Cash Game Chip Break down for a .10 / .25 Microstakes cash game. (1 Viewer)

[Indrajit]

Hi Everyone,

I am trying to put together a 500 chip poker set for my .10 / .25 game and looking for advice on how many of each chip I should purchase for these stakes.

The denominations for chips would be:

.10c
.25c
$1
$5
$20

I have been trying to put together an appropriate chip count with these denominations but I'm having a hard time figuring out how it will work in practice for a 9-Max game with $50 buyins.

I currently have the following breakdown in mind:

.10c x 100
.25c x 180
$1 x 150
$5 x 50
$20 x 20

Is this an appropriate breakdown for this sort of game? Should i get less of any denom and more of another? Should I try 5c chips instead of 10c chips and try a different breakdown?

Thanks in advance for the advice,
Nick

 

[SteveEH]

Go .25/.25 unless you plan on doing .10/.10 too. It's no different than .10/.25.

 

[Indrajit]

Go .25/.25 unless you plan on doing .10/.10 too. It's no different than .10/.25.

What would you suggest the breakdown be for this? considering I wouldn't need .10c Chips

 

[golosefast]

Go .25/.25 unless you plan on doing .10/.10 too. It's no different than .10/.25.

agreed, saves you from getting the 10cent chips, so you can have more money in the bank.

 

[Roslindale]

How many people?

Starting stack of:
5 dimes
10 or 14 quarters
17 ones

 

[SteveEH]

For 9 max 200bb buy in you want a bank of 1350 minimum (9 players x 50 x 3 buy ins each)

If there's a lot of pre flop limping expected, 1 barrel of quarters per person is probably reasonable. If not, 100 will be sufficient, and you can increase the number of workhorse $1 chips you have. If budget is a concern, I'd probably go I with $25 vs $20 so I could maximize my $1 workhorse too.

Yes .05 is more preferable than .10 if you're using a .25 chip so you can make change (5x.05 for a quarter vs. 10x.10 for 2 quarters).

 

[Indrajit]

For 9 max 200bb buy in you want a bank of 1350 minimum (9 players x 50 x 3 buy ins each)

If there's a lot of pre flop limping expected, 1 barrel of quarters per person is probably reasonable. If not, 100 will be sufficient, and you can increase the number of workhorse $1 chips you have. If budget is a concern, I'd probably go I with $25 vs $20 so I could maximize my $1 workhorse too.

Yes .05 is preferable that .10 if you're using a .25 chip so you can make change (5x.05 for a quarter vs. 10x.10 for 2 quarters).

Thanks so much, this helps a ton.

How many people?

Starting stack of:
5 dimes
10 or 14 quarters
17 ones

It would be a game of 9 people, buy in of $50

 

[SeanGecko]

Here's my suggestion

8v Cash set wip 02.JPG

• SeanGecko
• Feb 5, 2019

8V micro Cash set.jpg

• SeanGecko
• Feb 5, 2019

 

[Labrat]

What would you suggest the breakdown be for this? considering I wouldn't need .10c Chips

My set is 2 racks of quarters, 2 racks of dollars, 2 racks of fives filled out with 75 - $25s and 25 - $100s which is way overkill for my group but for what Tina hybrids cost, why not.

For a 100bb buy in I give a barrel each of quarters and a barrel of ones. If you’re going to go to a 200bb, which I recommend, fill it out with 5 fives.

That’s a base bank of $1250. If you play with degenerates you can get a barrel or two of $25s for crazy nights.

 

[QuietMaple]

I agree with everyone else that you should drop the dimes. I regularly play $0.25/$0.25 and it feels exactly the same as $0.10/$0.25. Who isn't going to call in the SB for 15 cents more?

This is the breakdown I would do if I were in your shoes:

and 3 buys per person is a little generous, that never happens in my games, especially because at least one or two of the players won't be rebuying because all the chips will be flowing towards them. You could instead do 75x$5 + 25x$25 if you are worried about not having enough $5s. You could also do 150x$0.25, but it's convenient to be able to just give a whole barrel (20 chips) of quarters to each player in their starting stacks, which you won't be able to do with 150 of them.

 

[SeanGecko]

I agree with everyone else that you should drop the dimes. I regularly play $0.25/$0.25 and it feels exactly the same as $0.10/$0.25. Who isn't going to call in the SB for 15 cents more?

