Denominations (2 Viewers)

[flippyflop89]

Looking to buy my first decent set of chips and am having a hard time deciding on denominations. My group plays a tournament style game with an initial buy of somewhere around $20-50. We allow one rebuy.

I like the idea of tournament denominations but I feel like it might be confusing the the group. We have been making certain colors value at like .25/.50/1/2/5 and generally try to match starting stacks to the value we decided the buy in was that night.

I have noticed that a common split for tournament chips are 25/100/500/1000. Im considering following those ratios but dividing them all by 100. So id end up with a chipset of .25/1/5/10 and probably some 25/50s for good measure. I feel this would allow us to follow some more structures rules and suggested tournament styles but allow the group to feel more comfortable knowing the true value of what they are betting. This would also allow me to do the occasional cash game should I want to.

I'm looking to spend ~$300-$400 on a nice chipset and want flexibility, but don't want to make a mistake. Figured maybe I could learn from your mistakes.

Would love to hear the forum's thoughts on if this is a good idea, if it even makes sense, or should I just tell my friends to suck it up and learn my new chips as large tournament denominations because it's my house lol.

 

[Eriks]

25c/50c/1/2/5 are way too many denoms in play. It’s not efficient. Ideally you want 4-5x between each denom.

25c/1/5/10/25 is better but you should lose the 10. I know it might feel the same as having both a 500 and a 1k in a T25 set but it’s not. Following the 4-5x rule we should make T2000 or T2500 chips (and some do), but it seems they tend to not work as well since people are used to playing with a 1k and construct bets and read stacks based on that.

It works well with a 25 so it shouldn’t be any different but it is.

 

[allforcharity]

You mean your friends don't want to feel like high rollers and use big denominations? Isn't that the whole point of tournament play? =)

Guess I need to retire my T5000 base T10million set then....

 

[flippyflop89]

You mean your friends don't want to feel like high rollers and use big denominations? Isn't that the whole point of tournament play? =)

Guess I need to retire my T5000 base T10million set then....

Ha I'm sure they'd love to. I have a few friends that seem to struggle with .25/.50 blinds and how to do math. I think their head would explode doing math in the thousands/millions.

Maybe my next set of chips... or friends

 

[BGinGA]

If wanting a low stakes cash-value tournament set, go with one of the following:

.25, 1, 5, 25
or
.05, .25 1, 5

For a $50 buy-in = 100 starting big blind tournament, the initial blind level would be .25/.50 with an 12/12/7 = T50 starting stack (using .25/1/5 starting chips with 5 and 25 denom chips for re-buys and color-ups).

For a $20 buy-in, you're either going to be playing extremely short-stacked from the beginning (8/8/2 = just 40 starting big blinds with a .25/.50 opening level), or you'll want to use a nickel-base set:

Using a .10/.20 opening blind level with T20 stacks of 10/10/7/2 (.05, .25, 1, 5 denoms) is also = 100 starting big blinds, with the 1 and 5 denoms used for re-buys and color-ups.

A 10-player .25-base set needs the following chips:
120 x .25
120 x 1
75 x 5 (5x for T.25 color-ups)
25 x 25 (10 re-buys plus 5x for T1 color-ups)
------
340 chips

A 10-player .05-base set needs the following chips:
100 x .05
100 x .25
75 x 1 (5x for T.05 color-ups)
60 x 5 (10 re-buys plus 5x for T.25 color-ups)
------
335 chips

Combining the two sets:
100 x .05
120 x .25
120 x 1
75 x 5
25 x 25
--------
420 total chips

With a budget of $300-$400, that means you can afford up to 71c to 95c per chip to get what you need. Happy Shopping!

 

[flippyflop89]

If wanting a low stakes cash-value tournament set, go with one of the following:

.25, 1, 5, 25
or
.05, .25 1, 5

For a $50 buy-in = 100 starting big blind tournament, the initial blind level would be .25/.50 with an 12/12/7 = T50 starting stack (using .25/1/5 starting chips with 5 and 25 denom chips for re-buys and color-ups).

For a $20 buy-in, you're either going to be playing extremely short-stacked from the beginning (8/8/2 = just 40 starting big blinds with a .25/.50 opening level), or you'll want to use a nickel-base set:

Using a .10/.20 opening blind level with T20 stacks of 10/10/7/2 (.05, .25, 1, 5 denoms) is also = 100 starting big blinds, with the 1 and 5 denoms used for re-buys and color-ups.

A 10-player .25-base set needs the following chips:
120 x .25
120 x 1
75 x 5 (5x for T.25 color-ups)
25 x 25 (10 re-buys plus 5x for T1 color-ups)
------
340 chips

A 10-player .05-base set needs the following chips:
100 x .05
100 x .25
75 x 1 (5x for T.05 color-ups)
60 x 5 (10 re-buys plus 5x for T.25 color-ups)
------
335 chips

Combining the two sets:
100 x .05
120 x .25
120 x 1
75 x 5
25 x 25
--------
420 total chips

With a budget of $300-$400, that means you can afford up to 71c to 95c per chip to get what you need. Happy Shopping!

I love this, thank you so much. I would definitely lean towards the .25 base set. What about if I allow rebuys? By the break how many of the 10 players would you imagine need to get another starting stack? That ambiguity is killing my ocd planning of chip purchase lol

 

[BGinGA]

What about if I allow rebuys? By the break how many of the 10 players would you imagine need to get another starting stack? That ambiguity is killing my ocd planning of chip purchase lol

Most good blind structures with reasonably-sized starting stacks will see re-buys equal to about 25%-33% of the field size (the larger the stack size measured in BB -- big blinds -- the smaller the re-buy rate). Deeper tournaments may only see 20% or fewer re-buys. I typically budget for 50% re-buys just to ensure enough chips on hand.

Re-buy stacks need not be duplicates of the starting stack breakdown, since an adequate number of the two lowest denominations are typically already in play. A single large-denomination chip as a re-buy isn't recommended either, as it may be difficult (or impossible) to convert to playable change at the table. A combination of two color-up chip denominations (chips #3/#4 or #4/#5 in the line-up) often works well, and also adds those denominations into play that will be needed later in the event.

 

[flippyflop89]

Most good blind structures with reasonably-sized starting stacks will see re-buys equal to about 25%-33% of the field size (the larger the stack size measured in BB -- big blinds -- the smaller the re-buy rate). Deeper tournaments may only see 20% or fewer re-buys. I typically budget for 50% re-buys just to ensure enough chips on hand.

Re-buy stacks need not be duplicates of the starting stack breakdown, since an adequate number of the two lowest denominations are typically already in play. A single large-denomination chip as a re-buy isn't recommended either, as it may be difficult (or impossible) to convert to playable change at the table. A combination of two color-up chip denominations (chips #3/#4 or #4/#5 in the line-up) often works well, and also adds those denominations into play that will be needed later in the event.

Super helpful, thanks!

Yeah I watched a few recommended YouTube vids and most of them used the 1 big chip situation for color ups and re-buys. I ordered my chips and I will have some options at the $5/$10 chip level as well as the $50 to make my .25/1/5/10/50 set work. We are all pretty casual players so i'm not too concerned about trying a few things out to dial in what people prefer. Usually about the same 14 guys total and we get about 50% attendance in a given game.

 

[allforcharity]

Yeah I watched a few recommended YouTube vids and most of them used the 1 big chip situation for color ups and re-buys.

To me, this only works if the 1 chip rebuy is immediately exchanged for a full new (or close to new) starting stack, usually by the big stack at the table. Change is inevitable no matter when the rebuy chips are introduced, it just matters if the change is made once right away or continously over several hands as the large denoms spread out again.