Cash Game New Member's Optimal Chip Break Down (3 Viewers)

[Salbino]

I don't see the problem or slow down with making change. We play .25/.50 and only put out 8 fracs each. when someone is out of fracs they toss in a $1 and the dealer will make the change as they pull the pot in to deal the flop. It doesn't take longer than 8 seconds lol.

 

[shangs]

Cash games i've played in only needed 3 chip levels. Did we want more to show off our chips? Of course... but our Nickle/Dime/Quarter game was $.25/1/5 on the table 99% of the time... If we put $25s on the table it was because someone had gone belly up and when they bought in we gave them that and the table made change, so the physical number of chips rarely went up (by more than a few chips) and we enjoyed asking occasionally "Who's got the green chips now?"

8/8/6 is what people bought in for ($2/$8/$30) so 2 "yuppie food stamps". The quarters were usually for ante and opening bets, and we had a rule you could only raise 4 times, so nobody tossed in more than $5 in a round of betting. Some games like elevator hi/low that could still be $35 total if there was a lot of action, but those pots were normally split. We did make change among ourselves a lot however. If you were betting $1 at a time, at some point someone would put in a $5 and take 4 $1... it made everyones stack easy to count.

When people bought back in, they bought back in for $25 (or 50/75). With 6-9 people at the table usually, we were playing dealers choice a lot early on, then limit hold'em. Then we got into tournaments and everything changed...

Nobody ever lost their shirt unless they were aggressive and stupid. I think the most i lost in a night was $80, and the most i won $120 or so.

I agree we play the same with 1,5,25, and 100s are only brought out in extreme situations or closer to the end of the night getting closer to cashout., when i play with my other group we use .25 fracs 1s and 5s and go smoothly, in this case rarely we pull out 25 chips, again could fully go without needing this fourth chip and it's not needed I purely use to chip up huge stacks in the last 30-45 minutes of the session to make everything quick during cashout.

 

[hiddan]

Thanks for the informative post and all the replies. I was thinking if I wanted to cover our main .25/.50 NLH game 200bb deep, 8 players, +4 rebuys avg. and also rare 1/2 game 100bb I could do somerhing like this:

.25 x 140
$1 x 200
$5 x 200
$25 x 50
$100 x 10

 

[merkong]

FWIW, the GFC plays .25/.25 with an initial buy-in of $25-40 and all night top-offs to the big stack.

We bank north of $1K weekly.

We roll 2 racks of fracs, 3 of workhorses, 100 $5 plaques, and a handful of $25 plaques. If the night is huge and we want to be fun we have a few $100 plaques we peel the big stacks down with.

My point being the sweet spot for games our size is 2 racks of fracs and 3 of workhorses. Yes, it's easy to make change but it's another rack... Oh, and moar chips.

Carry on.

 

[Machine]

Thanks for the informative post and all the replies. I was thinking if I wanted to cover our main .25/.50 NLH game 200bb deep, 8 players, +4 rebuys avg. and also rare 1/2 game 100bb I could do somerhing like this:

.25 x 140
$1 x 200
$5 x 200
$25 x 50
$100 x 10

My game went from .25/.5 to .5/.5 because it speeds up the game. This will get you off the ground, but I would tweak the numbers a little bit.

I would do

.25 - 120
1 - 200
5 - 320
25 - 40
100 - 20

This will fit into 7 racks nicely and cover variations on players, also if you ever want to sell this set it will make it easier to find a buyer. See how this plays and the you can sprinkle in moar chip where you want later on.

 

[hiddan]

My game went from .25/.5 to .5/.5 because it speeds up the game. This will get you off the ground, but I would tweak the numbers a little bit.

I would do

.25 - 120
1 - 200
5 - 320
25 - 40
100 - 20

This will fit into 7 racks nicely and cover variations on players, also if you ever want to sell this set it will make it easier to find a buyer. See how this plays and the you can sprinkle in moar chip where you want later on.

That would be one more rack than I planned but I see the logic esp. for The selling case. Thanks for the advice.

 

[slashderg]

I've been looking into picking up a set lately. typically have 6-8 people and start blinds at $1/$2 or .25/.50. we've used a 1k chip set in the past but im wondering if that would be overkill and i should just get more like 700-800

 

[Machine]

if you have 400 5s its fine

 

[Salbino]

I've been looking into picking up a set lately. typically have 6-8 people and start blinds at $1/$2 or .25/.50. we've used a 1k chip set in the past but im wondering if that would be overkill and i should just get more like 700-800

that depends entirely on if you/group likes big stacks of chips in front of them or not

Do you guys like having mounds of chips?

