I am looking to upgrade my set prioritizing chip feel and flexibility for my cash home game. (1 Viewer)

[pokerquestion]

I am considering getting a 300-pc set for my home game. I currently have dice chips, but I am looking to upgrade to blank milanos. We typically play $10, $20, & $50 cash games with 6-7 people.

The denominations I am looking at from pro poker store are: white x75, red x75, green or blue x75, black x50, purple x25.

My priorities are flexibility of my set to play different stakes cash games as well as the occasional tournament style game. Also is chip feel, I shuffle constantly so the weight and texture of the chips is important. Finally, I am in college so i am looking for a price point under $150.

Do you have any suggestions for modifications to make to this set up? Are milanos the right idea? Should I get valued chips instead of blanks? Does the 300 count split make sense as I described it? Do you think this set will last me a while?

Thanks for your help!

 

[NotRealNameNoSir]

I am considering getting a 300-pc set for my home game. I currently have dice chips, but I am looking to upgrade to blank milanos. We typically play $10, $20, & $50 cash games with 6-7 people.

The denominations I am looking at from pro poker store are: white x75, red x75, green or blue x75, black x50, purple x25.

My priorities are flexibility of my set to play different stakes cash games as well as the occasional tournament style game. Also is chip feel, I shuffle constantly so the weight and texture of the chips is important. Finally, I am in college so i am looking for a price point under $150.

Do you have any suggestions for modifications to make to this set up? Are milanos the right idea? Should I get valued chips instead of blanks? Does the 300 count split make sense as I described it? Do you think this set will last me a while?

Thanks for your help!

I totally get balling on a budget, but if you're playing $50 buyins with that amount, you've got like $350 on the table. Take some time and save up and get a quality set instead of spending a good chunk on incremental sets you won't be very happy with.

You're new to this, that's totally fine! But no, your breakdown doesnt work well at all for any stakes. Search for cash breakdowns on here. For a $10 game, what do your colors mean? What about $50? Even with denoms on the chips you could better optimize this breakdown, though 300 chips will be very tough if thats a hard cap.

 

[improviseallday]

Denoms help a lot. I would prefer over blanks.

If 300 is a hard cap, probably something like:

50 $0.25
100 $1
125 $5
25 $25

The game will probably play a bit tighter since people will be short on $1 and $5 chips.

If you had a bit more budget,

50 $0.25
150 $1
175 $5
25 $25

 

[springbox]

A few more details would help. What are the blinds across your games? 300 chips is quite light, but doable for one stake. But playing $10 buy ins to $50 buy ins will be tough with that quantity. Going non-denominated may help slightly to keep the chip count down because you can slide the values, but it's generally not preferred. One issue is that it can be confusing, for a chip to be 5c in one game and 25c in another. The other issue is 'security', having a chip that's $5 in one game and $25 in another adds a bad incentive for a player to pocket it in a $5 game and reintroducing it in a $25 game.

If you bump up to 400 chips you can go denominated and use

75 x 5c
100 x 25c
100 x $1
100 x $5
25 x $25

​

Total Buy In​	5c​	25c​	$1​	$5​	$25​
$10​	10​	14​	6​	-​	-​
$20​	10​	14​	11​	1​	-​
$50​	-​	12​	12​	7​	-​

This is assuming you're using 5c/10c blinds for your $10 game, and 10c/20c for your $20 game. If you skip the 5c chips that gives you room to add more $1s and $5s which are lacking in the above list.

Denoms help a lot. I would prefer over blanks.

If 300 is a hard cap, probably something like:

50 $0.25
100 $1
125 $5
25 $25

The game will probably play a bit tighter since people will be short on $1 and $5 chips.

If you had a bit more budget,

50 $0.25
150 $1
175 $5
25 $25

Playing a $10 game with 50 quarters would be pretty rough... 5 players have 8 quarters and 8 dollars, and two players have 4 quarters and 9 dollars.

If you really can't go over 300 you could go non-denominated.
75 x A
100 x B
100 x C
25 x D

In the $10 and $20 game, it'll be 5c/25c/$1/$5. $250 total value, so 25 buy ins at $10 and 12 at $20.

In the $50 game they'd be 25c/$1/$5/$25. $1225 total value, so 24 buy ins.

 

[pokerquestion]

I totally get balling on a budget, but if you're playing $50 buyins with that amount, you've got like $350 on the table. Take some time and save up and get a quality set instead of spending a good chunk on incremental sets you won't be very happy with.

