Cash Game Chip breakdown - 500 chip set (5 Viewers)

[LiquidAnalog]

Considering to assemble a 500 chip set, for a Cash Game $1 blinds and $50 buy-in x2 as follows:

Denomination	Count
$1	200
$5	150
$25	100
$100	20

(Keeping some space in the box for fun higher denominations).

Is this a practical breakdown? Any improvements?

 

[QuietMaple]

Yeah I think that breakdown is fine. Having $1 blinds is nice because you don't need any "frac" chips (chips less than $1), which leaves a lot more breathing room for other denominations. You might want to consider a larger buy-in size though. $50 is only 50 BB, which is considered a bit small (I like to have at least 100 BB in front of me).
Even if you increase the buy-in to $100, you'll have plenty of bank:

 

[churlbut18]

I’d probably go with 200/200/80/20 if limited to 500 chips with no fracs.

200/200/60/20 if you want room for another 20 of a higher fun denomination.

 

[LiquidAnalog]

@QuietMaple Nice, thanks for the confirmation!

For a followup question - how would it look for a minimal 300 chip set?
Asking because I have some parts of the set, and wonder at what point it can be functional.

For a 300 chip set, I thought of:

Denomination	Count	Bank
$1	150	$150
$5	100	$500
$25	40	$1000
$100	10	$1000
Total		$2600

Which per the good calculation you did above, looks like its good to go. Correct?

@churlbut18 Interesting - can you please elaborate on why this is better?

 

[BKisback]

300 is only going to cover a smallish game. Bank on 60-80 chips per player. If blinds are one chip, the next biggest is going to be the workhorse in most cases.

 

[churlbut18]

@QuietMaple Nice, thanks for the confirmation!

For a followup question - how would it look for a minimal 300 chip set?
Asking because I have some parts of the set, and wonder at what point it can be functional.

For a 300 chip set, I thought of:

Denomination	Count	Bank
$1	150	$150
$5	100	$500
$25	40	$1000
$100	10	$1000
Total		$2600

Which per the good calculation you did above, looks like its good to go. Correct?

@churlbut18 Interesting - can you please elaborate on why this is better?

It’s just preference. I prefer quantities in even barrels (20 chips). 50 and 150 quantities tweak my OCD.

 

[QuietMaple]

You would be right at the edge with only 300 chips, but if people are fine making change occasionally and your games aren't too splashy, I think it would work (in my games it's very very rare for anyone to buy in more than 3 times, but I know that's not the case everywhere). You could even let $100 bills play if you needed slightly more breathing room.

At lower chip counts, you also need to think about starting stacks, but I think you could do it with this:

When someone buys back in, you give them all $25 chips (or a $100 chip when you run out), and they make change with the player who just took their stack

 

[bigfootmike]

I like that Idea of the $25 chip for buy backs. Very solid and simple. Then change at the table.

 

[Craig D]

How many players? Are you expecting more players over time? What game(s) do you play? What is the most money have you had in play? Does your game play "big" or "small"? Is your game likely to increase the blinds in future? Do your players like a lot of chips in play, or few chips in play? What is the minimum number of chips do you need to buy in a denomination?

Without the above, who knows...

Also I've never seen a $25 bill, have you thought about a $20 chip as your biggest chip?


Have Fun

 

[exodus]

Since it’s an 8-handed $1/$1 game I would go more $5 cause that would be the workhorse chip.
My breakdown would be:
$1 x 125
$5 x 250
$25 x 100
$100 x 25

 

[Frode789]

For 8-max, 200 5s is perfectly reasonable when on a chip-budget. But of course, some prefer more of the main workhorse chip, while others prefer to use the next denoms more and have less chips on the table (less time used to count all-ins, stack chips etc). And if your group also isn't as aggressive or tend to limp a bit, having plenty of 1s is nice to avoid constant change-making.

As others have mentioned, 50BBs is quite low, I'd strongly consider increasing that to 100BB-150BB to allow for more room for playing poker.
(If you want to keep 50$ max, you should consider dropping down in stakes to 0,50/0,50 or 0,25/0,50 for 100BB at 50$, but then you'd need another chip denom).

Another vote for 200/200/80/20.

$1 - 200
$5 - 200
$20/25 - 80 *(I like the 20 tbh, brings to into action more when its "only" x4 of the 5s)
$100 - 20
Total bank: 5200 with 25s. More then enough for 1/1 and can work with 1/2 as well. (x52 buy-ins of 100$/x26 for 200$).