 

[slashderg]

that depends entirely on if you/group likes big stacks of chips in front of them or not

Do you guys like having mounds of chips?

i see the appeal, but im mostly indifferent

 

[TBER]

But this is a really good point, especially for people first exploring this site, who see the huge sets. The huge sets are dumb.
If you want to host multiple tables for a cash game, I have nothing to say about that - I only host a single table cash game because I am not a casino.
But I’ve been hosting NLHE off and on for around ten years and I’ve owned probably more than 10 cash sets of varying quality and cost and I’ve never had a set reach 1000 chips for NLHE. Even when I owned too many fracs or that unnecessary third rack of $1s, I’ve never gotten it up to 1,000. Personally I think the sweet spot is somewhere around 750 chips for a single table, big bet cash set. And no fucking snappers, we’re not playing blackjack!

I'm mathing out the right amount of chips to level up a home game I run with some buddies. Typically $50 buy-in with $50-$100 reload. Usually 6-8 players running about 2-3 rebuys max on a longer night.

With that in mind does this denom make sense?:
200x 25c
200x $1
200x $5
20x $25

Might add in some more $25's for padding and 100x 5c for smaller $20 buy in games too.

 

[springbox]

But this is a really good point, especially for people first exploring this site, who see the huge sets. The huge sets are dumb.
If you want to host multiple tables for a cash game, I have nothing to say about that - I only host a single table cash game because I am not a casino.
But I’ve been hosting NLHE off and on for around ten years and I’ve owned probably more than 10 cash sets of varying quality and cost and I’ve never had a set reach 1000 chips for NLHE. Even when I owned too many fracs or that unnecessary third rack of $1s, I’ve never gotten it up to 1,000. Personally I think the sweet spot is somewhere around 750 chips for a single table, big bet cash set. And no fucking snappers, we’re not playing blackjack!

One use case is if you spread a wide range of stakes. I play 5c/10c most often, with an occasional 25c/25c or 25c/50c game. Looking to do some 50c/$1 and $1/2 maybe once a year because I only know a few people who would play those stakes. So far the 1,000 chip set has been overkill, I've never had a game use a full rack of $5s which means the other two racks of $5s and the rack of $20s sit unused.

 

[Machine]

I'm mathing out the right amount of chips to level up a home game I run with some buddies. Typically $50 buy-in with $50-$100 reload. Usually 6-8 players running about 2-3 rebuys max on a longer night.

With that in mind does this denom make sense?:
200x 25c
200x $1
200x $5
20x $25

Might add in some more $25's for padding and 100x 5c for smaller $20 buy in games too.

No, its too many fracs and not enough 5s, move 100 (fracs) chips to the 5s and you're going to be in really good shape.

 

[chochips]

Got some concern about $20 chip. Most of our players got used to $25 denomination chips and one time we used 20 chips. Many got consumed and complained. Moral of the story, stick to one denomination for the green.

 

[Machine]

So typically if you have a 20 in a Vegas set, it would be yellow, but yes I agree with you, if most of your chips are standard Vegas colors, be careful of mixing up denoms

 

[JustinInMN]

I'm mathing out the right amount of chips to level up a home game I run with some buddies. Typically $50 buy-in with $50-$100 reload. Usually 6-8 players running about 2-3 rebuys max on a longer night.

With that in mind does this denom make sense?:
200x 25c
200x $1
200x $5
20x $25

Might add in some more $25's for padding and 100x 5c for smaller $20 buy in games too.

100/300/160/40 of 25¢/1/5/25 Bank 2125

21 buy-ins of 100 is plenty for 6-8 players at this stake.

Or if you prefer to be fives-heavy (might be the better option if you see 1-1 or 1-2 in your future)
100/200/260/40 of 25¢/1/5/25 Bank 2525

If you do move up to 1-1, you are only obsoleting 100 chips in your set and still have a solid 500 chip breakdown.

 

[upNdown]

100/300/160/40 of 25¢/1/5/25 Bank 2125

21 buy-ins of 100 is plenty for 6-8 players at this stake.

