Cash game chip structure (1 Viewer)

Homer

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I’m a new member and Trying to dial in chips needed for friendly home game. I’m sure this has been discussed before. Any suggestions on finding opinions on best denominations and numbers of chips for home cash game? Would likely have $.50/1.00 or $1/$2 blinds.
 
If I were going to play either of those blinds, I'd skip the 50¢ chips, and just play 1/1, just for efficiency. Of course, if you find some frac you really like and want to get it in play, most of us would understand. :)

For a single table, I'd do something like the following (you can adjust this based on how much money your group will have in play):
50¢ x 100 (optional)
$1 x 200
$5 x 200 to 400
$25 x 200
$100 x 100

This is over $16,000 of bank. Is that enough? Too much? Only you can answer that.
 
How many players and what is the max buy in?

For a single table, I'd do something like the following (you can adjust this based on how much money your group will have in play):
50¢ x 100 (optional)
$1 x 200
$5 x 200 to 400
$25 x 200
$100 x 100


This is a very solid break down. If your going to do a 1/2 game I would have 400 x 5 dollar chips as they will be your work horse. If this starts to exceed your budget you could probably cut back on the 100's.
 
I second Beakertwang regarding the 50¢ chips in a 50¢/$1

Denominations and numbers will be pretty much depends on how many players are you and how much would you like to spend.
A good rule of thumb it's to have players conformable with buy-ins equivalent to 100 big blinds.

So, having 25¢ / 50¢ , $1/$1 , $1/$2 or $3/$5 games (or more expensive) means $50 buy in / $100 buy in $200 buy in and $500 buy at minimum per player (and you must consider re-buys)
Therefore the chip breakdown and amount will depends pretty much on buy in, re buys and amount of players.

I have 2 set for cash games, and their are composed as follow

A 500 chips for 10 players used on 25¢/50¢

120x 25¢
170x $1s
170x $5s
40x $25


1000 chips set for 10 players for flexible stakes (from 25¢/50¢ to $3/$5)

125x 25¢
300x $1
400x $5
125x $25
50x $100
 
My $1/$2 breakdown is
300 - $1
500 - $5
100 - $25
100 - $100
 
How many players and what is the max buy in?




This is a very solid break down. If your going to do a 1/2 game I would have 400 x 5 dollar chips as they will be your work horse. If this starts to exceed your budget you could probably cut back on the 100's.

Solid advice here.

I like to future proof my cash sets and build around that goal if possible. For our group(s), the workhorse chip is the $5 so we tend to use more of them. We also play 0.25/0.50, 0.50/$1, or $1/$1 depending on the group and host.

100/200/400/200/100 1000 chips

Fracs/$1/$5/$20(or $25)/$100

Even though we’d never use them, I might add a barrel of $500s and one less barrel of hundos if the chips are pretty and fit with the set.
 
I host a regular $1/2 cash game. Here is the breakdown that works well for us.

$1 x 200
$5 x 600
$25 x 200
$100 x 20

All 600 $5's always get into play with a 9 player game. You can get by with less $5's but I like to have lots of $5's on the table as I think it promotes action. Buy-ins range from $200 to $300 per player, plus re-loads.

You likely won't need a full rack of $100's. Mine rarely get put into play.
 
How many players and what is the max buy in?




This is a very solid break down. If your going to do a 1/2 game I would have 400 x 5 dollar chips as they will be your work horse. If this starts to exceed your budget you could probably cut back on the 100's.
Thanks everyone for the solid advice! We have had our first two games and we had 8 players, $100 buy-in with max two rebuys. Sounds like I have some flexibility. But should probably consider some flexibility and whether I need fracs on the low end and add 100's etc. as budget allows.
 
Following up on the helpful advice from earlier this morning.

Current set we are using is:
$1 - 200
$5 - 200
$25 - 150
$100 - 50

I will be looking to build a quality set of Paulson's PCRs. I'd like to build that one with some flexibility so maybe target to start here:
.25 - 100
$1 - 200
$5 - 300
$20/25 - 150
$100 - 50

Am I close? What would a set like that cost? Do these come up in sets, or do you need to buy and build as they are available?
 
Following up on the helpful advice from earlier this morning.

Current set we are using is:
$1 - 200
$5 - 200
$25 - 150
$100 - 50

I will be looking to build a quality set of Paulson's PCRs. I'd like to build that one with some flexibility so maybe target to start here:
.25 - 100
$1 - 200
$5 - 300
$20/25 - 150
$100 - 50

Am I close? What would a set like that cost? Do these come up in sets, or do you need to buy and build as they are available?

I like your proposed breakdown. One slight change I’d make though is 160 $25s and 40 $100s. Having full barrels just looks prettier in the rack :) Edit: or 140/60.

Likely need to build as available unless you’re willing to pay the outrageous asking prices for sets as their posted on eBay. :mad:
 
I like your proposed breakdown. One slight change I’d make though is 160 $25s and 40 $100s. Having full barrels just looks prettier in the rack :) Edit: or 140/60.

Likely need to build as available unless you’re willing to pay the outrageous asking prices for sets as their posted on eBay. :mad:

Great edit. Thanks! Yah, I assumed this would be a process. That is fine with me, though, as we have a decent set to play with now.
 