This is the breakdown I would do if I were in your shoes:
View attachment 1657233

and 3 buys per person is a little generous, that never happens in my games, especially because at least one or two of the players won't be rebuying because all the chips will be flowing towards them. You could instead do 75x$5 + 25x$25 if you are worried about not having enough $5s. You could also do 150x$0.25, but it's convenient to be able to just give a whole barrel (20 chips) of quarters to each player in their starting stacks, which you won't be able to do with 150 of them.

I'm team nickel!

 

[Machine]

There was a really good post about how to calculate this, let me use the search tool and find it for you ....

Optimal Chip Breakdown

 

[QuietMaple]

If you want something smaller than a $0.25 chip to support a lower stakes game, I would get nickels (not dimes). And I would do the breakdown like this:

 

[JustinInMN]

Hi Everyone,

I am trying to put together a 500 chip poker set for my .10 / .25 game and looking for advice on how many of each chip I should purchase for these stakes.

The denominations for chips would be:

.10c
.25c
$1
$5
$20

I have been trying to put together an appropriate chip count with these denominations but I'm having a hard time figuring out how it will work in practice for a 9-Max game with $50 buyins.

I currently have the following breakdown in mind:

.10c x 100
.25c x 180
$1 x 150
$5 x 50
$20 x 20

Is this an appropriate breakdown for this sort of game? Should i get less of any denom and more of another? Should I try 5c chips instead of 10c chips and try a different breakdown?

Hello,

So two quick points to start.

1) Dimes and quarters do not get along, I would not use them in the same set. I would either do one of the following
a. Play with the small blind and big blind at 25¢ so you can eliminated the dimes.
b. change the blinds to 10¢ - 20¢ or 10¢ - 30¢ and do a progression with 10¢ - 50¢ - 1 denoms

2) You have over half your set in fractional chips and are way too low on singles and fives.

Five hundred chips is tight but doable for a single table game. We just have to focus on the stake you are playing and not worry too much about future proofing.

If we pursue option "a" and forgo the dimes and reduce the quarters, this frees up a lot of space within 500 chips to bulk up on singles and fives.

I would suggest 100/300/160/40 of 25¢/1/5/20 denominations for a total bank of $1925, or just over 4 buy-ins per player at 9-max, which should be plenty.

For $50 buy in, your singles are going to be your "workhorse" chip (the denomination you should use to bulk the starting stacks) and it would be good to be able to give at least 20-25 to every player, and having this many on the table makes it easy to change for fives or twenties as needed. Imo, fives are too high of denomination to consider your "workhorse" at this stake. Just five chips would make up half a buy in. That's a bit too much for my taste for starting stacks at least. Imo, if you limit your starting stacks to 4 five-dollar chips per player, that's the "sweet spot" where you will still have enough lower denominations on the table to make change-making simple and rare.

With that in mind, for constructing stating stacks, you can make your first 8 stacks using 12/27/4 (of 25¢/1/5) for $50, and then a 9th stack of 4/29/4 and then you will have exhausted the quarters.

(Since not all players start at the same time with cash games, some hosts will just issue 20 quarters in each of the first 5 stacks, and then everyone else gets singles and fives for simplicity and can buy a couple dollars of quarters from what's on the table.)

Now after you have all the quarters and nearly all of the singles on the table, it's fine to issue rebuy stacks with most of the value in fives. Unlike with starting stacks, when you issue rebuy stacks, the requisite change required is on the table so it doesn't create too many change-making issues during play.

After the starting stacks you will still have $675 in singles and fives left over for the next 12 rebuys before you even touch the twenties.

Again, this suggested breakdown is geared specifically for the $50 buy-in you mentioned. It would probably be good for $60 as well. (32 total buy-ins) Even $100 is probably okay at 19 total buy ins. It's still two per player which would actually be okay most nights, but you probably want to have a contingency of allowing $20 notes to play once the bank is exhausted. Alternatively, adding 100 fives to the breakdown for a 600 chip set would work as well if you find this would become a regular stake and then that whole range would be well covered.

FWIW, I am partial to 600 chip sets because I like these sort of "cage" storage cases with the racks as opposed to the suitcase style cases, but it's a matter of taste.

So I hope this helps. I was trying to fill in the "why" with my preferences here and trying to work within your original constraints.

 

[Indrajit]

Hello,

So two quick points to start.

1) Dimes and quarters do not get along, I would not use them in the same set. I would either do one of the following
a. Play with the small blind and big blind at 25¢ so you can eliminated the dimes.
b. change the blinds to 10¢ - 20¢ or 10¢ - 30¢ and do a progression with 10¢ - 50¢ - 1 denoms

2) You have over half your set in fractional chips and are way too low on singles and fives.

