Tourney Absolute minimum number of chips for a single table tourney game (1 Viewer)

[Darson]

I know this is a chip forum and the answer is always more chips but I have a unique situation.

My college buddies meet up in London once a year and play poker. The night is hosted by a pal of mine who has had some serious health issues but is amazingly soldiering on. The game is usually a £20/$20 buy in (we don't discriminate - all money is good) with multiple rebuys and winner take all. Usually there are around 10 of us and almost all will rebuy once and some twice so lets say I'll need 30 buy-ins. Starting stacks are usually 100BB.

The last game was in June and out came the dice chips. I really want to replace the set with something else but I'll have to carry these as hand luggage on my next trip so I want the smallest set possible and also, this is going to be left at my pal's place so I don't want it to take up any more room than necessary or cost an obscene amount.

So I'm thinking:
T1 x 100
T5 x 80
T25 x 60
T100 x 60

T200 starting stack 10/8/6 for 100BB. This actually gives me 40 buy-ins so I only really need 40 T100 but I guess the extra T100 are needed for colour-up? Or should I get T25x80 & T100x40 for 32 buy-ins and more efficient colour up?

Would it be possible to make this game work with 200 chips? Any ideas welcome!

 

[FDLmold]

At 200 chips, you are giving players 6 or 7 chips when they buy in. No way that works.

 

[BSteck]

How about a T5 set of 300 (nice even racks)?

5 x 100
25 x 100
100 x 100

Starting stacks of 10/10/7 for 100 BB at 5/10. 30 extra 100's are perfect to color up the 5's & 25's.


Edit: Whoops... didn't see your need for rebuys.

 

[AK Chip]

80 T-25
80 T-100
80 T-500
60 T-1,000

 

[AK Chip]

80 T-25
80 T-100
80 T-500
60 T-1,000

I didn’t read the full questions either Sorry.

 

[Darson]

Thinking through this logically:

- 1/2 starting blinds and 10 players means I'll need a minimum of 50xT1 for blinds at the first few levels (5 per player)
- I'll need enough T5s for starting stacks and enough to colour up the T5
- I need enough T25 to make the starting stacks up to 100BB
- T100 will be used as rebuy chips

So with starting stacks of 5/9/6/0 = T200:
- T1 x50
- T5 x90 (starting) plus x10 (colour up) = T5 x100
- T25 x60
- T100 x40 (20 rebuys)

For 250 total chips. 20 chip starting stacks. That will sit very nicely in 2 chip racks with a couple tubes used for the colour up and rebuy chips. I could even make a small box for this.

People who bust early will probably have to make change from several players (e.g. get T25x4 from someone and then change one T25 for some T5s & T1s) but we're all very close friends so this is not a problem.

 

[Wils]

The game is usually a £20/$20 buy in (we don't discriminate - all money is good) with multiple rebuys and winner take all.

So... I could buy in with £20, or i could buy in with $20, which is only £15? Same starting stack?

#whatamimissing

 

[Darson]

So... I could buy in with £20, or i could buy in with $20, which is only £15? Same starting stack?

#whatamimissing

Yeah, this is a bunch of buddies playing a game for fun - it's more about bragging rights than money. There are a couple of us that live in the USA - a few year ago, I ran out of GBP and they were happy to take my dollars!

 

[JustinInMN]

If you're willing to use a couple non standard levels, this could be a tight 200 base T25. Though I bent the requirement and I am doing an 80bb start.

(T25/T100/T500)
Starting stacks 8/8/2 for T2000.

Start at 25-25 (80 bb), 25-50 (40 bb), 50-75 (33 bb), 50-100 (20 bb)

So overall you need 80*T25, 80*T100, 20*T500, 20*T1000 (10 T2000 rebuys)

The downside is no extras for color ups if everyone uses one rebuy.

A lot more flexibility if you can do 300 chips. That would perfectly cover 10 standard T10000 stacks (8/8/4/7 * 10), color ups (10*T1000), and 10 rebuy (2*T5000*10) stacks with a overall breakdown of 80*T25/80*T100/40*T500/80*T1000/20*T5000.

But I think base T25 is the way to go to keep the counts down needing on 8/8 of your lowest chips instead of 10/8 for base 1 or base 5.

