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Advice on a new cash chipset (1 Viewer)

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Gorf

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Hello everyone, I am new here and this is my first post. I read many other posts about cash game setups but there is a lot of conflicting information so I wanted to make this post and see if I am on the right track. I have a set of Claysmith The Mint poker chips I bought maybe 6 years ago and once I got it I realized I got denominations I should not have gotten such as the 10 dollar and 50 dollar chips. I also made the mistake of thinking I would use the face value of the chips as a cent instead of a dollar. So the $1 chips counted as 1 cent for example. What I bought was this break down:

$1 - 300
$5 - 150
$10 - 150
$25 - 150
$50 - 100
$100 - 100
$500 - 25
$1000 - 25

1000 Chips

I am going to sell this set and probably get the Majestic chips from Apache because I want a good looking set that has a nickel which seems very hard to find. I do not want the Monte Carlo Poker Club chips. I will build the set to support 10 players. Now the thing is most people have different sets for different stakes but I want one set for all the stakes we play plus some room for growth.

Currently we would want to be able to play 0.05/0.1 with a 5-20 dollar buy in for friendly games and teaching people to play and a 0.25/0.5 game with $50 buy ins for games that are a little more serious. We will also more rarely play $1/$2 with $200 buy ins depending on who I am playing with but it could also just be a super deep stacked 0.25/0.5 game. I am fine with people buying in at the start with more that what I posted here having multiple buy ins as well. More recently we played a game that almost could have been a $500 buy in. I am thinking I should build this set to accommodate a $1000 buy in. With that being said this is what I was thinking of these possible breakdowns:

$0.05 - 100
$0.25 - 125
$1 - 125
$5 - 175
$25 - 100
$100 - 50
$500 - 25
$1000 - 25
$5000 - 25

750 Chips

Or:

$0.05 - 150
$0.25 - 200
$1 - 200
$5 - 200
$25 - 125
$100 - 50
$500 - 25
$1000 - 25
$5000 - 25

1000 Chips

I have seen a bunch of threads saying you don't need more than 100 nickels but I guess it depends on how much change you want to be made on the table. I don't mind even doing 200 nickels. I also don't care about strictly having a 750 or 1000 chip set. It could be 875, 1050, ect. I don't care about that. What I care about is having the right amount of chips to not make the game difficult. I have seen some sets with 400 $5 chips but that would be 40 chips per player which at that point I think $25 chips should be being used. I don't think more than 200 of a single chip would be beneficial in my opinion but I am open to hear what your suggestions are.

Is there any other sets besides Monte Carlo, Angry Mallard, Pharaohs and Majestic available that have nickels?

Also because I know you will ask, I will post some buy in stacks I am thinking of since you probably want that info before suggesting anything.

You can do 15 nickels and 17 quarters for $5 and then add $1 chips and that will cover you for the $5, $10,$15 and $20 buy in.
Alternatively you can do 10 nickels and 10 quarters for $3 and then fill the rest with $1 as well. This would mean I would need less nickels and quarters but then more change will be made at the table. If I go 200 nickels instead of 150, I can give a barrel of quarters each to 10 players. 20 nickels and 16 quarts is also $5.

For the 0.25/0.5 games I can do 20 quarters and 20 x $1 for a $25 buy in and give the rest in $5 chips for $50 total or I can also do 12/12/7 for $50, It all seems to depends on how many of the lowest denomination chip I want on the table. I am also looking for advice on that.

I am probably overthinking this buy I don't want to make the wrong purchase again.

Thanks!
 
Gorf said:
$500 - 25
$1000 - 25
$5000 - 25
Click to expand...
First of all welcome to PCF & you never going to use these denominations unless you playing at least 5/5 or 5/10 stake

Gorf said:
Currently we would want to be able to play 0.05/0.1 with a 5-20 dollar buy in for friendly games and teaching people to play and a 0.25/0.5 game with $50 buy ins for games that are a little more serious. We will also more rarely play $1/$2 with $200 buy ins depending on who I am playing with but it could also just be a super deep stacked 0.25/0.5 game.
Click to expand...
For stake covering the above even with the potentially 500bb $1k deep stake buyin

5c x 100
25c x 200
$1 x 200
$5 x 300 - 400
$25 x 200 - 300
$100 x 100

You need a larger than usual number for a set because you are covering a lot of stake from NL10 100bb buyin to NL200 500bb buyin