Five hundred chips is tight but doable for a single table game. We just have to focus on the stake you are playing and not worry too much about future proofing.

If we pursue option "a" and forgo the dimes and reduce the quarters, this frees up a lot of space within 500 chips to bulk up on singles and fives.

I would suggest 100/300/160/40 of 25¢/1/5/20 denominations for a total bank of $1925, or just over 4 buy-ins per player at 9-max, which should be plenty.

For $50 buy in, your singles are going to be your "workhorse" chip (the denomination you should use to bulk the starting stacks) and it would be good to be able to give at least 20-25 to every player, and having this many on the table makes it easy to change for fives or twenties as needed. Imo, fives are too high of denomination to consider your "workhorse" at this stake. Just five chips would make up half a buy in. That's a bit too much for my taste for starting stacks at least. Imo, if you limit your starting stacks to 4 five-dollar chips per player, that's the "sweet spot" where you will still have enough lower denominations on the table to make change-making simple and rare.

With that in mind, for constructing stating stacks, you can make your first 8 stacks using 12/27/4 (of 25¢/1/5) for $50, and then a 9th stack of 4/29/4 and then you will have exhausted the quarters.

(Since not all players start at the same time with cash games, some hosts will just issue 20 quarters in each of the first 5 stacks, and then everyone else gets singles and fives for simplicity and can buy a couple dollars of quarters from what's on the table.)

Now after you have all the quarters and nearly all of the singles on the table, it's fine to issue rebuy stacks with most of the value in fives. Unlike with starting stacks, when you issue rebuy stacks, the requisite change required is on the table so it doesn't create too many change-making issues during play.

After the starting stacks you will still have $675 in singles and fives left over for the next 12 rebuys before you even touch the twenties.

Again, this suggested breakdown is geared specifically for the $50 buy-in you mentioned. It would probably be good for $60 as well. (32 total buy-ins) Even $100 is probably okay at 19 total buy ins. It's still two per player which would actually be okay most nights, but you probably want to have a contingency of allowing $20 notes to play once the bank is exhausted. Alternatively, adding 100 fives to the breakdown for a 600 chip set would work as well if you find this would become a regular stake and then that whole range would be well covered.

FWIW, I am partial to 600 chip sets because I like these sort of "cage" storage cases with the racks as opposed to the suitcase style cases, but it's a matter of taste.

View attachment 1657891


So I hope this helps. I was trying to fill in the "why" with my preferences here and trying to work within your original constraints.

This helps a ton, thanks for taking the time to talk through it. Going to reevaluate my breakdown and try to get a more appropriate set together.

IF I was hellbent on adding 5c denoms to the set to try and keep the game at 10c 25c. how many 5c chips would you recommend. Would I really need many?

Thanks.

 

[nynit]

I'd suggest 100. Either a barrel in the first five starting stacks and then players make change, or 10 in each starting stack.

 

[JustinInMN]

This helps a ton, thanks for taking the time to talk through it. Going to reevaluate my breakdown and try to get a more appropriate set together.

IF I was hellbent on adding 5c denoms to the set to try and keep the game at 10c 25c. how many 5c chips would you recommend. Would I really need many?

Thanks.

I would probably do something like 75 * 5¢ and 125 * 25¢ in this case.

The upside to doing nickels is that you have more downward flexibility now and can play stakes as low as 5¢-5¢ with 10-25¢ as your ceiling. If that's more likely than your stakes growing, that's probably the right call.

But then I think you are definitely looking at 600 chips now because you still need to do something like 250 singles, and 125 fives, and maybe 25 twenties only to support the $50 buy in game. Your bank is still $1410 here, which supports 3 buy-ins of $50 per player. No real upward flexibility though.

Starting stacks get a little more complex, but I would think something like this.

I would plan 6 stacks of 10/18/26/4
7th-8th stacks at 5/7/28/4
9th stack at 5/3/29/4

That exhausts the nickels quarters, and singles and leaves plenty of fives and twenties for rebuys.

 

[Colquhoun]

This helps a ton, thanks for taking the time to talk through it. Going to reevaluate my breakdown and try to get a more appropriate set together.

IF I was hellbent on adding 5c denoms to the set to try and keep the game at 10c 25c. how many 5c chips would you recommend. Would I really need many?

Thanks.

Think about it…in 10c/25c, each player only needs 2 nickels as the small blind per orbit. If they play from the small blind, they’re pulling those nickels back anyway. IMO, they’re just a nuisance chip for 10c/25c.
5c chips are great for 5c/10c, however.