Or if you prefer to be fives-heavy (might be the better option if you see 1-1 or 1-2 in your future)
100/200/260/40 of 25¢/1/5/25 Bank 2525

If you do move up to 1-1, you are only obsoleting 100 chips in your set and still have a solid 500 chip breakdown.

So you actually prefer 300 $1s for a 6-8 player game? Thats 35-50 one dollar chips per player.
I've tried different things at these stakes and I've never found more than 20 per player to be helpful.

 

[NotRealNameNoSir]

So you actually prefer 300 $1s for a 6-8 player game? Thats 35-50 one dollar chips per player.
I've tried different things at these stakes and I've never found more than 20 per player to be helpful.

100% I prefer that. Love my $1s in a $50 buyin, flood the market.

 

[JustinInMN]

So you actually prefer 300 $1s for a 6-8 player game? Thats 35-50 one dollar chips per player.
I've tried different things at these stakes and I've never found more than 20 per player to be helpful.

I do treat the single as the workhorse with fractional blinds, but I also don't spread super deep games. We do 50¢-50¢ with a max at 60. So 3 barrels of singles works like 3 barrels of fives would work for 1-2 buy in of 300. Though usually I do something more like 8/46/2 (of 50¢/1/5) for a buy-in of 60.

 

[upNdown]

100% I prefer that. Love my $1s in a $50 buyin, flood the market.

View attachment 1548855

I do treat the single as the workhorse with fractional blinds, but I also don't spread super deep games. We do 50¢-50¢ with a max at 60. So 3 barrels of singles works like 3 barrels of fives would work for 1-2 buy in of 300. Though usually I do something more like 8/46/2 (of 50¢/1/5) for a buy-in of 60.

I suppose that's fair. You choose more ones, I choose more fives - as long as you have the minimum covered, that's all that matters.

 

[CurtainCallCasino]

I didn't realize there was so much freedom in selection.

Did I read someone said tournament has set sizes thought?

 

[springbox]

I didn't realize there was so much freedom in selection.

Did I read someone said tournament has set sizes thought?

Tournament sets are a little more 'fixed' in that there's a fixed buy-in size, and typically each player receives the same amount of initial chips. The progression of blinds also changes the spread and quantity of denominations you need. That being said your needs will still vary based on choices you make (starting stack distribution, re-buy/add-on structure, quantity of players, blind progression, ante choice). But still, with tournaments' more predefined structure set distributions are more readily copied.

 

[CurtainCallCasino]

But still, with tournaments' more predefined structure set distributions are more readily copied.

I'm still reading up before purchasing some nicer chips but my goal is to run a nice STT.

So far the best help I've found is Chris Manzoni's tournament structure he posted to YouTube. Is that still a sorta gold standard (depending on your group of course)

 

[Sly]

Hi everyone... please go very, *very* easy on me as it's my first post here. I apologise for the mundane question straight off the bat, but I need some advice on how to set up a low-stakes poker cash game, especially considering the type of people I'll be playing with.

It'll be with local neighbours who aren't poker players - and neither am I, really - so it's 99% social more than anything else. Just getting the guys round my house for a few beers, gossip about who's probably having an affair with who in the neighbourhood, and for that possible thrill of taking home a few quid. Oh... yes... I'm in Blighty / the UK.

I've read Quad Johnson's rather excellent post about mapping for cash games, and I'm particularly interested in 5c/10c (or in my case, 5p /10p) binds. But his was for a $20 buy-in whereas I want to go with a $10 / £10 buy-in because any more than that, I don't think I'll get interest. As things progress... you never know! But for now, I want to get everyone slowly excited about Texas Hold'em.

So on the previous page, BatteredAggie posted a great message echoing my situation above, and went down the route of:

175 - $.05
200 - $.25
100 - $1
25 - $5

Not sure how that works out chips / per people - I'll be having 6 to 8 people. I am expecting a lot of people limping in - me included. I saw a post on Reddit which suggested:

20 x $0.05
24 x $0.25
3 x $1

Basically... the more chips for everyone the better at this stage. I know... I know... I don't think the above two suggestions go hand-in-hand which is where I need a bit of help. I'll be buying some new numbered chips, a set of 500 most likely from the Poker Merchant. That forum section is my next port of call...

Question : Why do I not see - ANYWHERE - recommendations of using the $.10 (or $10 if I go with my idea above) chip? I would have thought for the initial big blind you just chuck a .10 or 10 chip in the game, and others can do the same when they limp in with a call, without using 2 x .05 or 5s.