You might want to consider a set for NL10-25 and another set for NL100-200
 
Last edited:
Gorf said:
Hello everyone, I am new here and this is my first post. I read many other posts about cash game setups but there is a lot of conflicting information so I wanted to make this post and see if I am on the right track. I have a set of Claysmith The Mint poker chips I bought maybe 6 years ago and once I got it I realized I got denominations I should not have gotten such as the 10 dollar and 50 dollar chips. I also made the mistake of thinking I would use the face value of the chips as a cent instead of a dollar. So the $1 chips counted as 1 cent for example. What I bought was this break down:

$1 - 300
$5 - 150
$10 - 150
$25 - 150
$50 - 100
$100 - 100
$500 - 25
$1000 - 25

1000 Chips

I am going to sell this set and probably get the Majestic chips from Apache because I want a good looking set that has a nickel which seems very hard to find. I do not want the Monte Carlo Poker Club chips. I will build the set to support 10 players. Now the thing is most people have different sets for different stakes but I want one set for all the stakes we play plus some room for growth.

Currently we would want to be able to play 0.05/0.1 with a 5-20 dollar buy in for friendly games and teaching people to play and a 0.25/0.5 game with $50 buy ins for games that are a little more serious. We will also more rarely play $1/$2 with $200 buy ins depending on who I am playing with but it could also just be a super deep stacked 0.25/0.5 game. I am fine with people buying in at the start with more that what I posted here having multiple buy ins as well. More recently we played a game that almost could have been a $500 buy in. I am thinking I should build this set to accommodate a $1000 buy in. With that being said this is what I was thinking of these possible breakdowns:

$0.05 - 100
$0.25 - 125
$1 - 125
$5 - 175
$25 - 100
$100 - 50
$500 - 25
$1000 - 25
$5000 - 25

750 Chips

Or:

$0.05 - 150
$0.25 - 200
$1 - 200
$5 - 200
$25 - 125
$100 - 50
$500 - 25
$1000 - 25
$5000 - 25

1000 Chips

I have seen a bunch of threads saying you don't need more than 100 nickels but I guess it depends on how much change you want to be made on the table. I don't mind even doing 200 nickels. I also don't care about strictly having a 750 or 1000 chip set. It could be 875, 1050, ect. I don't care about that. What I care about is having the right amount of chips to not make the game difficult. I have seen some sets with 400 $5 chips but that would be 40 chips per player which at that point I think $25 chips should be being used. I don't think more than 200 of a single chip would be beneficial in my opinion but I am open to hear what your suggestions are.

Is there any other sets besides Monte Carlo, Angry Mallard, Pharaohs and Majestic available that have nickels?

Also because I know you will ask, I will post some buy in stacks I am thinking of since you probably want that info before suggesting anything.

You can do 15 nickels and 17 quarters for $5 and then add $1 chips and that will cover you for the $5, $10,$15 and $20 buy in.
Alternatively you can do 10 nickels and 10 quarters for $3 and then fill the rest with $1 as well. This would mean I would need less nickels and quarters but then more change will be made at the table. If I go 200 nickels instead of 150, I can give a barrel of quarters each to 10 players. 20 nickels and 16 quarts is also $5.

For the 0.25/0.5 games I can do 20 quarters and 20 x $1 for a $25 buy in and give the rest in $5 chips for $50 total or I can also do 12/12/7 for $50, It all seems to depends on how many of the lowest denomination chip I want on the table. I am also looking for advice on that.

I am probably overthinking this buy I don't want to make the wrong purchase again.
Click to expand...

Best plan is to design a 600-chip set for each single-table stakes game you want to host, each with a 100/200/200/100 breakdown, and then combine them to get your final set count:

5c:/10c set:
100 x 5c
200 x 25c
200 x $1
100 x $5

25c/50c set (or 50c/$1 set):
100 x 25c
200 x $1
200 x $5
100 x $20 (or $25)

$1/$2 set:
100 x $1
200 x $5
200 x $20 (or $25)
100 x $100

Combining those, you get:
100 x 5c
200 x 25c
200 x $1
200 x $5
200 x $20 (or $25)
100 x $100
------------------
1000 chips

If you want to future-proof it a bit (and minimize change-making at 5c/10c), add 50 x 5c, 100 x $100, and 50 x $500 for a total of 1200 chips.

Some will also recommend adding 100 x $5 to make your $1/$2 game play better.:

150 x 5c
200 x 25c
200 x $1
300 x $5
200 x $20 (or $25)
200 x $100
50 x $500
----------------
1300 chips

Plenty of chips and bank ($50,750+) for 5c/10c up to $1/$2 stakes (and everything in-between) for up to 10 players. You don't need $1000 or $5000 chips.

Regarding denominations, just order custom ceramics that will be secure and have the exact denominations you need.
 
A set that handles nickels as well as $1,000 buyins, hot-damn! So if we're future proofing we're making sure we've got enough for 10 people to buyin once? Twice? If we're actually considering such a huge game please forget about the stock options, with +$10k on the table you need a more secure option. Good for you, but that's alot of money to play with.
 
