Cash Game *New Poker Host Needing Advice* $0.25/$0.25 eventually $0.25/$0.50 NLHE Home Cash Game (2 Viewers)

[JustAnotherFishie]

Background: I had been playing at a game which did $20 buy-ins and a rack contained 20x$0.25, 10x$0.50, and 10x$1.00 chips. The dealer would ante for everyone (0.25/player). We didn't play much due to a lack of players, and when I suggested creating a poker pool in my community, the home owner did not wish for people he did not know in his home. I respectfully told him I will host sessions until he is comfortable with the people then we could possibly rotate hosts. *A few of my friends are new to the game therefore I wish to keep the stakes low, at least at first.* I have recently built a table which will fit 8 players comfortably, and can squeeze 10. Eventually (5-10 years from now) I will build a second table.

Goal: 0.25/0.25 NLHE with no antes ($10-$25 buy-ins, unlimited re buys) and eventually 0.25/0.50 NLHE with no antes ($20-$50 buy-ins, unlimited re buys)

I was lent a set to play with until I save up enough to buy the custom poker chip set that I would like.
Current Chip Set: No denomination chips, 200xWhite 200xRed 101xGreen 99xBlack chips.
Future Chip Set: 1000 chips of 3-4 custom made denomination chips
I understand that 1000 chips may be over kill for now, but I figured if I was getting custom made chips, it would be best to never have to get anymore in the future.

QUESTION/HELP: *with taking into consideration the above information*
1. Does my goal seem a little ridiculous with no antes? How would you adjust this?
2. With the current amount of chips, which values should I assign to each color for the NLHE games, and how many should be given out in a rack? (I'm assuming a majority will buy in for $20 in 0.25/0.25 and $40 for 0.25/0.50)
3. When I do save up enough, what would the ideal set (# of chips/value of different denomination chips) be for my intended games? Should I save longer and purchase a larger amount of chips since I intend on building a second table?
4. How should racks be distributed with the FUTURE CHIP SET, similar to question #2?

Thank you for taking the time to read this thread,
JustAnotherFishie ><>

 

[JustAnotherFishie]

PS. A game would have a minimum of 5 people, and a maximum of 10 people. Most games will be 6-8 people.

 

[tabletalker7]

Background: I had been playing at a game which did $20 buy-ins and a rack contained 20x$0.25, 10x$0.50, and 10x$1.00 chips. The dealer would ante for everyone (0.25/player). We didn't play much due to a lack of players, and when I suggested creating a poker pool in my community, the home owner did not wish for people he did not know in his home. I respectfully told him I will host sessions until he is comfortable with the people then we could possibly rotate hosts. *A few of my friends are new to the game therefore I wish to keep the stakes low, at least at first.* I have recently built a table which will fit 8 players comfortably, and can squeeze 10. Eventually (5-10 years from now) I will build a second table.

Goal: 0.25/0.25 NLHE with no antes ($10-$25 buy-ins, unlimited re buys) and eventually 0.25/0.50 NLHE with no antes ($20-$50 buy-ins, unlimited re buys)

I was lent a set to play with until I save up enough to buy the custom poker chip set that I would like.
Current Chip Set: No denomination chips, 200xWhite 200xRed 101xGreen 99xBlack chips.
Future Chip Set: 1000 chips of 3-4 custom made denomination chips
I understand that 1000 chips may be over kill for now, but I figured if I was getting custom made chips, it would be best to never have to get anymore in the future.

QUESTION/HELP: *with taking into consideration the above information*
1. Does my goal seem a little ridiculous with no antes? How would you adjust this?
2. With the current amount of chips, which values should I assign to each color for the NLHE games, and how many should be given out in a rack? (I'm assuming a majority will buy in for $20 in 0.25/0.25 and $40 for 0.25/0.50)
3. When I do save up enough, what would the ideal set (# of chips/value of different denomination chips) be for my intended games? Should I save longer and purchase a larger amount of chips since I intend on building a second table?
4. How should racks be distributed with the FUTURE CHIP SET, similar to question #2?

Thank you for taking the time to read this thread,
JustAnotherFishie ><>

1. Yes, but not because of antes or the lack thereof. With buy-ins between 10 and 25 consider playing .05/.10. Games where blinds are too big for the buy-ins are jam fests, not poker games.

2. See 1

3. Always save more. Chips from different manufacturing lots can have color variations and other quality differences. It is always better to buy chips all at once then little bits here and there.