Same with .5 and 50 I guess.

Any suggestions and advice would be welcome!

 

[springbox]

Hi everyone... please go very, *very* easy on me as it's my first post here. I apologise for the mundane question straight off the bat, but I need some advice on how to set up a low-stakes poker cash game, especially considering the type of people I'll be playing with.

It'll be with local neighbours who aren't poker players - and neither am I, really - so it's 99% social more than anything else. Just getting the guys round my house for a few beers, gossip about who's probably having an affair with who in the neighbourhood, and for that possible thrill of taking home a few quid. Oh... yes... I'm in Blighty / the UK.

I've read Quad Johnson's rather excellent post about mapping for cash games, and I'm particularly interested in 5c/10c (or in my case, 5p /10p) binds. But his was for a $20 buy-in whereas I want to go with a $10 / £10 buy-in because any more than that, I don't think I'll get interest. As things progress... you never know! But for now, I want to get everyone slowly excited about Texas Hold'em.

So on the previous page, BatteredAggie posted a great message echoing my situation above, and went down the route of:

175 - $.05
200 - $.25
100 - $1
25 - $5

Not sure how that works out chips / per people - I'll be having 6 to 8 people. I am expecting a lot of people limping in - me included. I saw a post on Reddit which suggested:

20 x $0.05
24 x $0.25
3 x $1

Basically... the more chips for everyone the better at this stage. I know... I know... I don't think the above two suggestions go hand-in-hand which is where I need a bit of help. I'll be buying some new numbered chips, a set of 500 most likely from the Poker Merchant. That forum section is my next port of call...

Question : Why do I not see - ANYWHERE - recommendations of using the $.10 (or $10 if I go with my idea above) chip? I would have thought for the initial big blind you just chuck a .10 or 10 chip in the game, and others can do the same when they limp in with a call, without using 2 x .05 or 5s.

Same with .5 and 50 I guess.

Any suggestions and advice would be welcome!

175 nickels is probably more than you need. I've gone down to 10 per player, but 15 should be good enough and 15x8 is only 120. Post flop people just don't bet with nickels in my experience.

10c chips aren't used because having both 5c and 10c is very redundant. You're adding more chips to accomplish very little. 10c chips also do not make change nicely with 25c chips. If you wanted to minimize the number of chips needed to limp just make the small blind and big blind the same value (e.g 10c/10c).

For a $10 buy in I would suggest one of:

15 x 5c
21 x 25c
4 x $1

or

10 x 5c
22 x 25c
4 x $1

or

20 x 5c
20 x 25c
4 x $1

edit: for reference I typically hand out the following, and rebuys are only in $1s or $5s.
10 x 5c
18 x 25c
5~15 x $1

 

[Sly]

Understood. Thanks for that springbox. especially the 10c reasoning. I *thought* it might be something along those lines, but would not have picked up the fact it doesn't change well with 25c chips. Cheers.

 

[JustinInMN]

I've read Quad Johnson's rather excellent post about mapping for cash games, and I'm particularly interested in 5c/10c (or in my case, 5p /10p) binds. But his was for a $20 buy-in whereas I want to go with a $10 / £10 buy-in because any more than that, I don't think I'll get interest. As things progress... you never know! But for now, I want to get everyone slowly excited about Texas Hold'em.

Question : Why do I not see - ANYWHERE - recommendations of using the $.10 (or $10 if I go with my idea above) chip? I would have thought for the initial big blind you just chuck a .10 or 10 chip in the game, and others can do the same when they limp in with a call, without using 2 x .05 or 5s.

the 5¢ and 10¢ together are redundant, and is US currency, the 10¢ chip doesn't play nice when making change with the quarter. Now as I understand it, the UK does not have a quarter, but instead a 20p coin, so if you model your denominations after that you get around that second issue. And I do agree, you don't use the smallest chips other than on the earliest rounds so you shouldn't have to issue too many of these. The majority of your bets will be constructed using the two denominations above this.

FWIW, my custom set uses 10¢ and 50¢ chips.

All that said, the best spacing between denominations is usually 4x and 5x with 2x being okay in some circumstances.

But there is nothing inherently better about being able to post a blind with one chip over multiple chips, and actually, multiple chip wagers are less ambiguous.

