Tourney Making a higher denom tourney set (2 Viewers)

[slimshady4239]

@JustinInMN I love the 100K plaques! They look incredibly crisp. Pink 5ks look incredible too. Beautiful set!

 

[guyfleegman]

I love the simplistic 400-chip T500-base tournament set. All you need is a single rack of each denomination per table (so 400 chips for 10 players, 800 chips for 20, etc.), and it gets lots of those (usually) gorgeous upper denomination chips in play:

10 x T500
10 x T1000
7 x T5000
10 x T25000
------------
37 chips = T300K stacks

The extra 30 x T5000 chips color-up the T500/T1000 chips with perfect efficiency.

You can also withhold 4x T25K chips (10/10/7/6) to create smaller T200K starting stacks, allowing up to five re-buys with the extra 40x T25Ks. With 500/1000 opening blinds, it's 300bb to start or 200bb with re-buys. A single-table 300K event has three million chips in play.

Of course, starting stacks can always be smaller if desired (10/10/7 is just T50K), or anything between 50K and 300K stacks. It's a very versatile set, and it's generally pretty easy to top off existing larger T25-base sets by adding a few extra T5000s and T25Ks to gain the high-denom tourney option.


Below is a great blind schedule for T500-base sets, with blind increases mostly ranging between 33%-50%, averaging 39% overall.

It can be used for anything from a ten-player 2.5-hour T50K turbo (15-min levels) to a four-table 10-hour T300K marathon (30-min levels) and everything in-between -- simply by custom-tailoring the starting stack sizes, number of players, and blind level times to generate the desired length and style of event:

lvl sb bb
L1 500 1000
L2 500 1500
L3 1000 2000
L4 1500 3000
remove T500 chips
L5 2000 4000
L6 3000 6000
(optional end re-buys, 50bb)
L7 4000 8000
L8 6000 12000
L9 8000 16000
remove T1000 chips
(optional end re-buys, 19bb)
L10 10000 20000
L11 15000 30000
L12 20000 40000
L13 25000 50000 ** EOT 10x100K
L14 35000 70000 ** EOT 10x150K
remove T5000 chips (optional - requires 5x T100K chips or 20x T25K chips)
L15 50000 100000 ** EOT 10x200K (or 20xT100K)
L16 75000 150000 ** EOT 10x300K
L17 100000 200000 ** EOT 20x200K
L18 150000 300000 ** EOT 20x300K
L19 200000 400000 ** EOT 40x200K
L20 250000 500000 ** EOT 40x300K
L21 350000 700000
remove T25000 chips (requires 25x T100k chips)
L22 500000 1000000
L23 750000 1500000

Been a minute since I was running down tournament structures.
I enjoy owning multiple dual use sets to run cash sets as tourney sets.
My Casablanca set runs T5 base 2000 stacks (200bb) or T25 base with $2000 chips for 8000 stacks(160bb). Making the T25 essentially T.25 based.
It doubles as a divide by 100 micro cash stakes with the $2000 chips counting as $20’s.

My small mixed Vegas set is .50/$1/$5/$25.
Seeing Dave’s recommendations for T500 base got my thinking of being able to dual use this set as well..

@BGinGA if I have 120 .50’s should I bother running 6/12/7/X for running 2 tables or stay with 10/10/7/X and keep this a one table set?

In other words: How bad would change making be on the early orbits when you only need 1- T500 for blinds and most bets??
I ask because there is essentially zero chance of me getting up to 2 full racks of these:

Thanks in advance to any all input.

 

[Poker Zombie]

How bad would change making be on the early orbits when you only need 1- T500 for blinds and most bets??

It would depend on the blind structure and the players.

My first 3 levels (20 min each) are 500/1000, 1000/2000, and 1500/3000, then the T500s come off. We have 6 xT500, and there is some simple change making needed, but it can usually be made from the pot after betting is complete.