4. See 1

 

[JustinInMN]

/0.25 NLHE with no antes ($10-$25 buy-ins, unlimited re buys) and eventually 0.25/0.50 NLHE with no antes ($20-$50 buy-ins, unlimited re buys)

1. Does my goal seem a little ridiculous with no antes? How would you adjust this?

No not at all ridiculous, I think 0.25-0.25 is a good stake for where the players are now.

2. With the current amount of chips, which values should I assign to each color for the NLHE games, and how many should be given out in a rack? (I'm assuming a majority will buy in for $20 in 0.25/0.25 and $40 for 0.25/0.50)

I would convert the black chips to quarters and keep the white, red, and green standard at 1, 5, 25 respectively.

Long term, I would do something like 200/400/300/100 of 0.25/1/5/20 for 1000 chip breakdown that should handle two tables okay. Lots of other breakdown ideas in other threads too. But see what works in your temp set for now and see what you think

Good luck and welcome to PCF.

 

[Eloe2000]

1. Not at all. I would NOT recommend antes. But with .25/.25 absolute lowest buy-in I would go is $20-$25 but would recommend $40 for a casual game. You should be at 100xBB+ but prefer 150x personally for a casual game.
2.
101x $0.25 Green
200x $1 White
200x $5Red
99x $0.05, $0.50 or $20 Black depending on game

3. 800 chips is perfect for a cash set...
120x $0.25 (you could add more of these up to 200 total)
300x $1
300x $5
60x $20
20x $100

For what its worth, once you go past a single table things can get much less personal and the game changes IMHO. I would focus on building a solid single table of recurring players and then address a possible second table once you get to that point.

 

[BearMetal]

Background: I had been playing at a game which did $20 buy-ins and a rack contained 20x$0.25, 10x$0.50, and 10x$1.00 chips. The dealer would ante for everyone (0.25/player). We didn't play much due to a lack of players, and when I suggested creating a poker pool in my community, the home owner did not wish for people he did not know in his home. I respectfully told him I will host sessions until he is comfortable with the people then we could possibly rotate hosts. *A few of my friends are new to the game therefore I wish to keep the stakes low, at least at first.* I have recently built a table which will fit 8 players comfortably, and can squeeze 10. Eventually (5-10 years from now) I will build a second table.

Goal: 0.25/0.25 NLHE with no antes ($10-$25 buy-ins, unlimited re buys) and eventually 0.25/0.50 NLHE with no antes ($20-$50 buy-ins, unlimited re buys)

I was lent a set to play with until I save up enough to buy the custom poker chip set that I would like.
Current Chip Set: No denomination chips, 200xWhite 200xRed 101xGreen 99xBlack chips.
Future Chip Set: 1000 chips of 3-4 custom made denomination chips
I understand that 1000 chips may be over kill for now, but I figured if I was getting custom made chips, it would be best to never have to get anymore in the future.

QUESTION/HELP: *with taking into consideration the above information*
1. Does my goal seem a little ridiculous with no antes? How would you adjust this?
2. With the current amount of chips, which values should I assign to each color for the NLHE games, and how many should be given out in a rack? (I'm assuming a majority will buy in for $20 in 0.25/0.25 and $40 for 0.25/0.50)
3. When I do save up enough, what would the ideal set (# of chips/value of different denomination chips) be for my intended games? Should I save longer and purchase a larger amount of chips since I intend on building a second table?
4. How should racks be distributed with the FUTURE CHIP SET, similar to question #2?

Thank you for taking the time to read this thread,
JustAnotherFishie ><>

I play a 25/50c with $20 buy in, unlimited rebuys. Bankroll rarely gets above $500. My players like feeling like winners, so the more chips they have, the happier they are. I start them with:
10 25c
11 50c
12 $1

All rebuys happen with $5s. I tend not to allow rebuys for less than $20 because you'll get someone just trying to jam all in with a small stack in hopes they walk away with something. When building a set for this, I can normally get away with 400 chips total.

 

[moose]

Nothing wrong with .25/.25. You are better to move the buyins up than worry about moving the blinds up. A deeper game is a better game.
I agree with everything @JustinInMN put in his post.

 

[BearMetal]

What's better for future proofing a set with only 4 denominations? 25c might become outdated at some point. Do you go 25c/1/5/20 and add in a ton of 25c's for the inevitable jump to 50c/$1?

 

[Goldfish]

U also should consider chip security if your multi table game is open to randoms and people u don’t really know. If u have a basic set easily purchased anywhere, people could easily insert counterfeit chips into the game. The bank is off, then what? U should invest in custom inlays or custom ceramics as soon as possible to avoid that issue. Welcome to hosting. Just a thought.