I could go on and on, but if I were setting up your game, I would probably do 5p-10p blinds (or maybe even 5p-5p if you really want to start small) and target starting stacks of 12/22/x of 5p/20p/£1 or if you are going to Americanize and adopt the quarter, 15/21/x of 5p/25p/£1, where x is the number of £1 chips to get to the desired buy in.

 

[Sly]

Perfect JustinInMN. You raise a good point about the fact we, in Blighty, don't have a 25p piece, but I think for the sake of how things scale and fit and "change" with other chips, I think the 5c/25c/x (or 5p/25p/x) denominations work better. We'll be able to get our head around the fact we don't have a 25p.

Your 15/21/4 ratio is echoed above, and probably one I'll go for with the overall 500 I buy *probably* being a tweak to I mentioned earlier:

175 becoming 150 of 5c (or "5 value") chips
200 becoming 250 of 25c (or "25 value") chips
100 becoming 75 of $1 (or "100 value") chips
25 remaining 25 x $5 (or "500 value") chips

Noted that you, springbox, said that 175 nickels is too many. The above... to me... takes on board what you've said, plus feels like there's room for upgrading to add more $5 / 500 and then $25 / 2500 as we grow?

 

[Salbino]

Hi everyone... please go very, *very* easy on me as it's my first post here. I apologise for the mundane question straight off the bat, but I need some advice on how to set up a low-stakes poker cash game, especially considering the type of people I'll be playing with.

It'll be with local neighbours who aren't poker players - and neither am I, really - so it's 99% social more than anything else. Just getting the guys round my house for a few beers, gossip about who's probably having an affair with who in the neighbourhood, and for that possible thrill of taking home a few quid. Oh... yes... I'm in Blighty / the UK.

I've read Quad Johnson's rather excellent post about mapping for cash games, and I'm particularly interested in 5c/10c (or in my case, 5p /10p) binds. But his was for a $20 buy-in whereas I want to go with a $10 / £10 buy-in because any more than that, I don't think I'll get interest. As things progress... you never know! But for now, I want to get everyone slowly excited about Texas Hold'em.

So on the previous page, BatteredAggie posted a great message echoing my situation above, and went down the route of:

175 - $.05
200 - $.25
100 - $1
25 - $5

Not sure how that works out chips / per people - I'll be having 6 to 8 people. I am expecting a lot of people limping in - me included. I saw a post on Reddit which suggested:

20 x $0.05
24 x $0.25
3 x $1

Basically... the more chips for everyone the better at this stage. I know... I know... I don't think the above two suggestions go hand-in-hand which is where I need a bit of help. I'll be buying some new numbered chips, a set of 500 most likely from the Poker Merchant. That forum section is my next port of call...

Question : Why do I not see - ANYWHERE - recommendations of using the $.10 (or $10 if I go with my idea above) chip? I would have thought for the initial big blind you just chuck a .10 or 10 chip in the game, and others can do the same when they limp in with a call, without using 2 x .05 or 5s.

Same with .5 and 50 I guess.

Any suggestions and advice would be welcome!

To piggyback what springbox said, you don’t need that many blind chips. We play .25/.50 blinds, $20 buy in

8 .25
8 1.00
2 5.00

I’ll do a couple buys in per person like that until there’s at least 80-100 .25 chips on the table then I switch to 4x 5.00 chips for buy ins

G

 

[Sly]

While I understand the meaning of Buy-ins, it's something I haven't researched, yet, in how that mechanic works in a £10 cash game. I fully admit I should do this before ordering any chips (!!!) so that may well be tonight's exercise. When people can do it. How they re-buy in to the game. I'm sure all that is on this forum somewhere.

Trying to put you in the shoes of my neighbours - as said this is a social affair as none of us play poker - I reckon the odd person(s) after the big blind will limp in with 10c, hoping for the blinds to call. And I think that'll happen A LOT at the beginning. Hence why I'm leaning toward more chips is MOAR as they will feel they can stick in the game for a bit. I want it to be fun over anything else. I want them to come back and play again!

So I get you - I really do - but I wonder if your friends are pretty damned good and know how to play, and don't mind looking down at only 18 chips in their stack, .whereas my neighbours would be "Is that all I get for ten bloody quid?"

I'm going to learn a LOT after the first poker night, that's for sure. I can't really visualise how things will go. Cue me coming back here in a few months apologising to you! But I'll bear what you said in mind for the second or third game if our limp-fest turns into one game being two hours+ long.