Tourney Optimal 300 Chip Breakdown for T25 8-Max Tournament (3 Viewers)

[BigTed]

Hi everyone. First time poster, planning to first time host some small, single table home tournaments for myself and a few friends. I’m hoping to buy a quality set of 300 chips that I’ll be proud to play with, of a yet TBC allocation.

I’m going with a 300 count partly because of cost, partly for weight/ compactness / portability and partly because I don’t like owning more than I actually need, of anything! So, I’m posting here in the hope that I can get a sense-check from some of the experienced hosts on my calculations before I pull the trigger on any chips.

So… 8 players max, with room for at least 2 full rebuys if needed. I’d prefer to keep a T25 base if possible, as this is just what I’m used to. T10,000 for 200BB stacks. Four denominations only - 25/100/500/1000 and doing a split of 80/80/70/70 for the set.

Per player allocation of 10/10/5/6. That gives a total of 31 chips and T9,750 each (which is probably close enough for my home tournaments!).

That leaves 30x500s and 22x1000s left in the bank for a total of T37,000. That gives me 3 full rebuys available and enough left over to colour up all the 25s and most of the 100s.

What you guys think? Does this 80/80/70/70 chip breakdown sound like it would work well within a 300 chip set? T7,500 games could be a fall back for 150BB starting stacks if the T10,000 is pushing the limits of the set, which would give more of a buffer for color ups /rebuys.

 

[Labrat]

This video by Chris Manzoni has a great explanation for a 320 chip set for a table of 10.

 

[BigTed]

This video by Chris Manzoni has a great explanation for a 320 chip set for a table of 10.

Hey Labrat, thanks for the comment.
Yes, I have seen this video. I’m trying to modify this to fit a 300 count for 8 players, and just wanting to check that my allocations and math work out!

 

[harrysallout]

If 4 denoms I think you’re better going with

80 x 25
80 x 100
40 x 500
100 x 1K

8/8/4/7 starting stack for up to 10 players

If 8 players you have 4 rebuys and extra to color up
If 10 players you have 2 rebuys and extra to color up

 

[chippitydoodah]

Change the game to turbo tournaments.
Each game lasts about 2 hours and you can play 3 in a night.
T25
8/8/3/2 for 4500 starting stacks.

END OF REBUY is time to color up all the 25's & 100's

You dont even need 300 chips but I buy 300 just to fill the 3rd rack.
100 @ 25
100 @ 100
40 @ 500
60 @ 1000
Or you can get 40 @ 1000 and have room for a barrel of bounty chips or 10 bounties and 10 seating chips or 10 show me chips.

 

[BigTed]

If 4 denoms I think you’re better going with

80 x 25
80 x 100
40 x 500
100 x 1K

8/8/4/7 starting stack for up to 10 players

If 8 players you have 4 rebuys and extra to color up
If 10 players you have 2 rebuys and extra to color up

Thank you for this.

Those numbers make sense. I have been reading on another thread where BG says that T500 chips are never workhorse chips and so you don’t need as many, but… just 40x seems quite low to my inexperienced eyes! (I’ve still got a lot to learn)

Could 80/80/60/80 make sense as a compromise - 120k total, 3 rebuys + color up, and a bit more flex in that T500 range? Or are you saying, for this format and player count, you will never need more than 40x 500s’?

 

[BigTed]

Change the game to turbo tournaments.
Each game lasts about 2 hours and you can play 3 in a night.
T25
8/8/3/2 for 4500 starting stacks.
View attachment 1542502
END OF REBUY is time to color up all the 25's & 100's

You dont even need 300 chips but I buy 300 just to fill the 3rd rack.
100 @ 25
100 @ 100
40 @ 500
60 @ 1000
Or you can get 40 @ 1000 and have room for a barrel of bounty chips or 10 bounties and 10 seating chips or 10 show me chips.

Thanks for the reply!

I do like the idea of having 100 x T25s/T100s so I could run a deeper front end of 12/12/5/x split in the starting stacks for 8 players, but that would limit me -in the worst case - to something like a T6000 / 120BB starting stack, which I feel is a little short.

And I do like the Turbo idea as an option, but that’s something I could probably run no matter what configuration I get. Would prefer to optimise the set around the expectation of an economical game for 8 players and T10,000, even if the numbers end up being lower on the night. Thanks again.

 

[harrysallout]

Thank you for this.

Those numbers make sense. I have been reading on another thread where BG says that T500 chips are never workhorse chips and so you don’t need as many, but… just 40x seems quite low to my inexperienced eyes! (I’ve still got a lot to learn)

Could 80/80/60/80 make sense as a compromise - 120k total, 3 rebuys + color up, and a bit more flex in that T500 range? Or are you saying, for this format and player count, you will never need more than 40x 500s’?

Correct that the T500 is not the workhorse chip so 4 per is plenty. Depending on your structure the T500 is only significant for a few levels. You’re better off using the extra 20 chips as it gives you en extra rebuy.

The tourney should end somewhere around the 2k/4k or 3k/6k level which would just be T1k chips at this point.

 

[LeLe]

This is what you need, it even comes with extra 1k for coloring up and $5k for 10 extra buyin if you like to do a tourney with 1 rebuy allow.

Edit: you can swap out 10 x 1k for 10 x 5k too, 2 x 5k will be use for coloring up and the extra 8 x 5k will allow 16 total rebuy for 8 ppl tourney

 

[BigTed]

This is what you need, it even comes with extra 1k for coloring up and $5k for 10 extra buyin if you like to do a tourney with 1 rebuy allow.

View attachment 1542739

Hi LeLe. Thanks very much for this.
I have considered adding a 5k chip but my only issue with that is that at least 10 of those chips would probably never be used in any scenario because to use all 20 of them would mean too few chips in the end game, given the chip value total would never exceed T120k (in the worst case scenario where the table of 8 is full and all four buy ins were used).