 

[JustinInMN]

4. How should racks be distributed with the FUTURE CHIP SET, similar to question #2?

I assume you mean starting stacks. In general players should not play with chips in racks, it actually tends to slow down betting when they need to pick chips out as opposed to on the table.

If you take my suggestion and use your 99 black chips as quarters I think you should do this.
4 Stacks 20/15 (of 0.25/1) for 20 buy in.
1 Stack 16/16
6 Stacks 0/20
50 Stacks 4*5

In other words, just distribute chips from lowest to highest. 100 quarters is sufficient for a single table game. Players will have in their stacks on average 8-12 quarters depending on how may players in the game. That's usually sufficient to cover a bets on the first couple streets. Then the larger chips will usually take over. There may need to be change once in a while, but that's not a big deal once players get good at it. The low denominations are more helpful on the table than sitting in your bank.

 

[JustinInMN]

10 25c
11 50c
12 $1

I am not a huge fan of both 0.25 and 0.50 chips on the table with singles. It just takes longer to count stacks, which is important with all ins.

Would you rather add in your head.

11 singles + 13 halves + 9 quarters

OR

17 singles + 11 quarters


Fewer denominations and larger stacks of the most meaningful chips really improves when counting stacks in no limit.

 

[BearMetal]

I am not a huge fan of both 0.25 and 0.50 chips on the table with singles. It just takes longer to count stacks, which is important with all ins.

Would you rather add in your head.

11 singles + 13 halves + 9 quarters

OR

17 singles + 11 quarters


Fewer denominations and larger stacks of the most meaningful chips really improves when counting stacks in no limit.

The moment that play starts, the counting becomes pretty easy. Most people here dislike 25c and 50c chips together. It's the way we've always played. I mentioned it because I'm the voice of the minority, but it might work when building a new set.

Then again with only 4 denoms, you definitely only want either a 25c or a 50c; not both.

 

[Schmendr1ck]

Another option with $25 max buy-in is 0.25 single blind. I've played this with my group and it works well.

Also 100% agreed with other posters who say don't use 0.25 and 0.50 chips in the same set.

 

[Craig D]

Current Chip Set: No denomination chips, 200xWhite 200xRed 101xGreen 99xBlack chips.

I would use the chips as below if the smallest chip is 25c:

GREEN 25c
WHITE $1
RED $5
BLACK $20 (May not be needed)

6 Players Starting Stacks 16/16/?
8 Players Starting Stacks 12/17/?
12 Players Starting Stacks 8/13/?


I think a deeper game is a better game, your players prefer a shallow game, give the players what they want.

Have Fun
PS The non denominational 1/2/2/1 breakdown is extremely popular for pot and no limit games

 

[Klobberer]

No need for .50 chips. Two quarters

 

[JustDave]

Something of note, and people keep mentioning you are playing .25/.25 which you aren't. If you are playing that the dealer is putting in .25 a player as an ante the value of the pot before anyone is dealt cards and playing with 8 players is $2.00 instead of $0.50. 1/10th of someone's starting stack vs 1/40th. I think folks would be shoving a lot in that game. Even playing 40 big blinds is all short.

Give this a gander.

Welcome to the forum.

 

[grebe]

-Skip the .50's and run your game with quarters, dollars and fives. You can really do anything you want here, but you would do yourself and your group a favor when venturing to other games by sticking with traditional colors, mainly in your case white dollars and red fives. Green quarters I guess, then black chips could be reserved for buyins...maybe tens.

-your buy in levels and blinds are perfectly fine. My experience is newer players don't want to play deep, so 50 to 100 big blinds here will be comfortable for most of your players. I would do .25/.25 just so that players arent thrown off by only 1 blind. (NO ANTES!) This also would make it easy to change it up to .25/.50 later in the night if players wanted to do this.

-Your future set will surely change as your game starts to mature. I wouldnt put too much thought into that yet. I would worry more about keeping the game enjoyable to you and your players so that you will have a good game to justify a nice chip set.

-Come up with a good set of rules for your game (reference Robert's Rules of Poker) and stick to them. Rules don't CONfine, they DEfine. This is way more important to the health of your game than chips. Some things to figure out: straddles? guests/new player vetting? borrowing money/cash only or paypal? drinking/rec drug use? smoking/vaping? This stuff can be hard and fast....as in "No marjiuana no exceptions" or "No drinking if you drove here", but could also be fluid....like no straddles changes into 1 straddle UTG allowed the next week. Just some stuff hosts need to think about.

Good luck!