If you have more levels using T500s (like a 500/1500 in-between the 500/1000 and the 1000/2000, I would up the number of T500s, because I have a lot of players that limp early and that T1500 big would require more change making. If your players stick to a 2x raise you could also stick with the 6x T500s without issue.

 

[BGinGA]

I enjoy owning multiple dual use sets to run cash sets as tourney sets..... My small mixed Vegas set is .50/$1/$5/$25.
Seeing Dave’s recommendations for T500 base got my thinking of being able to dual use this set as well..

@BGinGA if I have 120 .50’s should I bother running 6/12/7/X for running 2 tables or stay with 10/10/7/X and keep this a one table set?

In other words: How bad would change making be on the early orbits when you only need 1- T500 for blinds and most bets??
I ask because there is essentially zero chance of me getting up to 2 full racks of these:

As Zombie alluded, it mostly depends on your actual blind structure increments used, and whether or not a BBA is in play.

It's typically acceptable usage to have 6/12/7/x stacks for two tables, if that's all the 50c chips you have. But I'd never use it over 10/10/7/x if I had a legitimate choice between the two.

For a BBA event, I'd prefer 10/15/6/x (or 10/15/11/x).

 

[guyfleegman]

Thanks Dave!
Precise and concise as always.
I am really digging the idea of t500 base(.50) with the flexibility it allows for turbos, standards and deep stacks, rebuys, freeze outs etc.

 

[owlbee]

Just admiring the progression of my opinion on T500 base in the 5.5 year life of this thread.

Nov 6, 2018



Mar 23, 2021



Today



Honestly I love base T500 so much now I can't imagine running anything else. T25 and T5 will always have a place in my heart as that is how I ran my early tournaments, and I get T100 is the common base now. But T500 is way better in so many ways, I think it will become the next mainstream choice.

Thanks for this post. Hoping to build a tournament set (normal T25-T5000) and a high-roller tournament set in the future (T500-T100000 with plaques). This infor was VERY helpful. How are you liking your semi custom ceramics from BR Poker Pro? Are they holding up well?

 

[JustinInMN]

Thanks for this post. Hoping to build a tournament set (normal T25-T5000) and a high-roller tournament set in the future (T500-T100000 with plaques). This infor was VERY helpful. How are you liking your semi custom ceramics from BR Poker Pro? Are they holding up well?

Yeah chips are great. I did make a bad color pick on have yellow spots on my green chip that blends it a bit much with the yellow chips, so I would take a do-over there for sure.

But I do love the set overall.

 

[owlbee]

Yeah chips are great. I did make a bad color pick on have yellow spots on my green chip that blends it a bit much with the yellow chips, so I would take a do-over there for sure.

But I do love the set overall.

May I see a picture of your semi-customs?

 

[Gunnar]

I have a T500 base and after trying it my next one will be the same. Just still debating if a starting stack should be 4 or 6x 500

 

[JustinInMN]

I have a T500 base and after trying it my next one will be the same. Just still debating if a starting stack should be 4 or 6x 500

Fwiw, I have 100/200/200/100 of 500/1K/5K/25k and I usually do 6/12/12/5 for 16 starting stacks of 150K.

Works pretty well.

May I see a picture of your semi-customs?

Sure.

 

[FearlessFred]

After some research, I've decided on the following if I ever get round to restarting tournaments.

8 player table

50 x T500
100 x T1000
100 x T5000
50 x T25000

This chip up is perfect and can play T200k for a big game or smaller with rebuys.

Just double the quantities for 2 tables

 

[JustinInMN]

After some research, I've decided on the following if I ever get round to restarting tournaments.

8 player table

50 x T500
100 x T1000
100 x T5000
50 x T25000

This chip up is perfect and can play T200k for a big game or smaller with rebuys.

Just double the quantities for 2 tables

Pretty much my exact breakdown. Works great for 6/12/12/5 stacks and you have a few left over for a 2/4/4/7 "spare parts" stack.