Late edit:
Everyone is misreading this thread! I just saw you were targeting 20 rebuys, not 10. So I think 200 chips is pretty much out of the question, 300 is workable if you either do T5000 stacks or just swap 20 T1000s for T5000s and do a 5 denomination starting stack 8/8/4/2/1

 

[Darson]

Yeah, lots of rebuys because we want to keep everyone on the table for as long possible and try and bust people often so we can make fun of them for busting.

 

[colter ripton]

Somewhere between 10 and 15 thousand chips seems about right.

 

[JustinInMN]

Somewhere between 10 and 15 thousand chips seems about right.

I am guessing TSA would have something to say about that.

 

[Old State]

A few friends and I hosted tournaments for several years and issued exactly 20 chips. Blinds started at $5-10. Starting stacks were 10 $5s, 6 $25s, 3 $100s, and 1 $500. After the first three levels we colored out the reds for greens. After the 6th level greens were out for blacks. We had orange $1000s and would get the $100s out if applicable late in the tourney. Had many successful well run tournaments with 30-40 people using with 1000 chip sets.

I think you need 400 chips

 

[BGinGA]

I'm thinking:
T1 x 100
T5 x 80
T25 x 60
T100 x 60

T200 starting stack 10/8/6 for 100BB. This actually gives me 40 buy-ins so I only really need 40 T100 but I guess the extra T100 are needed for colour-up? Or should I get T25x80 & T100x40 for 32 buy-ins and more efficient colour up?

Would it be possible to make this game work with 200 chips?

with starting stacks of 5/9/6/0 = T200:
- T1 x50
- T5 x90 (starting) plus x10 (colour up) = T5 x100
- T25 x60
- T100 x40 (20 rebuys)

For 250 total chips

Issuing just four or five chips per player of the lowest denomination plays pretty horribly. Minimum 8 per player, 10 is better, 12 would be preferred -- and generally applies to the TWO lowest denominations in play, not just the lowest. The lowest-denom chips will see play for anywhere from 4 to 6 levels, or typically an hour to two hours of play. That's a long time to struggle with not enough chips in play.

If using a T1-base, that means issuing 10x T1 and 10x T5 per player, or 10xT5 and 10xT25 if using a T5-base set. You can cut those numbers down to 8x each by using a T.25 base (8xT.25, 8xT1) or a T25 base (8xT25, 8xT100). Of those two choices, the T.25 set is more efficient (because .25/1/5/25 is more efficient than 25/100/500/1000 with the highest denomination):

10 x T50 starting stacks (100bb with T.25/T.50 opening blinds):
8 x T.25
8 x T1
3 x T5
1 xT25
----------
20 chips = T50

So you're going to need 200 chips just to cover the starting stacks.

20 x T50 re-buy stacks:
5 x T5
1 x T25
----------
6 chips = T50

And another 120 chips just to cover re-buys. Add another 20 x T5 chips to color-up the T.25 and T1 chips, and you have a 340-chip set:
80 x T.25
80 x T1
150 x T5 (20x for T.25/T100 color-ups and 120x for re-buys)
30 xT25 (20x for re-buys)
----------
340 total chips

If you want to use fewer chips, eliminate or restrict the number of re-buys (220 total chips would cover it with no re-buys). But 2x re-buys per player requires a lot more chips, and not just extra T25 chips, either - there aren't enough chips on the table to make change if you try to do it that way.

 

[Mojo1312]

T6000 or T7500 for up to 12 players with 30 buy-ins.

120 x 25
120 x 100
30 x 500
100 x 1000
30 x 5000

 

[FCCDAD]

How about a T5 set of 300 (nice even racks)?

5 x 100
25 x 100
100 x 100

Starting stacks of 10/10/7 for 100 BB at 5/10. 30 extra 100's are perfect to color up the 5's & 25's.


Edit: Whoops... didn't see your need for rebuys.

this is almost exactly the set (china clays) i set up for a friend hosting single table tournament.
$5 x 100
$25 x 100
$100 x 75
$500 x 25

starting stacks were $5 x 10, $25 x 10, $100 x 7. if she had a full table of 10 people, the $500s still gave some headroom for rebuys and chipping up.

 

[RichMahogany]

Didn’t read all the replies but this is what i’d do...

80/80/40/80/20 T25-T5000 8/8/4/7 stacks

10 of the T1000 to color us the T25 and T100, enough T5000 for each player to have one rebuy

300 chips