 

[AnteAndy]

1. No, most cash games don’t use antes, from what I’m aware of.

2. Personally, Black chips be quarters, Whites $1s, Reds $5, & Greens $25. The latter three colors are the traditional denominations for each. I personally do starting stacks of 12x $0.25 and 17x $1 for $20, then add $5 chips when the buy-ins are higher. Nearly everyone I know prefers to have starting stacks and not barrels of quarters for the first 5 people buying in since other people at the start would have to make change immediately. With the starting stacks I provided, we hardly had to worry about making change.

3. The PCF recommended breakdown for a single table is the following 600 chips (if you think you’ll never go above a $40-$60 buy-in):
100x $0.25
200x $1
200x $5
100x $25 (or $20)

For 1000 chips, I’d recommend adding a rack (100ct.) of quarters and $1s, & two racks of $5s, especially if you'll have two or more tables at your game.

Also, save up to buy all you need in one go. As some have said, certain chips and manufacturers would produce different physical qualities of the same chips.

4. See 2.

 

[JustinInMN]

Something of note, and people keep mentioning you are playing .25/.25 which you aren't.

Right, @JustAnotherFishie mentioned in the OP his goal is to play 0.25-0.25 with no antes, so the posters are tailoring their breakdown suggestions to this request. I believe this is a good stake to target if players are comfortable with $20 buy-ins.

If you are playing that the dealer is putting in .25 a player as an ante the value of the pot before anyone is dealt cards and playing with 8 players is $2.00 instead of $0.50. 1/10th of someone's starting stack vs 1/40th. I think folks would be shoving a lot in that game.

Agreed, the ante to buy in ratio is too low which forces what I dubbed "arena poker," it's too small a space that forces a narrow shove or not strategy on most flops. Switching to a no ante, 0.25-0.25 blind structure is more in line for $20 buy ins for sure.

 

[JustAnotherFishie]

Thank you for everyone's input!! This has truly helped my decision making for the home game.
For the 0.25/0.25 ($10-$25 buy in, unlimited re buys) game I've decided the starting stack of 12x0.25, 17x1.00, 1x5.00 with all rebuys consisting of red ($5) chips, and change to be broken down at the table. Unfortunately with those starting stacks I'm limited to 8 players until I buy my set, but that will allow the forming of a solid core of reliable players to build the pool in the future. I've begun to construct a set of rules, referencing many generally followed rules.
**I have constructed a shopping cart of 250x0.25(black), 350x1.00(ivory), 350x5.00(red), 50x25.00(green) chips** If in the very far future we mix in 0.50/1.00 games, what would be a good way to modify/future proof this set? Please keep in mind I intend on building a second table in 1-3years.
@JustinInMN @AnteAndy @grebe @Craig D @Schmendr1ck @moose @BearMetal @Eloe2000
This forum is absolutely incredible and I appreciate all of the useful advice!!

 

[JustAnotherFishie]

PS. The shopping cart was constructed with 20 theoretical players all acquiring a starting stack of 12x0.25 and 17x1.00, should i add more 0.25 chips if the blinds are increased? or would 12x0.25 work for 0.25/0.50 and 0.50/1.00 games?

 

[Kid_Eastwood]

Stakes 0.25 - 0.25 are perfectly fine for a NL25 game. I play such a game last week with min. buyin 10 and max 25.

My 25 stack was :
0.25 x 12
1 x 12
5 x 2

 

[Jambine]

Goal: 0.25/0.25 NLHE with no antes ($10-$25 buy-ins, unlimited re buys) and eventually 0.25/0.50 NLHE with no antes ($20-$50 buy-ins, unlimited re buys)

No worries man. .25/.25 and .25/.50 are going to play almost exactly the same

 

[Eloe2000]

Thank you for everyone's input!! This has truly helped my decision making for the home game.
For the 0.25/0.25 ($10-$25 buy in, unlimited re buys) game I've decided the starting stack of 12x0.25, 17x1.00, 1x5.00 with all rebuys consisting of red ($5) chips, and change to be broken down at the table. Unfortunately with those starting stacks I'm limited to 8 players until I buy my set, but that will allow the forming of a solid core of reliable players to build the pool in the future. I've begun to construct a set of rules, referencing many generally followed rules.
**I have constructed a shopping cart of 250x0.25(black), 350x1.00(ivory), 350x5.00(red), 50x25.00(green) chips** If in the very far future we mix in 0.50/1.00 games, what would be a good way to modify/future proof this set? Please keep in mind I intend on building a second table in 1-3years.
@JustinInMN @AnteAndy @grebe @Craig D @Schmendr1ck @moose @BearMetal @Eloe2000
This forum is absolutely incredible and I appreciate all of the useful advice!!