But you would need to add some 100k chips to have enough for rebuys. (Or as you said, do smaller stacks, I typically do 150k, personally. Or 75k starting at 500-500 using 4/8/8/1 stacks if it's going to be a larger field.)

 

[Old State]

Ok…about to order my first T500 tournament set. This will be a Tina set ordered in multiples of 25 chips

I want to be able to have a 20 person tournament with a structure to get me to a 5 hour tournament.

So this should be-

200 x $500
200 x $1000
200 x $5000
200 x $25,000

I see $100000 chips can be helpful. Is 25 enough or should I do 50?

 

[GamingWithChips]

I see $100000 chips can be helpful. Is 25 enough or should I do 50?

You should only need about 10 per table, so 25 should work fine. But just need to think about how you will use them. Add ons for a 200K starting stack? Rebuys for a 100K starting stack or just extra bank?

Tina's are also cheap enough though that you might want to buy 50 to be safe.

 

[Old State]

You should only need about 10 per table, so 25 should work fine. But just need to think about how you will use them. Add ons for a 200K starting stack? Rebuys for a 100K starting stack or just extra bank?

Tina's are also cheap enough though that you might want to buy 50 to be safe.

I’m not exactly sure how I will use them yet as I never ran a tournament with this structure yet. Years ago we did a T5 ….which worked great…but I wanted to try something else.

I’m trying to go through this in my head theoretically but am kind of relying on the experience of everyone here that has done this

 

[GamingWithChips]

I’m not exactly sure how I will use them yet as I never ran a tournament with this structure yet. Years ago we did a T5 ….which worked great…but I wanted to try something else.

I’m trying to go through this in my head theoretically but am kind of relying on the experience of everyone here that has done this

If you ran T5 base before with 20K starting stacks with 10/10/7/2, then I would say the direct comparable would be 200K 10/10/7/6. Without actually running one myself yet, I'm assuming it will run almost identically.

edit: I'm making my own Tina set and planning to have enough chips to run both 10/10/7/x as well as 6/12/12/x to see how each plays and which one we prefer.

 

[Old State]

We ran a T5 tournament from 2003-2009. Three of us had 1000 chip ASM sets and made the best use of what we had. I know people frown on this but we used the $5 and $25 for both cash and tournaments (In the 40+ tournaments no one ever lost a single chip). Cash games the day of the tournaments were played with another cheap set of chips. We only used the ASMs for cash at other times

We had a starting stack of 20 chips to fit in racks then used our $1000 chips for ad ons. Rebuys were usually with $100s until we ran out then $500s/1000s

Starting stack of $1000 with 10 - $5 6- $25 3 - $100 - and 1 $500

Soooo….not really relatable here

 

[GamingWithChips]

We had a starting stack of 20 chips to fit in racks then used our $1000 chips for ad ons. Rebuys were usually with $100s until we ran out then $500s/1000s

Starting stack of $1000 with 10 - $5 6- $25 3 - $100 - and 1 $500

Soooo….not really relatable here

I'm going to say this new setup will run a lot smoother then

 

[JustinInMN]

Ok…about to order my first T500 tournament set. This will be a Tina set ordered in multiples of 25 chips

I want to be able to have a 20 person tournament with a structure to get me to a 5 hour tournament.

So this should be-

200 x $500
200 x $1000
200 x $5000
200 x $25,000

I see $100000 chips can be helpful. Is 25 enough or should I do 50?

I feel like you have too many T500 chips here, and maybe too many T25K chips.

Bottom line with only a 2x jump between T500 and T1000, bettors never need more than 1 chip in any wager amount. And it's the easiest change swap ever if needed, return one T1000 for T500 if needing to make a call for an amount with a 500 in it.

Really depends on what your intended starting stack is here as well. Assuming a T200K starting stack...