 

[LeLe]

I have considered adding a 5k chip but my only issue with that is that at least 10 of those chips would probably never be used in any scenario because to use all 20 of them would mean too few chips in the end game

You do have to remember not everyone who start the game will remain at end game, so you will actually have a bigger chips : ratio at end game compared to the start.

Example : you start with 27 chips / person with 8/8/4/7 and after coloring up the 25 & 100, with half the field left, you still will have 31-35 chips / person on average

 

[danopoker]

If you only got 10 greys, that means in 5k and 1k chips you can cover 13 buy-ins total (8 starting and up to 5 rebuys). If you're absolutely sure that is enough, I guess you could make the case for 10 more black chips, and use those when coloring up the greens.

But honestly I'd play it safe and go with exactly what LeLe suggests.

 

[BigTed]

you can swap out 10 x 1k for 10 x 5k too, 2 x 5k will be use for coloring up and the extra 8 x 5k will allow 16 total rebuy for 8 ppl tourney

This is great. I hadn’t considered the 5k as an option purely for deep rebuy potential. Thank you! I need have another think on this.

 

[BigTed]

Just a note for anyone reading this thread in the future - there is a chip set calculator in the Resources section that gives recommended chip breakdowns for each denomination for various formats. I wasn’t aware of it (or had forgotten since I initially signed up to the site!). It’s really helpful. Check it out if you’re a newb like me.

 

[guyfleegman]

I suggest going t500 base.
200k starting stacks
50-t500
100-t1000
100-t5000
50-t25,000

Starting stacks are:
6-12-12-5
Color ups are handled in the extra 4 chips each of t1000 and t5000
That only gives you one rebuy though…

 

[BigTed]

I suggest going t500 base.
200k starting stacks
50-t500
100-t1000
100-t5000
50-t25,000

Starting stacks are:
6-12-12-5
Color ups are handled in the extra 4 chips each of t1000 and t5000
That only gives you one rebuy though…

Thanks mate, I appreciate the advice.
T500 is too radical for me though, too forward thinking. I’m a traditionalist. I like to play tournaments in the way they would have been played in the smoke filled poker rooms of Vegas in the 70s and 80s.

 

[JustinInMN]

So… 8 players max, with room for at least 2 full rebuys if needed. I’d prefer to keep a T25 base if possible, as this is just what I’m used to. T10,000 for 200BB stacks. Four denominations only - 25/100/500/1000 and doing a split of 80/80/70/70 for the set.

80/80/40/80/20 of T25/100/500/1000/5000 would be a little better so you can do stacks of 8/8/4/7 for up to 10 players and then have some T5000 chips for rebuys/color ups.

If you are buying chips that must be purchased in quantities of 25, then you are looking at 75/75/50/75/25.

I suggest going t500 base.
200k starting stacks
50-t500
100-t1000
100-t5000
50-t25,000

Starting stacks are:
6-12-12-5
Color ups are handled in the extra 4 chips each of t1000 and t5000
That only gives you one rebuy though…

I love T500 base personally.

 

[BigTed]

80/80/40/80/20 of T25/100/500/1000/5000 would be a little better so you can do stacks of 8/8/4/7 for up to 10 players and then have some T5000 chips for rebuys/color ups.

If you are buying chips that must be purchased in quantities of 25, then you are looking at 75/75/50/75/25.

Perfect, thanks Justin! I have quite a few of your posts bookmarked on starting stacks and tournament structures.
The 80/80/40/80/20 is definitely the breakdown I'll be going with - odd numbers trigger my OCD. But I think I might overbuy slightly to cover bases and so I could also theoretically run a single table T100 if the need ever arose. So I think my final purchase breakdown will be 100/100/50/100/100.

 

[JustinInMN]

Perfect, thanks Justin! I have quite a few of your posts bookmarked on starting stacks and tournament structures.
The 80/80/40/80/20 is definitely the breakdown I'll be going with - odd numbers trigger my OCD. But I think I might overbuy slightly to cover bases and so I could also theoretically run a single table T100 if the need ever arose. So I think my final purchase breakdown will be 100/100/50/100/100.

Thaks for the kind remark on this. I wasn't too active on here at the start of the year, but getting back into checking a little more often.

Your final breakdown is 450 chips, I might tweak it to 100/100/50/100/50 for an even 400, 100 * T5K would be way overkill.

This breakdown also affords have the option with to do 8 stacks of 12/12/5/6 when you have an 8 max game .

And this breakdown for T100 base is still pretty solid for doing up to T20K starting stacks of 10/4/7/2 of T100/500/1000/5000, which would still be 200BB with 100-100 starting blinds. If you were thinking of larger T100 stacks, then I suppose you would consider extra chips.

 

[BigTed]

And this breakdown for T100 base is still pretty solid for doing up to T20K starting stacks of 10/4/7/2 of T100/500/1000/5000, which would still be 200BB with 100-100 starting blinds. If you were thinking of larger T100 stacks, then I suppose you would consider extra chips.

That's great. Thanks for your help, Justin. That makes sense re the T5Ks.
I'm in the process of designing a set of chips at the moment (and being incredibly indecisive over edge spot patterns and colors!), but will hopefully be placing an order soon! Thanks again.

 

[JustinInMN]

That's great. Thanks for your help, Justin. That makes sense re the T5Ks.
I'm in the process of designing a set of chips at the moment (and being incredibly indecisive over edge spot patterns and colors!), but will hopefully be placing an order soon! Thanks again.

Yes be very careful with edge spots. That is an error I made on my tournament set. But I look forward to seeing your results