FWIW with typical starting stacks of 12 quarters per player you can still have 10 players with only 100 quarters. Just get all the quarters on the table and then fill in the gaps with $1s and let people immediately make some change with each other.people even 8 quarters per person is still very playable.

While 17x $1s is efficient (and much of what we discuss here is most efficient and all you “need”) and you can certainly just rebuy with $5s, I know I prefer to end up with more $1s on the table for games up to and through $1/2 in a final set.

 

[Jambine]

1. Does my goal seem a little ridiculous with no antes? How would you adjust this?

No need for antes in this game

 

[JustinInMN]

**I have constructed a shopping cart of 250x0.25(black), 350x1.00(ivory), 350x5.00(red), 50x25.00(green) chips** If in the very far future we mix in 0.50/1.00 games, what would be a good way to modify/future proof this set? Please keep in mind I intend on building a second table in 1-3years.

Cool, I just want to point that you might want to pick a different color for quarters because black is the standard color for 100, and you may want to reserve that for the future. Yellow, Pink are good choices for quarters to this end.

You can probably cut your quarters to 200. Starting stacks for cash don't really need to be identical to one another because they are counted with every buy-in. Tournaments are a little different, it's hand to have that visual check of everyone buying the same amount.

I personally would suggest 200/400/350/50 for what you have right now. You still get 15 stacks of 12/17/x, it will not matter much if the 16th- 20th stacks are 4/19/x instead. This will work fine for 0.25-0.25 and 0.25-0.50. Unless you want to acquire 0.50 chips for moving to 0.50-1, you may just instead want to plan to play 1-1. Your breakdown as you have it is still probably good for that game, you probably just would only put about 100 singles on each table. Your whole bank is still 3950 with my suggested modification (and has the benefit of storing in "whole" racks), and yields 40 buy ins of 100 for 1-1, that should be plenty. If you really get into two-tabling, then consider adding more fives to the set.

Good luck and thanks for your kindness.

 

[JustAnotherFishie]

@JustinInMN I cannot express enough how helpful you have been haha
So to tackle the quarter issue, I adjusted the cart to 200/400/350/50, $0.25/$1/$5/$20 respectively
Does this work? and thank you!

 

[Craig D]

Your breakdown is fine for 25c 25c and two tables

If you change your breakdown a little you can accommodate 25 players, higher blinds, and a larger bank eg Bank $9050 or $9850 (200x25c/300x$1/300x$5/160x$20or$25/40x$100)

I will be "that guy"

Have you considered new or used Casino chips?

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/save-your-money.60464/

$1s $5s and $25s will be plentiful...

25c chips are expensive, you can use chips labels even use roulette chips

They are not as secure as customs, but more secure than mass produced chips

Have Fun

 

[JustinInMN]

@JustinInMN I cannot express enough how helpful you have been haha
So to tackle the quarter issue, I adjusted the cart to 200/400/350/50, $0.25/$1/$5/$20 respectively
Does this work? and thank you!

Yes, that works.

I normally wouldn't recommend green quarters because green is typically reserved for a 25 chip, but because you are using 20 instead, it's fine and it's good that you chose yellow for 20 to make sure it's different from a standard 25. I think most PCFers that use 20 over 25 go with yellow. (I did both 20s and 25s for my customs, see link in signature.)

I might be a little concerned about confusion between ivory and yellow, which is just my plug for #TeamBlueDollar, meaning maybe pick blue chips for the single?

But otherwise, I think your plan looks good. You have enough for two table 0.25-0.25 and 0.25-0.50 certainly. You are probably good for at least one table of 1-1 when time to experiment comes, if you actually get to a point where you would be two tabling 1-1 you may find you are a bit tight on fives, but you may not.

 

[JustinInMN]

So I just feel the need to add this suggestion. If you are really 5-10 years away from building a second table, I would just use your borrowed set as long as you can and don't rush into a purchase, especially if you are looking at lower end chips.

If you hang out in PCF, you may find you will develop a taste for customs or casino chips as @Craig D mentioned above. Let your tastes develop. If you are looking to make a purchase just so can return the borrowed set, I would just get a 600 chip set (100/200/250/50 for example) for now and see if you want to swing for the fences after ensuring your game grows.

We really don't know what chips you are looking at, I don't get the feeling you are looking at denominated chips even given the colors seem interchangable. If they are on the low end, there is nothing wrong with that, but I wouldn't spend too much at that price point if you are thinking of growth and are going to continue to learn about the possibilities of customs, relabeling, casino sets, and so forth here at PCF.

So I would really get the minimum now, then you can get a feel for what works and doesn't in your game and then you save some for when you might be ready to go for higher quality chips and you will spend smarter on what you need at that point.