Tourney Chip count question (1 Viewer)

[whoop84]

My group mainly plays a $20 buy in tournament, how odd would it be to only have three different chips in play? I have a set of Paulson starburst, but only have three different colors. I am fine on the total chip count in that I have almost 1000 chips total. Should I try to get them in play, or wait until I can find a fourth chip?

 

[upNdown]

Curiously following this.
My guess is if I had to play with only 3 demonizations, I'd try making them 25, 100, and 1,000, but I look forward to seeing what more experienced people have to say.

 

[PAZ]

Doesn't sound odd at all. What's your starting stack? I like 25, 100, 500 x 8 = T5000. You can of course use less 500's and more 100's to get to T5000. The 24 chip starting stack works fine when you have 3 denominations and only 100 of each for 1 table.

 

[whoop84]

I was thinking of $5000 starting stacks of 12-12-7. That would leave me plenty for color up of the $25. I could add some more $100 like you said, which could allow some rebuys.

 

[BGinGA]

Theoretically, having only three denominations in play at one time is optimal for tournaments (especially single-table events). Starting choices can be .25-1-5, 1-5-25, 5-25-100, or 25-100-500, etc.

Typically, adding a fourth denomination should only be done when removing the lowest one in play. Optimally you want only 200 chips or fewer in play at tournament end.

 

[Poker Zombie]

In theory, only 3 denoms will be just fine. Eventually you will color-up at least one of those and have just 2 (or 1) denom left in play, but there simply isn't anything wrong with that.

If given a choice between a game with Paulson Starbursts in 3 denoms and a game with dice chips in 6 different denoms...

Not even going to finish, because you already know you're doing it right.

 

[whoop84]

Thanks for the replies everyone. For some reason, I had it in my mind that we needed the extra ones but I guess that comes from posters on here that keep the narrative of the more chips the better.
So I guess I can try it and add more delicious chips to the mix later.

 

[TexRex]

Hmmm, I wonder why people on a chip site would keep talking about more chips....

How many of each color do you have? I think BG gave several ideas that are good. Generally, while I prefer to start at T25 (and BG's idea of T.25 is actually pretty efficient!), when limited to 3 colors, I'd tend to go more 1-5-25 since that makes a larger bank. Design your structure to keep the smallest value chips in play the longest. But I'd be inclined to have the chips you have the most of, if they aren't denominated, be the middle or highest value.

 

[whoop84]

My chip count is:
99-lavender
192-white
672-blue
I was thinking about using the whites for 25, the blues for 100 and the lavenders for 500.
My thought was that I could color up and get the whites off of the table and finish up with just two colors out there.

 

[TexRex]

Whoop, I should also have asked how many players. There is nothing wrong with your plan, but here are some alternatives.

1 Table (10 players)
Blue T25x20=500.00 (you will be one short of blue chips)
White T100x55=5,500.00 (6,000 total)
Lav T500x0 (color up only)
Based on your proposed values -- 120 BB; total bank 121,500 (a little over 20 buy-ins)

Here's an alternative with a lot more bank and bigger stacks:
Lav T25x8=200.00
White T100x58=5,800.00 (6,000.00 total)
Blue T500x8=4,000 (10,000)
200 BB; total bank 165,675 (16+ buy-ins)

If instead you want with 1-5-25, here are 2 ways to do it:

Lav T1x10=10
White T5x58=290 (300 total)
Blue T25x4=100 (400 total)
200 BB; total bank 6,027 (15+ buy-ins)

Most bang for the buck
Blue T1x10=10

White T5x58=290 (300 total)

Lav T25x8=200 (500 total) or T25x4=100

250 BB; total bank 8,259 (16+ buy-ins) or 200 BB, 20+ buy-ins)

By making the blue the smallest chip and spreading them by 5x, I think for 3 colors that is more efficient. While not traditional tournament values, I think that gives you more flexibility.

Regardless, I think you can make a playable set for one table, and possibly 2 if you do it right.

 

[whoop84]

Thank you. So it sounds like that I can make what I have playable while I keep searching for another color to add to the set. Now I just need to win some more so that I can find these chips some friends

 

[Wils]

Doesn't sound odd at all. What's your starting stack? I like 25, 100, 500 x 8 = T5000.

I'm a fan of that setup too, for quick and dirty tourneys. (It gets the max amount of my orange CPS 500's in play )

No "how many green chips? How many black chips?" questions when the chips are being dished out at the start of the next game.

Just grab eight of each.

 

[Frank]

Theoretically, having only three denominations in play at one time is optimal for tournaments (especially single-table events).

Does this include bigger (200BB+) starting stacks? I am thinking of making a single table set with 3 denoms (and maybe a 4th but it would be the same base color as the smallest chip that is colored up). The price of the chips I am looking at makes 200BB starting stacks with all of the larger denoms required very expensive.

In my example I am using T5, T25, T100, and maybe T500:

Even if I give each player 20 x T5s, with 10 players, that's only 2 T500 chips required to color them up. Maybe I'll save the T500s for coloring up the T25s?

I'm still wondering if there's a different tournament I could run with re-buys that allows the T5s and T500s to be the same base color (and not on the table at the same time). Perhaps the cheap re-buy/add-on tourney you mentioned a while ago in my thread would work well (although more options would be nice too). Otherwise, if I need 200BB starting stacks with re-buys maybe the best solution (except for visual appeal) is to find a T1 base chip. Starting stacks could be:

T1 x 20
T5 x 16
T25 x 12
And T100s for re-buys/color ups

 

[BGinGA]

Does this include bigger (200BB+) starting stacks?

No, it's pretty difficult to avoid using 4 denominations for large starting stacks. Certainly not cost-effective, and usually inefficient as well.

a 4th but it would be the same base color as the smallest chip that is colored up)

T5s and T500s to be the same base color (and not on the table at the same time).

Not a good idea under any circumstances, imo.

Even if I give each player 20 x T5s, with 10 players, that's only 2 T500 chips required to color them up. Maybe I'll save the T500s for coloring up the T25s?

10 x T5 per player is plenty, and would only require a single T500 chip to color-up 10 players.

Creating a 200BB stack 10-player event using T5 / T25 / T100 / T500 chips, I'd probably go with:

T2000 stacks (200bb with 5/10 opening blinds):
10 x T5
10 x T25
12 x T100
1 x T500
---------------
33 chips = T2000

Use 6 x T500 chips to color-up the T5 and T25 chips. You could use 17 x T100 in the starting stacks (and no T500s), but not having any T500 chips in play will be awkward in the latter stages of the tournament when bets get large.