Cash Game 1/1, 1/2, and possibly 2/5 breakdowns (1 Viewer)

horseshoez

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Looking for some general input from those that play 1/1, 1/2 and maybe even 2/5 and the breakdowns they have to support all these blinds.

Also think that it may be better to just have a bunch of suggested or actual breakdowns in one thread since they’re so spread out among others.

Thanks in advance.
 
It kinda depends on how many chips you want to buy? Because my generic advice for 1/1 and 1/2 would be to have one or (preferably) 2 racks of $1s, and then as many racks of $5’s as you care to buy (preferably no fewer than four,) rounded out with a rack of $25s and maybe some hundreds.
 
$1– 140 to 200
$5– 400-600
$25–200
$100– 40-100
$500–20 (just in case you have a really deep game)

I run a 1/2 game and never use more than 140 $1’s for 8-9 player game. All my sets have at least 5 racks of $5’s. But 4 racks will work fine.
 
Pre-COVID, I alternated .25/.50 with 1/2 and have three specific sets for the latter game, which carries a $100 min buy-in, $300 max, for a 9-handed game. The 10th spot at the table is saved for an all-time dealer –– a good friend of mine who was a poker dealer at Hollywood Casino before they shut down the poker room in March because of COVID –– and that’s all he does at my game with no playing.

I went with this breakdown:

200 x $1s
500 x $5s (I have an extra rack or two of $5s here for supplemental purposes just in case)
200 x $25
100 x $100

For initial buy-in chip distro (you can obviously mix this up if you prefer to not have a lot of $1s on the table):

20 x $1s
16 x $5s
Then toss in a barrel or two of $5s for folks desiring to go either $200 or $300.

Now, this is where knowing your regs and table dynamics come in handy, too. I went with more against less for quantities, especially the $5s, because my 1/2 games can get outright aggressive with plenty of three- or four-bet action preflop. The $25s come in play frequently as the game progresses during rebuys.

If there’s a lot of limping, you won’t need all those chips unless you’re like me and like to have more in reserve just for the hell of it.
 
Aside from trying to make it a go-to source for most that are searching for breakdowns depending on blinds. From my end, 90% of the time it'll just be one table, max 9 players. Current cash set setups...

ES Cash - (0.25/1/5/20/25/100/500) 200/200/200/40/60/20/20...this set will more than likely be used for the 0.25/50 up to 0.50/1 games.
Jack Cash - (0.25/1/5/25/100) 100/200/400/140/40...this set is one I'll be using more often to support 0.25/50 all the way up to 2/5. Prefer I fill up the 25 and 100 racks.
Flamingo Cash - (0.25/1/5/25/100) 100/200/200/80/20...can go up to 1/1 or 1/2 but not multi table at those blinds
98 CDI Cash - (0.50/1/5/25/100) 200/200/400/100/20/20...I imagine this set can technically support up to 2/5 but please correct me if I'm wrong.

If any of my above statements with regards to which set can support what are off, please criticize away.
 
$1– 140 to 200
$5– 400-600
$25–200
$100– 40-100
$500–20 (just in case you have a really deep game)

I run a 1/2 game and never use more than 140 $1’s for 8-9 player game. All my sets have at least 5 racks of $5’s. But 4 racks will work fine.

Have you ever needed to use your 5th rack?
 
My cash set is
300 x $1
500 x $5
100 x $25
100 x $100
20 x $500
Only a few $25’s get into play and the $100 & $500 have never seen the felt.
 
More chips are better than less. I wouldn't build a "minimum number of chips to spread the game" set. A few extra racks are not all that expensive in most cases.

With no need for fractional chips, 500 chips would be adequate. Not good, but easily playable. The nature of the breakdown depends on the nature of the game. One might easily be able to run some $1/$1 games with nothing but dollar and five dollar chips.

Why take chances? Here is an eight hundred chip set that easily could run most $2/$5 games. If you peeled off the $25 and $100 chips, the remaining six hundred chips handle the lower stakes games. Yes, you could make do with less chips, but why?


On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with excess. Inflation might "age out" a set. Or maybe your game grows to two or more tables? These garden city chips are not all that expensive. 1,400 chips that handle all sorts of games from fractional stakes to small $5/$10 games.


excess is good! -=- DrStrange
 
Looking for some general input from those that play 1/1, 1/2 and maybe even 2/5 and the breakdowns they have to support all these blinds.