You're new to this, that's totally fine! But no, your breakdown doesnt work well at all for any stakes. Search for cash breakdowns on here. For a $10 game, what do your colors mean? What about $50? Even with denoms on the chips you could better optimize this breakdown, though 300 chips will be very tough if thats a hard cap.

Thanks for the response! After reading the breakdown from @springbox My thought is for the $10 game it would be .05c/.10c, so 75white/100red/100green/100black/25yellow or something with values 5c/20c/$1/$5/$20.

The way I see it, when playing between $10 and $50, an advantage of blanks is that I can reassign values to make the set more versatile without being confusing (my friends and I won’t be pocketing chips and we’re used to memorizing values).

 

[pokerquestion]

A few more details would help. What are the blinds across your games? 300 chips is quite light, but doable for one stake. But playing $10 buy ins to $50 buy ins will be tough with that quantity. Going non-denominated may help slightly to keep the chip count down because you can slide the values, but it's generally not preferred. One issue is that it can be confusing, for a chip to be 5c in one game and 25c in another. The other issue is 'security', having a chip that's $5 in one game and $25 in another adds a bad incentive for a player to pocket it in a $5 game and reintroducing it in a $25 game.

If you bump up to 400 chips you can go denominated and use

75 x 5c
100 x 25c
100 x $1
100 x $5
25 x $25

​

Total Buy In​	5c​	25c​	$1​	$5​	$25​
$10​	10​	14​	6​	-​	-​
$20​	10​	14​	11​	1​	-​
$50​	-​	12​	12​	7​	-​

This is assuming you're using 5c/10c blinds for your $10 game, and 10c/20c for your $20 game. If you skip the 5c chips that gives you room to add more $1s and $5s which are lacking in the above list.



Playing a $10 game with 50 quarters would be pretty rough... 5 players have 8 quarters and 8 dollars, and two players have 4 quarters and 9 dollars.

If you really can't go over 300 you could go non-denominated.
75 x A
100 x B
100 x C
25 x D

In the $10 and $20 game, it'll be 5c/25c/$1/$5. $250 total value, so 25 buy ins at $10 and 12 at $20.

In the $50 game they'd be 25c/$1/$5/$25. $1225 total value, so 24 buy ins.

Thanks for such a thorough response this is awesome!

We usually play 50bb games but I see most people recommend 100bbs. I love the table you made I have been referencing that and seems to work well for 7 players at all three buy ins. I’m not too worried about memorization because we already do that at our games. And it’s a game amongst friends so I trust no one will pocket a $5 chip.

The 400 chip count is enticing, I guess I just need to make sure I have a case that will fit that many haha, I like have the flexibility of the $25 chip especially if games become bigger down the line.

 

[NotRealNameNoSir]

Thanks for the response! After reading the breakdown from @springbox My thought is for the $10 game it would be .05c/.10c, so 75white/100red/100green/100black/25yellow or something with values 5c/20c/$1/$5/$20.

The way I see it, when playing between $10 and $50, an advantage of blanks is that I can reassign values to make the set more versatile without being confusing (my friends and I won’t be pocketing chips and we’re used to memorizing values).

20c chip?! Make it a quarter, you hooligan.

Okay, that works, but take your time. You're gonna change your mind 18 times, promise. Plus my group loved the denoms. Theyre apes so they still asked what each chip was worth, but they also liked the printed values

 

[SeanGecko]

 

[chippitydoodah]

Have you been searching on Facebook Marketplace or even Craigslist? You might get lucky there. If you're Zip is pretty rural expand your search area to a distance you'd be comfortable driving. I stumbled on this 1,000 chip set which was an hour away but we met in the middle.

A member here was selling 500 New China Club chips that I bought which would have been in your price range. (Case wasn't included)

These are "Tina's" and I added on 500 chips later through @justincarothers sales on here. You can search the Classifieds & Auctions.

Good Luck

 

[loosechange101]

A classic dilemma here. It's tough to get full flexibility from one 300 chip set, but you can get pretty close. In the end you'll probably find you play one type much more (tournament vs cash) depending on your group.

If you go for something popular / available like Milano's or Majestics (both cc clay), you can always increase the size of your set later if needed. I would focus more on having the right set for a certain type of game, and then expand if you really have demand for it (wouldn't cost you much more to add some higher denom chips for a tournament for example).