Then you can do 80/160/160/160/40 of T500/1K/5K/25K/100K and have 20 starting stacks of 4/8/8/6 for 600 chips with 40 T25K and 40 T100K chips left over for 25 rebuys. (You will note the 4/8/8 part will fit nicely into racks and then just move 3 barrels to T25K to finish your starting stack with 6 chips each.)

If you want to have more lower denoms, then you are looking at 6/12/12/5 stacks, 20 starting stacks puts you at 120/240/240/160/40 for the same 800 chips in your original breakdown, and again 40 T25K and 40 T100K chips left over for 25 rebuys. (If arranging this into racks you can start with 6/12/2, and then have an additional 10 * 5K and 5*25K chips ready.)

FWIW, I have a set of 100/200/200/100 of T500/1K/5K/25K and I can do 25 starting stacks of T150K (4/8/8/4), and then I have 15 100K plaques to accommodate rebuys. I should probably get a few more of the plaques, tbh. Typically though, I do 16 starting stacks at 6/12/12/3 and then make a couple spare parts stacks if necessary because I max out at 18 players.

 

[Old State]

I feel like you are have too many T500 chips here, and maybe too many T25K chips.

Bottom line with only a 2x game between T500 and T1000, bettors never need more than 1 chip in any wager amount. And it's the easiest change swap ever if needed, return one T1000 for T500 if needing to make a call for an amount with a 500 in it.

Really depends on what your intended starting stack is here as well. Assuming a T200K starting stack...

Then you can do 80/160/160/160/40 of T500/1K/5K/25K/100K and have 20 starting stacks of 4/8/8/6 for 600 chips with 40 T25K and 40 T100K chips left over for 25 rebuys. (You will note the 4/8/8 part will fit nicely into racks and then just move 3 barrels to T25K to finish your starting stack with 6 chips each.)

If you want to have more lower denoms, then you are looking at 6/12/12/5 stacks, 20 starting stacks puts you at 120/240/240/160/40 for the same 800 chips in your original breakdown, and again 40 T25K and 40 T100K chips left over for 25 rebuys. (If arranging this into racks you can start with 6/12/2, and then have an additional 10 * 5K and 5*25K chips ready.)

FWIW, I have a set of 100/200/200/100 of T500/1K/5K/25K and I can do 25 starting stacks of T150K (4/8/8/4), and then I have 15 100K plaques to accommodate rebuys. I should probably get a few more of the plaques, tbh. Typically though, I do 16 starting stacks at 6/12/12/3 and then make a couple spare parts stacks if necessary because I max out at 18 players.

Ok thank you. If that’s what works for you maybe I’ll copy that and just do 25 100K. Probably add and extra 25 chips of each denomination to account for damaged ones

If I decide to aim for just a single table of 10 I could go -

50 - T500
125- T1000
125 - T5000
50 - T25000
25 or 50 T100000

 

[JustinInMN]

50 - T500
125- T1000
125 - T5000
50 - T25000
25 or 50 T100000

I see you are buying in quantities of 25.

So if you are doing 4/8/8/6 staring stacks if you do 50/100/100/75/25 you will have 10 extra t500, 20 extra of t1k and t5k, and 15 extra t25k (but having extra here is good for color ups/bonus chips/rebuys) for a total of 350 chips

If you are planning 6/12/12/5 stacks you can do 75/125/125/75/25 for 425 chips and still have extras for each denom.

 

[Old State]

I see you are buying in quantities of 25.

So if you are doing 4/8/8/6 staring stacks if you do 50/100/100/75/25 you will have 10 extra t500, 20 extra of t1k and t5k, and 15 extra t25k (but having extra here is good for color ups/bonus chips/rebuys) for a total of 350 chips

If you are planning 6/12/12/5 stacks you can do 75/125/125/75/25 for 425 chips and still have extras for each denom.

Im definitely not a “moar” chips guy. Do you find the 4/8/8/6 runs effectively or do you prefer the 6/12/12/5?