So this would be overboard?
8v Cash set wip 03.JPG
 
I am also looking at getting a set for 1-2 and am thinking of doing something like below. We play up to $200 buy in with unlimited rebuys. Let me know your thoughts.

150 $1
400 $5
200 $25
100 $100

Wondering if this is overkill?
 
Following up on the helpful advice from earlier this morning.

Current set we are using is:
$1 - 200
$5 - 200
$25 - 150
$100 - 50

I will be looking to build a quality set of Paulson's PCRs. I'd like to build that one with some flexibility so maybe target to start here:
.25 - 100
$1 - 200
$5 - 300
$20/25 - 150
$100 - 50

Am I close? What would a set like that cost? Do these come up in sets, or do you need to buy and build as they are available?

It looks like a little overkill. You said you play $1/$2 with 8 players and $100 buy ins and max 2 rebuys, so you won't need much more than about $2400-$3000 bank. It also seems you want a little flexibility with lower stakes games with quarters. I'd consider:

100x $0.25
200x $1
340x $5
140x $25
20x $100

800 chips, $7425 bank (huge). If you want to do $2/$5 stakes, trade 40 of the $5s for 40 more $100s to bring your bank to $11225.
 
I am also looking at getting a set for 1-2 and am thinking of doing something like below. We play up to $200 buy in with unlimited rebuys. Let me know your thoughts.

150 $1
400 $5
200 $25
100 $100

Wondering if this is overkill?

That depends. This is over $17000 Bank. If there's $10-12K on the table on a typical night, then it's not overkill at all.
Might be overkill if you've got less than $4K on the table at the end of the night. Then you might get away with a small 600 chip set (I'm assuming 8 players):
120x $1
380x $5
80x $25
20x $100
Bank $6020
 
Last edited:
It looks like a little overkill. You said you play $1/$2 with 8 players and $100 buy ins and max 2 rebuys, so you won't need much more than about $2400-$3000 bank. It also seems you want a little flexibility with lower stakes games with quarters. I'd consider:

100x $0.25
200x $1
340x $5
140x $25
20x $100

800 chips, $7425 bank (huge). If you want to do $2/$5 stakes, trade 40 of the $5s for 40 more $100s to bring your bank to $11225.
My game is generally 10 players with unlimited rebuys.
 
My game is generally 10 players with unlimited rebuys.

See my answer for your situation above. I think it's reasonable to have enough bank to cover the most you've ever had on the table in one night, and then adding another 50-100% on top. This is usually not a huge extra cost because the extra can be done with your highest denomination chips, which for many home games will be the $100 chip, but in some baller games I can see it being a $500 chip. The key here is efficiency - get as many as you need to play your stakes but no more than necessary, so you can stretch your budget and get better quality for the same price. $600 for 600 chips can potentially get you much better quality chips than $600 for 1000 chips (as an example).
 
Altj
See my answer for your situation above. I think it's reasonable to have enough bank to cover the most you've ever had on the table in one night, and then adding another 50-100% on top. This is usually not a huge extra cost because the extra can be done with your highest denomination chips, which for many home games will be the $100 chip, but in some baller games I can see it being a $500 chip. The key here is efficiency - get as many as you need to play your stakes but no more than necessary, so you can stretch your budget and get better quality for the same price. $600 for 600 chips can potentially get you much better quality chips than $600 for 1000 chips (as an example).
thank you. On a bigger night we can have $4-$5k on the table. So this should be a good guideline for me. 6-700 chips should be ideal!
 
I'm glad I saw this post because I'm going to assume the future cash game set of 500 chips broken down like below won't be enough for a 9 max 1/2 NLHE game with a max $200 buyin and you can top off your stack when you fall below $100. I don't think most people are buying in more than once and I'm still not sure I need 1000 chips.

100 x $1
300 x $5
75 x $25
25 x $100

It gives me a $4,175 bank. If I'm correct, I've only got 3 rebuys in there, and after 1 rebuy I don't have any $1 chips left. I think I can get away with a 700 chip cash game set that has 150 x $1 / 400 x $5 / 150 x $25. That would give me a $5,900 bank and if I need $100 chips, I can pull out my Royals (tourney set) giving me $8,400 in the bank

AC
 
I'm glad I saw this post because I'm going to assume the future cash game set of 500 chips broken down like below won't be enough for a 9 max 1/2 NLHE game with a max $200 buyin and you can top off your stack when you fall below $100. I don't think most people are buying in more than once and I'm still not sure I need 1000 chips.

100 x $1
300 x $5
75 x $25
25 x $100

It gives me a $4,175 bank. If I'm correct, I've only got 3 rebuys in there, and after 1 rebuy I don't have any $1 chips left. I think I can get away with a 700 chip cash game set that has 150 x $1 / 400 x $5 / 150 x $25. That would give me a $5,900 bank and if I need $100 chips, I can pull out my Royals (tourney set) giving me $8,400 in the bank

AC

I would consider 600 chips:

140x $1
360x $5
80x $25
20x $100

Gives 15/17/4 for $200 buy-in (x9 = 135/153/36) and Bank $5940, which is approximately 50% more than your predicted highest number of rebuys. Even barrels all around.
 

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