Also think that it may be better to just have a bunch of suggested or actual breakdowns in one thread since they’re so spread out among others.

Thanks in advance.

Are you trying to minimize the number of chips to purchase? I could say that 1000 chips spread would be safer option, but it's possible you could get away with 800. We need to know your biggest bank needs for your largest game in order not to overspend on high denominations.
 
Are you trying to minimize the number of chips to purchase? I could say that 1000 chips spread would be safer option, but it's possible you could get away with 800. We need to know your biggest bank needs for your largest game in order not to overspend on high denominations.

Trying to somewhat maximize actually but not go haywire to the point that I would have some chips never used. As of right now, most common game is a 0.25/0.50 or a 0.50/0.50 but it’s headed in the direction of playing 1/1 because that’s how our game really plays. With that being said, I can see us having 7-9 players with each having anywhere between $100-300 towards the pot. The 2/5 would be a rare game on my end but I’d still like to accommodate if/when we do.
 
Trying to somewhat maximize actually but not go haywire to the point that I would have some chips never used. As of right now, most common game is a 0.25/0.50 or a 0.50/0.50 but it’s headed in the direction of playing 1/1 because that’s how our game really plays. With that being said, I can see us having 7-9 players with each having anywhere between $100-300 towards the pot. The 2/5 would be a rare game on my end but I’d still like to accommodate if/when we do.

So, would $5000 cover the larger game?
 
I prefer

100 x $1
300 x $5
80 x $25
20 x $100

I tried more 1s and 5s but finally decided i prefer to get more colors on the table vs pure chip numbers and found this comb to be best for my 1/2 game.

For 2/5 i addon 25s and up
100 x $1
300 x $5
300 x $25
80 x $100
20 x $500
 
200x $1
300x $5
80x $25
20x $100 as capstone
Bank $5700 in 600 chips

Reading this makes me glad I listened to Nistha and grew half of my cash sets to have a chunk of 5’s. I used to always be in the mindset of, “I don’t think I’ll play those blinds at home, why should I?” Answer here is, MOOOOOAAAR is better lol
 
My 600 chips for 1/2, 5/5, 5/10:

100x $1
200x $5
200x $25
80x $100
20x $500

I realize Americans like to have racks and racks of $5 chips in play, but this breakdown works fine as well. People around here would rather just bet a single $100 chip, than a barrel of $5s, so no point in having them in excess numbers.

Edit to clarify: as a chipper I love playing in a game where I have a physically big stack with loads of chips. Unfortunately that's not the norm over here. I just wanted to throw that out there for noobs to see that less chips (more higher denoms), can also work completely fine. It's actually how it's played in most of Europe as far as I know. Obviously as chip nerds, most people on PCF prefer more chips on the table.
 
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Reading this makes me glad I listened to Nistha and grew half of my cash sets to have a chunk of 5’s. I used to always be in the mindset of, “I don’t think I’ll play those blinds at home, why should I?” Answer here is, MOOOOOAAAR is better lol

There's always a trade-off. More chips on the table encourages action, and of course is more expensive. Expanding to 800 chips with a rack of quarters and 1 more rack of $1 or $5 helps cover the lower stakes.
 
This is really a 2 table set for $1/2 games, but I have had all 10 racks in play at a single table game. It is fun to have a lot of chips in every stack.

9515718C-7B04-45E8-BA76-045E64355D4E.jpeg
 
I really like

100 x $.25
200 x $1
400 x $5
200 x $25
100 x $100
Seems like perfect set for me

My minimum when I buy or order a set for my $1/$2 is
175 x $1’s
300 x $5’s
100 x $20/$25’s
25 x $100’s
For my $1/$2 games my players get one full barrel of $5’s and another barrel that consists of 15 x $1’s 2 x $5’s and 3 x $25’s
first 5 or 6 players that get more than $200 initial buy in get extra barrels of $5’s
Re-buys and add ons end up with the $25’s after the majority $5’s are distributed and then finally the $100’s

I also have 5 universal $500 plaques from Apache that I use in the situations that I run out of Hundos.
 
Also think that it may be better to just have a bunch of suggested or actual breakdowns in one thread since they’re so spread out among others

I thought we had a thread like this somewhere, but the search let me down :(.

@shorticus had this good post about classifying your denominations and then planning your set.

