Novice here looking for advice on chips (1 Viewer)

[ProwlingBear]

Hello, friends! I'm thinking of playing poker with some grad school friends, and I'm looking for advice on purchasing a decent set of chips that I can enhance and complement over time. Our game might not be a long-term commitment, so I don't want to invest a lot of money upfront. However, I also don't want to buy poor quality chips that I'll have to replace soon if our game takes off.

Can anyone recommend a set of poker chips that are of decent quality but won't break the bank? I'm considering factors such as material, weight, design, and quantity, but I'm open to any suggestions. I'm looking for a set that can accommodate 3-4 players for now, and I don't mind adding more chips later if needed.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[BGinGA]

Please define "won't break the bank".

 

[chipinla]

@Sicembears has a nice set for sale that could work.
Thread 'Tunica Roadhouse Set'
https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/tunica-roadhouse-set.101871/

Also depends on what stakes you’re playing.

 

[Pinkdan]

Are you wanting to play a cash game or tourney's?

 

[HebbNH]

Cash or tourney? Stakes / starting stacks? Budget?

 

[Eriks]

It’s impossible to give general suggestions based on the information given.

Cash or tourney? The latter requires less chips. You could build a set for a 10 person tourney with as little as 300 chips. For a cash set, you’d want the double amount of chips or more. And don’t build your set for 3-4 people only, your game will likely grow.

Also this:

Please define "won't break the bank".

You’d be surprised what some of us find perfectly reasonable to spend on a set. It’s very much subjective.

 

[ProwlingBear]

Thanks, everyone! I'm still figuring things out, but I'm considering a cash game with mini stakes (such as 50c/$1, or $1/$1) and a starting stack of $40. I'm hoping to find a set of chips that fits my budget (Ideally, I don't want to spend more than $300-$400 upfront), can be expanded over time, and is of decent quality that won't need replacing soon.
Thanks again!

 

[Tonysquander]

Welcome to PCF!

 

[KHarp1]

Welcome! DeusEx has put together this thread for New Members that has a lot of good info. Great place to start to answer a lot of questions.

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/new-members-start-here.85303/

 

[lane_robert_s]

Welcome.

My best word of advice is, regardless of what you decide to go with along the lines of cash/tournament and chip quantities and breakdown....

Get samples before you buy a set.

 

[HebbNH]

Thanks, everyone! I'm still figuring things out, but I'm considering a cash game with mini stakes (such as 50c/$1, or $1/$1) and a starting stack of $40. I'm hoping to find a set of chips that fits my budget (Ideally, I don't want to spend more than $300-$400 upfront), can be expanded over time, and is of decent quality that won't need replacing soon.
Thanks again!

Either your stakes or your buyin could use adjustment, IMHO. If you're looking at a $40 buyin, something like $.10/$.25 up to maybe $.25/$.50 would be more appropriate. A $40 buyin at $1/$1 would be very short-stacked and quickly turn into a shove-fest. That's fine if that's what you're into, but that doesn't really jive with trying to build a long-term game.

 

[Machine]

For the best experience, one would typically want to figure out the amount of money they will need to support for the duration of the game. This is refered to as the bank. Start with the buy in amount, or the stakes that you want to play, in this case 40 USD as a buy in, then you'll want to consider at least two more buy ins.

Most people find their way here via Texas Hold'em and that's okay if you're a normal, us elitist will only suggest you play a real game like Omaha or Mixed games. I bring up the game you plan to play because, while someone can wait 220 hands for say AAs and then shove preflop, in other games stacks go in a bit more rapidly. Take PLO, stacks ARE going in, more and more as the night goes on. This affects the amount of rebuys, which affects the amount of chips you'll want to buy to support the game, which also affects budget.

Okay so, moving on, say 4 players with 3 rebuys each means you'll need a bank of (40 buy in x 4 buys) x 4 people = 640 USD.

We play .05 / .10 with a 5 to 20 USD buy in. From here its all personal preference for what denoms you want to use, some would look at .10 / .50, but most would go with .05 / .25. the 5 cent and 25 cent would allow for you to play around with more blind structures.

Here is the break down I would use:

100 x .05
200 x .25
200 x 1
100 x 5

This should let you grow up to about 6 players, beyond that you'll only need to pick up more 5s and some 20s

 

[ProwlingBear]

Thanks @HebbNH and @Machine for your great points! I definitely want to avoid a "shove-fest" and keep the game more rational. Given that, what would be a suitable buy-in amount for a 0.25/0.50 game? Would $50 be sufficient for starting stacks? Also, do you have any suggestions for a good chip setup for this game?

 

[HebbNH]

$50 buy-in at $.25/$.50 is fine. The breakdown I’d suggest would be:

$.25 x 100
$1 x 200
$5 x 180
$25 x 20 (or $20 if you prefer vs $25)

500 chips total.

That gives you a $1625 bank ($1525 if using $20 chips), enough to cover 3 buy-ins of $50 each for 10 players. That’s more than enough for your game currently so there’s plenty of room for it to grow without straining your chip set.

