$25 or $20 chips? (2 Viewers)

MikeNV79

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If you were building a cash game set, would you rather have $20 chips or $25 chips?
 
For small to medium stakes games $20 chips all the way. Easy to exchange a bill for a chip. If it is a higher stake home game then I prefer the $25 chip as that is what is more commonly found in casinos and you need less chips.
 
Total personal preference item. Lots of people like $20s as you can change them out with one bill. I prefer $25 just because it's what I'm used to in casinos
 
$20 for sure. But like the others said, if it's a big game then $25 is fine. Most times at my place they are buying in with $20's (60/80/100/120)
 
I definitely prefer $25s over $20s. Most of my cash games are played in the chip range of 1/5 with the occasional 25, and keeping the multiple at x5 all the way across is consistent, and matches standard casino cash check denominations.

I may be biased because of having "grown up" working in a casino. The only place where we didn't use $25s was at the Pai Gow Poker tables, which were littered $20s... but that was only because of the awkwardness of 5% bank commissions on $25 bets.

When cashing out, you can prove one stack of five chips, and use it as the basis to match off singles, and fives... a stack of singles is a five, a stack of fives is a twenty-five - each stack equaling the next denom. It makes my style of cashing out quicker. The only time you need to work off a four-stack is if someone has a lot of twenty-fives... and people have no trouble watching those closely. The 1's and 5's are where the errors happen, throwing off the bank.

In practice, pretty much nobody gets to cash-out time with a single 25 or a single 20 chip. It's pretty much always 27, or 23, or 18... So it's irrelevant that the 25 doesn't match a single treasury note. People who end up with $20 will give you five red and get a single treasury note. One-chip-one-bill just doesn't carry any water, for me.

And if someone buys in or re-buys for exactly $20, I would never buy them in with a single chip, anyway. You get reds and/or whites. To get the $20/$50 checks, you'd need to buy in with a $50 or a $100... and if you buy in for a $50, I can't do it with a single chip type. If I have $25 checks, I can bring in a $50 or a $100 easily. But again, even on a $50 buy-in, I'm more likely to give a half-barrel of reds than a pair of $25 checks.

I guess it comes down to this: in any game that allows a $20 re-buy, a $20 chip doesn't play. You need to break it, anyway.

So what do I do when all the lower-denoms are in play? Easy. I color up the big stack, first! For most people, it feels like a reward. (Except for that chip-hoarder trying to build a fort.) That puts lower-denoms back in the bank, and I can rebuy someone properly. Otherwise, the first thing they'd do at table is color someone up, anyway.

HOWEVER, now that I'm thinking about it... I'm planning to get a set of non-denominated plaques to use as the "top denom" in cash games. Depending on the game, the top will be different. In my $1/$2 NL game, the plaques will be $100. But in a micro-stakes game, I may well use the plaques as $20s, instead of $25s...
 
Theoretically, a $25 chip is more efficient than a $20 chip, but I still prefer $20 cash game denominations. If you have a single set design that is used for both cash and tournament play, having the $20 is beneficial in that the $25 tournament chips do not see double-duty.

If it is a higher stake home game then I prefer the $25 chip as that is what is more commonly found in casinos and you need less chips.

Blasphemy. Beware the banhammer..... because this isn't the:

Minimum-Number-of-Poker-Chips-Forum.com

:rolleyes:
 
It makes sense to me to use $20 chips for low-stakes games (buy-ins in multiples of $20 or less) and $25 chips for casino-level stakes (buy-ins in multiples of $100).

Cash-outs are easy either way, but rebuys in multiples of $20 are more easily handled with $20 chips.
 
For my cash chips, I went with $20. It seems to me that giving the guy re-buying or just late and buying in $20 chip for $20 works fine. They can get change from other players. Someone is going to have $20 in change. I have a preference for not having a mound of chips on the table. It's really personal preference.
 
Non denominated.

They can be a 20 chip in a .25/50 game and a 25 chip in a .50/1 game.
 
The main reason I hand out $20 chips for re-loads is it's easier (read: faster) for me to grab 3, 4, or 5 $20 chips than it would be for me to dish out $5s. It's no problem at all making change at the table either. In fact, the bigger stacks are usually more than happy to have a black chip or two in their stack :)
 
I've been going back and forth with what I should do for the Gangster Squad chips. We have minimum buy in of $50 so I was thinking a 25 chip makes the most sense.
 
I've been going back and forth with what I should do for the Gangster Squad chips. We have minimum buy in of $50 so I was thinking a 25 chip makes the most sense.

My experience with Americans is that for some reason they dislike $50 bills. Canadians don't seem to care but since most ATMs spit out only $20, most cash games use a buy in that is a multiple of $20. So 40, 60, 80 etc. Therefore a $20 chip is far more useful for most low stakes games.

Even using Nomad's logic of stacks of 5 for mathematical equivalence, well a buy in of $100 is a stack of five $20s.
 
I like $20's because I get to use these
image.jpg
 

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Thank you for all the replies. All good POVs. I'm use to $25s, but thought I would change it up a bit. :)
 
Personally prefer $20's but quite a few players are used to $25's. Can create some minor confusion on betting and calling until they get used to the chips especially when you have multiple sets in rotation with one or the other.
 
For small to medium stakes games $20 chips all the way. Easy to exchange a bill for a chip. If it is a higher stake home game then I prefer the $25 chip as that is what is more commonly found in casinos and you need less chips.

^This^

I play smaller stakes, so all of my cash chip sets utilize $20s mostly for the reasons mentioned above. I'll add one more reason - I use the $20 denomination for cash as my tourneys start with T25 chips, and as such I never mix any denominations between cash and tourney sets. I do have separate cash and tourney sets, but even so I know if it's a $20 chip its cash, if it's $25 its tourney.
 
Personally prefer $20's but quite a few players are used to $25's. Can create some minor confusion on betting and calling until they get used to the chips especially when you have multiple sets in rotation with one or the other.

this for me, too. i have a slight preference for $20s, but i know my group would be thrown and would constantly bitch if we did $20s rather than the $25s we're all used to using in casinos.
 
I don't feel strongly one way or the other about the double sawbuck v. the quarter. I've always used quarters but for no good reason other than that seemed the most standard when I started.
 

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