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/home-game-chip-breakdown-theory.44023/#post-821344

Here are my 2c fwiw. Last time I hosted 0.50-1 I only put 100 singles in play 8 handed and it felt tight. (I think because it's a 5x jump comared to games that use quarters for blind chips being a 4x jump) So I would suggest something like 200/300/80/20 of 1/5/25/100 for 1-2 and 1-3 (Bank 5700). If you really are playing 2-5 then you should add two racks of 25s in my estimation.

If you can make the set even bigger prioritize adding fives for the benefit of your 1-2 and 1-3 games is a good idea.
 
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Every single reply has by far been insightful with regards to these sets of blinds for cash games. Really appreciate the input. As I mentioned above, I'm actually glad I went for MOAR rather than bare minimum because I've pretty much setup all my cash sets to support these blinds for one table and at least one of my sets can support two tables if/when that were to happen.

Hope this thread also helps summarize it for others that are searching. I know it's been touched on before but searching for this stuff can be tedious and annoying lol
 
Going to bump this thread rather than start another as I’m looking to build a similar set.

I host for three poker games/groups of players. A .25/.50 crew, a .50/$1 crew, and a $1/2 crew that occasionally plays $2/5. Looking at a new set of 1000-1200 chips but would consider up to 1500. That last $1/2 game/group used to be the most frequent but for the last 2-3 years the .50/$1 game is the most frequent by far. I’m probably not going to get .25 chips and change the first game to .50/.50

As the bank, a very important thing here for me is ease of counting out stacks…especially mid game with lots of distractions. Lots of chips are not important (I know blasphemy) but rather the most efficient amount and breakdown.

Buys-ins for each game have settled in as follows
.25/.50 (.50/.50) - $50​
.50/$1 - $100. Stacks are 10 .50s, 20 $1s, and 15 $5s. Reloads in $5s​
$1/2 - often $300 but may move to $220 to control the game and make it an easy three barrel starting stack that includes $1 chips. Reloads initially with red moving to all green as the game progresses.​
$2/5 - rarely played but $500 max has been the usual. Usually with 3 barrels of red and 8 green or 2 barrels of red ($5) and 12 green ($25). Reloads intitially with all green but then moving to blacks​
No rules on reloads but most usually reload for the original buyin.​
Was thinking on these options and curious on anyone’s thoughts

76B46CDB-8B41-4793-B8B0-EC0E5EDF2A60.jpeg
4FDF1D8E-2105-410A-A183-865A502445BE.jpeg
 
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I’m not sure about the usefulness of $500 chips in a $2/5 game though.
You will need it for $2/5 game for a full Ring game

$2/5 game will be using $1/$5/$25/$100 100/200/200/80 = $13200 total bank

13200 would cover about 26 buyin which i will like to cover at least 3 per person ideally 30 buyin minimum

It also a preference thing as i like to keep the chip count to 600 for any stake game
 
Going to bump this thread rather than start another as I’m looking to build a similar set.

I host for three poker games/groups of players. A .25/.50 crew, a .50/$1 crew, and a $1/2 crew that occasionally plays $2/5. Looking at a new set of 1000-1200 chips but would consider up to 1500. That last $1/2 game/group used to be the most frequent but for the last 2-3 years the .50/$1 game is the most frequent by far. I’m probably not going to get .25 chips and change the first game to .50/.50

As the bank, a very important thing here for me is ease of counting out stacks…especially mid game with lots of distractions. Lots of chips are not important (I know blasphemy) but rather the most efficient amount and breakdown.

Buys-ins for each game have settled in as follows
.25/.50 (.50/.50) - $50​
.50/$1 - $100. Stacks are 10 .50s, 20 $1s, and 15 $5s. Reloads in $5s​
$1/2 - often $300 but may move to $220 to control the game and make it an easy three barrel starting stack that includes $1 chips. Reloads initially with red moving to all green as the game progresses.​
$2/5 - rarely played but $500 max has been the usual. Usually with 3 barrels of red and 8 green or 2 barrels of red ($5) and 12 green ($25). Reloads intitially with all green but then moving to blacks​
No rules on reloads but most usually reload for the original buyin.​
Was thinking on these options and curious on anyone’s thoughts

View attachment 748137View attachment 748138
I prefer breakdown #1. 100 fracs is plenty it is known (although I'd prefer .25 >>> .50, but to each his own). $5 chips will be the workhorse for all 3 games, with plenty of $25 and a few hondos for the biggest games. If you run out of chips with that bank, just let $100 bills play.
 

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