I could do the 4/8/8/6 with 425-500 chips and run two tables of eight with 75/150/150/75(or 100)/25 (100K). Maybe add 25 extra 25k for ann even 500?

Is this your structure?

lvl sb bb
L1 500 1000
L2 500 1500
L3 1000 2000
L4 1500 3000
remove T500 chips
L5 2000 4000
L6 3000 6000
(optional end re-buys, 50bb)
L7 4000 8000
L8 6000 12000
L9 8000 16000
remove T1000 chips
(optional end re-buys, 19bb)
L10 10000 20000
L11 15000 30000
L12 20000 40000
L13 25000 50000 ** EOT 10x100K
L14 35000 70000 ** EOT 10x150K
remove T5000 chips (optional - requires 5x T100K chips or 20x T25K chips)
L15 50000 100000 ** EOT 10x200K (or 20xT100K)
L16 75000 150000 ** EOT 10x300K
L17 100000 200000 ** EOT 20x200K
L18 150000 300000 ** EOT 20x300K
L19 200000 400000 ** EOT 40x200K
L20 250000 500000 ** EOT 40x300K
L21 350000 700000
remove T25000 chips (requires 25x T100k chips)
L22 500000 1000000
L23 750000 1500000

 

[Old State]

I'm going to say this new setup will run a lot smoother then

To be honest…our old tournaments felt like they ran very smoothly. Like extremely smooth. We got the structure and round times down to the point where every tournament ended exactly between 5-6 hours. We would send an Evite out and would have 30 players signed up and 10 on the wait list within a few hours! I didn't realize we weren’t running smoothly until I found this forum

I’m going this way because I see it’s popular and efficient…plus I then get to design high denomination chips!

 

[JustinInMN]

Im definitely not a “moar” chips guy. Do you find the 4/8/8/6 runs effectively or do you prefer the 6/12/12/5?

I personally prefer 6/12/12/x. In actuality, I usually only do T150K start so I do 6/12/12/3, I can do 16 identical stacks and two "spare parts stacks" (2/4/4/7) with my set. (100/200/200/100) If I am stretching beyond 18 players, I can make 4/8/8/x work for up to 25 players, I haven't taken the plunge to attempt a 3 table tournament as yet.

lvl sb bb
L1 500 1000
L2 500 1500
L3 1000 2000
L4 1500 3000
remove T500 chips
L5 2000 4000
L6 3000 6000
(optional end re-buys, 50bb)
L7 4000 8000
L8 6000 12000
L9 8000 16000
remove T1000 chips
(optional end re-buys, 19bb)
L10 10000 20000
L11 15000 30000
L12 20000 40000
L13 25000 50000 ** EOT 10x100K
L14 35000 70000 ** EOT 10x150K
remove T5000 chips (optional - requires 5x T100K chips or 20x T25K chips)
L15 50000 100000 ** EOT 10x200K (or 20xT100K)
L16 75000 150000 ** EOT 10x300K
L17 100000 200000 ** EOT 20x200K
L18 150000 300000 ** EOT 20x300K
L19 200000 400000 ** EOT 40x200K
L20 250000 500000 ** EOT 40x300K
L21 350000 700000
remove T25000 chips (requires 25x T100k chips)
L22 500000 1000000
L23 750000 1500000

Yes, this is identical to my structure through L12, I do 30K-60K and 40K-80K for L13 and L14 if played, then I have the same levels for L15-L19. Typically I play 20 minute levels.

(And if I need to remove levels, I usually drop L7 and L14)

My most recent tournament in January (I have taken a hosting pause due to moving to a new house) was the longest tournament I remember, we went to L16, had 17 players and 21 entries IIRC.

(One hint I will offer, when you remove the T1000 chips, if you are down to 5-6 players, you should also make an effort to color up a significant portion of the T5000 chips as well at that time, try to leave players with an average of roughly 10 chips each. Doesn't have to be precise, but do more than the minimum necessary.)

