.

Of course you’ll find that there is a balance for everything, too many and too little is usually not good, but some people have their preferences. I prefer having just enough of each denom as necessary, this allows not too much change making, but also for more “different” chips to be on the table and be used. To me it’s fun to be able to bet 2 chips when making a $60 bet instead of 12 $5’s

 

[doublebooyah85]

You say that as if this thread wasn’t built on the obsession of having more $5‘s than necessary? Lol

The same obsession that says having 4-5 stacks of $5 in front of you all game where 2-3 of those stacks sit untouched and collecting dirt is needed for a good game of poker.

Of course you’ll find that there is a balance for everything, too many and too little is usually not good, but some people have their preferences. I prefer having just enough of each denom as necessary, this allows not too much change making, but also for more “different” chips to be on the table and be used. To me it’s fun to be able to bet 2 chips when making a $60 bet instead of 12 $5’s

Most everyone will never agree because you have different stakes. When the average buy in is $500 you can afford to have tons of fives in play and still get other chips in play but if a buy in is PCF friendly around $200 then you are correct, you have to to use minimal fives to get your other chips in play.

No need to free the chips if you have a big enough buy in, otherwise it makes sense to operate around 3 racks.

That being said…I’d still rather have 6-8 racks of $5s in a $200 buy in game and never see a $25.

 

[GamingWithChips]

Most everyone will never agree because you have different stakes. When the average buy in is $500 you can afford to have tons of fives in play and still get other chips in play but if a buy in is PCF friendly around $200 then you are correct, you have to to use minimal fives to get your other chips in play.

No need to free the chips if you have a big enough buy in, otherwise it makes sense to operate around 3 racks.

That being said…I’d still rather have 8 racks of $5s in a $200 buy in game and never see a $25.

Oh ya, I get the stakes part of it for sure. At my friends stakes, our $1 is PCF’s $5.

But me and my friends have never loved having like 5-6 stacks of 1 chip in front of us, it’s just in the way, and if they are never being touched it just feels really unnecessary. Plus, we all think it’s fun to throw in 1 big chip to make a big bet, for some reason it feels more serious than rolling like 8 chips off your fingers to the betting line.

 

[Rhodeman77]

I played in a $5/5 PLO game that started with 15 $5 chips and the rest of the buy-in was $25. All rebuys were $100 then $500 chips. I’d have a stack of $2k and had just over 20 chips in my stack. I felt short stacked playing the game and I found myself playing a tighter range than usual because I felt short stacked. More chips on the table is a good thing for pushing action.

 

[Kam]

I played in a $5/5 PLO game that started with 15 $5 chips and the rest of the buy-in was $25. All rebuys were $100 then $500 chips. I’d have a stack of $2k and had just over 20 chips in my stack. I felt short stacked playing the game and I found myself playing a tighter range than usual because I felt short stacked. More chips on the table is a good thing for pushing action.

 

[Taghkanic]

The same obsession that says having 4-5 stacks of $5 in front of you all game where 2-3 of those stacks sit untouched and collecting dirt is needed for a good game of poker.

It’s not needed... But most people like it. I have a couple of regs who will cash in their spare barrels for hundos or $25s, but seems like most players like to have those big stacks to project that “Watch out, I’m on a heater / gonna run over you” vibe. Silly but real.

Also I recommend keeping a feather duster near the table to razz players who get big stacks and then nit it up.

Of course you’ll find that there is a balance for everything, too many and too little is usually not good, but some people have their preferences. I prefer having just enough of each denom as necessary, this allows not too much change making, but also for more “different” chips to be on the table and be used. To me it’s fun to be able to bet 2 chips when making a $60 bet instead of 12 $5’s

To each his own of course, but if you have extra chips, you can still choose to get the different chips in play if you want.

 

[Taghkanic]

More chips on the table is a good thing for pushing action.

I agree with that... People tend to play splashier when they have big stacks, I find. Not all but most.

 

[upNdown]

Plus, we all think it’s fun to throw in 1 big chip to make a big bet

Bart Hanson talks about doing that to keep people in pots. His theory is that bigger chips in the middle will make people take notice of how big a pot really is (and make them want to win it.)

Anyway, this whole debate is dumb. For my stakes, I look down on people who use two racks of $5s and I also look down on people who use four or more racks of $5s. The too few dummies and the too many dummies are all wrong. The perfect number of $5s for an 8-handed .25/.50 game is exactly 320.
And don’t get me started on the whackjobs who need two racks of fracs.

 

[GamingWithChips]

Bart Hanson talks about doing that to keep people in pots. His theory is that bigger chips in the middle will make people take notice of how big a pot really is (and make them want to win it.)

That’s interesting!

I also personally find it’s easier to bluff people off their hand when you toss in 1-2 big chips rather than a stack of smaller chips. I think part of this is they look at their stacks and see 40 $1 chips which they could just call $25 with, or they see only 1 $25 chip in their stack and think “hmmm, I’m committing all of my chips if I call this!”

Obviously it’s the same either way, but as mentioned above, the more chips you have in your stack, the more willing you are to splash around, so I think the psychology of it has an impact for sure.

 

[Taghkanic]

Bart Hanson talks about doing that to keep people in pots. His theory is that bigger chips in the middle will make people take notice of how big a pot really is (and make them want to win it.)

Anyway, this whole debate is dumb. For my stakes, I look down on people who use two racks of $5s and I also look down on people who use four or more racks of $5s. The too few dummies and the too many dummies are all wrong. The perfect number of $5s for an 8-handed .25/.50 game is exactly 320.
And don’t get me started on the whackjobs who need two racks of fracs.

Here is a different hypothetical argument for having more chips rather than less…

Assuming you don’t always grab the exact same racks every game, it spreads the wear around. The chips are gonna become bicycle tires 20% less fast if you have 5 racks to choose from as opposed to 4.

Also take longer to get dirty and need to be cleaned.

That said, Hosting 20 to 24 games per year isn’t really going to turn my chips into bicycle tires in my lifetime. And I’m gonna clean them roughly once a year no matter what. So more of a hypothetical argument than anything else.