CHIPS
My first set of denominated chips were the Casino Royale chips sold by
Apache Poker Chips. I bought 600 at first (just for tourneys), then I bumped it up to the full 1000 to cover cash and tournaments. If I remember correctly it's like .25¢/chip, so 1000 chips is like $300 shipped.
For 1 table of 10 players you probably only need 400 chips of the right denominations, and you might be able to afford a set of 600 chips for $150ish.
There are also other similar chips that players on here like... Milanos, Majestics, Monte Carlo, Pharaohs, etc.. all can be purchased with denominations for .20¢-.50¢ per chip.
I've since purchased compressed clay and ceramic custom chips for much more $$ and my players still love the Casino Royale chips. I personally love the feel and weight of them, but I also dislike how over time they have gotten harder to grip. I've spilled stacks trying to pick up a barrel of them multiple times, as they seem to lose their tackiness over time (5 years). I also prefer to be able to choose my own colors for chips hence my insistence with creating and purchasing fantasy custom sets.
With that in mind, if you want to design your own chips (or purchase chips of other members designs) the Chinese manufactures provide really nice chips for cheap. I'm dealing with having waited over 2 months for my chips (when they were guaranteed to deliver in 3 weeks), so there is definitely a trade-off dealing with these manufactures... but I was able to
design fully custom ceramic chips and will take delivery of 1800 chips for roughly $900. .50¢/chip fully custom is a great deal compared to a lot of other options.
TOURNAMENT
For tournaments there are a lot of starting stack options.... I like to choose the stack based on:
1. Blind levels
2. How deep you want each player, for betting purposes
3. How long you want the tourney to last.
The most important aspect to a tourney for me is #2 above. I used to play at a game that offered T5000 in chips with a starting blind level of 25/50, 15 minute levels, and only the first 2 levels offered rebuys. By level 2, players were shoving all-in every hand. If I didn't have a good hand in level 1 or 2 I'd look down at maybe T3500 in chips with only a few minutes to go before rebuys close, and naturally a couple players at the table have already tripled up because of the all-in actions that had already taken place.
That game felt more like a lottery-lucky chances game than a strategic game, so I stopped going. My games typically are 15 minute levels, 25/50 blinds, but starting stacks are never less than T10,000. My most recent tournament was:
2 tables
18 players
25/50 starting blinds
15min levels
T14,000 starting with T1,000 extra for on-time players
Rebuys through level 4 (1 hour of play), T10,000 chips.
Add-on optional at break of T6,000 chips.
The chip breakdown (20 players):
T25 x8 [160 needed]
T100 x8 [160 needed]
T500 x4 [80 needed + 40 extra for color ups]
T1000 x7 [140 needed + 10 extra for color ups]
T5000 x1 [20 needed + 65 extra for color ups]
I also typically prefer to do 6x T500 and 6x T1000, but for this tournament I actually had less bank of T500 chips than T1000 chips.
So obviously for 10 players you'd need much less than the above number of chips I used for 20 players (560)....
and you'd definitely need less chips if player starting stacks are T7500, or T8000, or T10000, etc.
I did get really close to running out of T1,000 chips during the add-on and color ups, but I had enough T5,000 chips to make change to cover. The structure above was a massive hit. Players felt they were deep enough to "make some moves" while not too deep that the game lasted too long. I started the game at 3pm and budgeted 6 hours for the game. It actually only lasted 4.5 to 5 hours with plenty of action throughout.
I was able to use the 2nd table as a cash game table once 8 players were eliminated from the tourney (10 for final table).
Hope this helps. Welcome, and good luck!