 

[Poker Zombie]

I also prefer 6/x/x/x, but with Old State's 500/1500 level I might support 8/x/x/x. If Level 2 was 1000/1500 i'd go back to 6/x/x/x.

I won't weigh in too much though as my T500 base has bigger leaps between levels, though the early levels (the ones with T500s in play) would still play the same.

 

[Old State]

I personally prefer 6/12/12/x. In actuality, I usually only do T150K start so I do 6/12/12/3, I can do 16 identical stacks and two "spare parts stacks" (2/4/4/7) with my set. (100/200/200/100) If I am stretching beyond 18 players, I can make 4/8/8/x work for up to 25 players, I haven't taken the plunge to attempt a 3 table tournament as yet.


Yes, this is identical to my structure through L12, I do 30K-60K and 40K-80K for L13 and L14 if played, then I have the same levels for L15-L19. Typically I play 20 minute levels.

(And if I need to remove levels, I usually drop L7 and L14)

My most recent tournament in January (I have taken a hosting pause due to moving to a new house) was the longest tournament I remember, we went to L16, had 17 players and 21 entries IIRC.

(One hint I will offer, when you remove the T1000 chips, if you are down to 5-6 players, you should also make an effort to color up a significant portion of the T5000 chips as well at that time, try to leave players with an average of roughly 10 chips each. Doesn't have to be precise, but do more than the minimum necessary.)

I also prefer 6/x/x/x, but with Old State's 500/1500 level I might support 8/x/x/x. If Level 2 was 1000/1500 i'd go back to 6/x/x/x.

I won't weigh in too much though as my T500 base has bigger leaps between levels, though the early levels (the ones with T500s in play) would still play the same.

Ok …so considering all this great advice….along with the fact that Tina orders are in multiples of 25 chips, I’m thinking 75/150/150/75(or 100)/25 (100K) for a nice even 500 chip set. Where would you put the extra 25 chips….25 or 100K?

 

[JustinInMN]

Ok …so considering all this great advice….along with the fact that Tina orders are in multiples of 25 chips, I’m thinking 75/150/150/75(or 100)/25 (100K) for a nice even 500 chip set. Where would you put the extra 25 chips….25 or 100K?

I would put the extra chips in the T25K and that gives you a very good set of 75/150/150/100/25 for 500 chips.

This breakdown serves two good configurations....

Single table option:

Up to 12 stacks of 6/12/12/5 with 3-6 extras in the three lower denoms for spares and plenty of extra T25K and T100K for re-entries and color ups.

Two table option:

16 stacks of 4/8/8/6 and 2 stacks of 4/8/8/2/1

Side note on going for the extra T25K chips...

The two table option above requires 100*T25K chips and would not run nearly as well with just 75*T25K chips. In the latter case you would have to do something like 9 stacks of 4/8/8/6 and 9 stacks of 4/8/8/2/1 for 18 players. With only 72 T25K chips in play, each player would only be holding an average of 4, which is the exact number of chips required to make change. This will make it difficult at times to find the right combination of players and transactions if a T100K chip needs to be broken early.

However, with 100 T25K chips available, there should always be multiple players with at least 4 T25K chips in their stack, the average would be just under 6 per player, which means there will always be multiple easy change-making solutions if you have to break a T100K chip early. (When this average is 4 chips per player if you only go with 75*T25K chips, it might get too tight to find solutions.)

With a higher quantity of T25K chips available for change making, putting out a 17th and 18th starting stack with one 100K chip and even adding T100K chips from re-entries should not cause issues.

I also prefer 6/x/x/x, but with Old State's 500/1500 level I might support 8/x/x/x. If Level 2 was 1000/1500 i'd go back to 6/x/x/x.

I have the same level in my tournaments, doing 6/x/x has not at all been a problem.

 

[Old State]

Thank you! Very helpful

 

[guyfleegman]

Or..
Use the final
25 chips for bounties