Given your budget, you’d be looking at spending $.60 - $.80 per chip, which gives you quite a few nice options to choose from.

 

[KHarp1]

This is where someone, I do it this time, says GET SAMPLES. BR Pro has many decent chips in that price range. Sunfly as well. The group buys they are put on by different members here of the "Tina" China chips offer a good value at any half the BR/Sunfly price, however, the quality isn't quite as good a well. Which is why everyone suggests getting samples, so you can get your hands on them before sinking money into a full set.

There are often good buys in the classified section once you achieved the level to DM.

 

[chipinla]

I know most people will disagree with me because PCFers have for the most part turned into chip snobs BUT if your budget is $300-$400 I would add a couple hundred bucks or so to that and get an inexpensive Paulson starter set.

Without going full custom or relabeling something Quarters and nickels are impossible to find. I used $25s as quarters, $5s as $5s or nickels and $1s as $1s for years! And you’ll have a legit real clay casino set that your friends will dig. It was a super friendly fun game. (Like the stakes you’re talking). 500-600 chips can make that happen. Nobody had an issue with it and it worked just fine. Again, this is my recommendation for just starting. You’ll 99% most likely move on from any sort of cards mold or BR Pro ceramic so I would just make that next jump right away and not spend that money. Also, Paulsons will only appreciate in value over time so you can resell for most likely whatever you pay for them, possibly even make a profit. You won’t be able to do that with ceramics.

Annnnnnnnd cue the pitchforks!

 

[Mudfever]

Welcome!

Congratulations on Grad school and have fun!

A little different take from someone who was recently in your shoes. You can quickly get samples and spend $100+. You can spend hours on here looking at different sets and loving Paulsons, CPC’s, TRK’s and etc. I recommend either going to the Tina thread and picking a set you like and getting in the next Group buy OR BRPro. You want a cash set with $.25, $1, $5, $25 and either $.05 or $100 depending on stakes. See the @Machine thread like mentioned for each denomination order totals. This will fit your $3-400 budget and will be plenty “good enough”. Having correct denominations will vastly help a new game!! This is an investment in Fellowship and not Iconic chips. I have both Tina’s (BTP) and BRPro (Super Poke World) and when I introduced them to my game that had been playing with Dice chips for years, my guys were blown away and thought I spent stupid money on them.

Mud

 

[Machine]

Thanks @HebbNH and @Machine for your great points! I definitely want to avoid a "shove-fest" and keep the game more rational. Given that, what would be a suitable buy-in amount for a 0.25/0.50 game? Would $50 be sufficient for starting stacks? Also, do you have any suggestions for a good chip setup for this game?

I run a PLO game, shoving stacks is part of the fun. My game is .25/.50 game, my buy in is 20 min / 80 max, and after a few hours it goes up to 100 because ppl can't be bothered with carry'n more 20s

A lot of us like to play deep stack, which is going to be 200+ BB (big blinds) its an algorithm based on the stakes of the game, so in a .25/.5 that would be $100.

Understanding the dynamics and the way a game plays is something you learn as a host over time. Having a buy in Cap that is low helps keep the game friendly in that you limit the pain new players can inflict upon themselves. I would not suggest playing with 2/3s the big stack cap or no cap. I would suggest starting with .05/.1 game, I won 100 USD recently playing .05/.1. 20 bucks is a great buy in for that and if you don't like it take it up to .25/.5 the next game, you can hold onto the .05 chips for when you have kids or to play with your fam.

If you start out at .25/.5 its hard to go down in blinds, that said a $40 Cap playing .25/.5 would play rather well. You might consider playing Pot Limit Holdem, yeah it doesn't sound as sexy as NLH but it would be a better game and a great exercise for you and the players, it also limits stacks going in preflop and fosters better play.

 

[pokrgeek21]

Buy or ask for a sample set of various types of chips and pick your favorite then pursue your set!

 

[ProwlingBear]

Thank you, friends! You've been immensely helpful.
I'll keep you posted on which set I end up buying and how our game pans out.

 

[BGinGA]

Either your stakes or your buyin could use adjustment, IMHO. If you're looking at a $40 buyin, something like $.10/$.25 up to maybe $.25/$.50 would be more appropriate. A $40 buyin at $1/$1 would be very short-stacked and quickly turn into a shove-fest. That's fine if that's what you're into, but that doesn't really jive with trying to build a long-term game.

Depends entirely on what kind of game they are playing. A $40 buy-in is fine for a 50c/$1 limit game (Hold'Em, Omaha, Stud, Razz, or Scrotum).

 

[HebbNH]

Depends entirely on what kind of game they are playing. A $40 buy-in is fine for a 50c/$1 limit game (Hold'Em, Omaha, Stud, Razz, or Scrotum).

Fair point. My first assumption is always NLH unless specified otherwise, since that’s so ubiquitous. I should’ve asked for clarification on that first, I suppose.