If you're looking at that much money, I'd seriously consider custom ceramics. You can still get your nickels.

That's potentially a lot of money on a table.

And tbh, I'm finding "future-proofing" a CC set isn't a wise idea. I have three sets of CCs and every set has had a color or two disintegrate on me over the course of 5+ years. Some even less.
 
allforcharity said:
If you have potential buy ins of $500+ then I wouldn't use any easily acquired stock cash chips from anybody, for security reasons.
Click to expand...
This could be as simple as relabeling any of the CC chips you mentioned like I did, but I would also second the recommendation to consider custom ceramics through a group buy.

Relabeling the Majestics is easy and can be as cheap as you want to make it.

IMG_5735.jpeg
 
Labrat said:
If you're looking at that much money, I'd seriously consider custom ceramics. You can still get your nickels.

That's potentially a lot of money on a table.

And tbh, I'm finding "future-proofing" a CC set isn't a wise idea. I have three sets of CCs and every set has had a color or two disintegrate on me over the course of 5+ years. Some even less.
Click to expand...
Custom Ceramics seem to be a headache and are almost three times the price, I know it seems crazy talking about price for chips when they are being played in games where potentially a few thousand may be on the table but we don't play that often and I haven't been able to find good information on them. What are these group buys you guys are referring to?
 
LeLe said:
First of all welcome to PCF & you never going to use these denominations unless you playing at least 5/5 or 5/10 stake


For stake covering the above even with the potentially 500bb $1k deep stake buyin

5c x 100
25c x 200
$1 x 200
$5 x 300 - 400
$25 x 200 - 300
$100 x 100

You need a larger than usual number for a set because you are covering a lot of stake from NL10 100bb buyin to NL200 500bb buyin

You might want to consider a set for NL10-25 and another set for NL100-200
Click to expand...
I also use $1 chips from
Las Vegas casinos. Clay and only cost $1
 
I actually don't agree with he majority on this one. I like large chip stacks. The kind you see on TV, the kind that encourages players to gamble because they have a lot of chips. The kind that don't require you change chips with your neighbour every 15 mins. I like starting stacks of 50+ chips. Feels great, looks great, plays great - heavy to carry.

So for 5c,10c -

30x5c
30x25c
1x $1 (or 11x$1 for 200BB).

Chips just aren't that expensive, and IMO it's so much better to have the right volume of chips than not enough Paulson's (that your players won't even notice).

For me, the flexibility of chips isn't important, because they are so cheap - it's the Jetons/Plaques which really top off a set nicely that matter. They are around $200 for 20 (15 to 30 is a good amount of each). So for example for flexibility you may need 4 sets of plaques which is expensive.
 
Last edited:
TheADMIRAL said:
I actually don't agree with he majority on this one. I like large chip stacks. The kind you see on TV, the kind that encourages players to gamble because they have a lot of chips. The kind that don't require you change chips with your neighbour every 15 mins. I like starting stacks of 50+ chips. Feels great, looks great, plays great - heavy to carry.

So for 5c,10c -

30x5c
30x25c
1x $1 (or 11x$1 for 200BB).

Chips just aren't that expensive, and IMO it's so much better to have the right volume of chips that not enough Paulson's (that your players won't even notice).

For me, the flexibility of chips isn't important, because they are so cheap - it's the Jetons/Plaques which really top off a set nicely that matter. They are around $200 for 20 (15 to 30 is a good amount of each). So for example for flexibility you may need 4 sets of plaques which is expensive.
Click to expand...
I understand the base of this mentality but the max nickels I'm giving out is a full barrel, and I'm on the splashy side! Not because I'm cheap, but because they're really only used for the blinds, even if people are limping. 30 nickels plays great how? And with 20 nickels, you need to make change often?

Usual buyin at the beginning of the night in a beginner game with lots of limping and low betting. Very rarely do we struggle to make change and everyone has enough chips.
20 x 5c
20 x 25c
rest in $1s
 
Have you tried 30? I've played with 20 and I've played with 30 nickels. I played 5 hour games three times each before I choose. I prefer 30. 20 you have to make change every so often. 20 is plenty, a good number, but 30 is marginally better - just my opinion, not a fact.

You can buy chips for next to nothing, 30c per pop chips are fine, 50c per pop chips are so good all your players will love them, everything else is just for your own enjoyment, not your players. I'm not saying your own enjoyment of chip quality doesn't matter it does, but you are likely the only.one who notices. So personally, if you're choosing between volume of chips and quality of chips, pick volume.
 
Last edited:

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