Tourney Post *your* preferred single-table tournament breakdown here (1 Viewer)

[Psypher1000]

Over the next year I'll be doing a series of articles re: building sets for the CCA magazine, as well as focusing on playable casino chip sets. I'll also be chatting with some of their directors to look at offering playable sets for their members using their annual club chips.

In this thread I'd like you to post your preferred single-table tournament breakdown along with a very brief synopsis of why its ideal for you/your poker crew. Please also list your preferred starting stacks and, if you can, blind schedules.

If you don't commonly play/host tournaments, please refrain from posting.

Please, keep debate/discussion to a minimum in this thread. A breakdown that works for you may be trash for another person's game for various reasons. My purpose here is simply to solicit a variety of opinions, not the "best" opinion.

I don't play in or host enough tournaments for me to have a strong opinion on this, so I'll refrain from posting the breakdowns I use.

 

[links_slayer]

I like the following for a nice little versatile 10-player tournament set:

100 x T5
120 x T25
140 x T100
100 x T500
100 x T1000
40 x T5000

This allows for 10-10-7-x for T1,000 to T2,500 starting stacks and 12-12-7-x T5,000 to T10,000 starting stacks, with enough higher denoms for re-buys, add-ons, and/or color-ups as needed. It's also quite convenient that this fits nicely into a 600 chip carrier

 

[MaxB]

10 players, no rebuys, T10k starting stacks 12/12/7/5

120 - 25s (maybe add a couple extras in case breaking or lost)
140 - 100s (extras for color ups)
80 - 500s (extras for color ups)
60 - 1000s (extras for color ups)

total chips = 400

gives a nice size starting stack, and only 50% of the value in the starting stack are 1k's
I also like having only four denominations and I'd make the 1k chips oversized (if making a custom set)

 

[ChaosRock]

I like starting stack of T20K using T2K with SS of 12/12/9/7 for a cool 2 barrels... So the breakdown of the set, with plenty for color ups and re-buys, would be:

120 x T25s
140 x T100s
120 x T500s
100 x T2Ks
20 x T10Ks

500 total

Using T1K with stacks of T20K SS of 12/12/5/6/2:

120 x T25s
120 x T100s
40 x T500s
100 x T1Ks
60 x T5Ks

440 total


The T1K set is a little smaller than the T2K but I use less starting stack chips and account for less chips for re-buys and color-ups.

 

[upNdown]

This is where chip budgets come into play. If you're using customs, China clays, or anything cheaper, your lowest chip should be a T25, like the casinos. But if you like to use casino cash chips, you're almost forced to start with T5's, just because of the cost and availibilty of the bigger dollar chips.
With that in mind, I've stretched the top end of my Cleveland Horseshoes cash set to support single table tournaments and it's worked just fine.

T2000 stacks
10 x T5
10 x T25
7 x T100
2 x T500

120 x T5
120 x T25
100 x T100
30 x T500
5 x T1000

The T1000's are purely for rebuys and I plan to add on another 5 or so when I see them for sale. (Although if people re-buy early, I have enough small chips to hand out a couple of full starting stacks.)
I color up the T5's with T100's and the T25's with T500's.
I don't see the need to color up T100's on a single table T2000 tournament.

 

[Jomama]

Chip break down for T10000 SS single table 10 man tournament using Cleveland Horseshoe Secondary set

12 x T25
12 x T100
5 x T500
6 x T1000

Total available for rebuys and color ups

200 x T25
200 x T100
120 x T500
80 x T1000
20 x T5000

 

[Ben]

120x T25
120x T100
100x T500
100x T1000
60x T5000

 

[FCCDAD]

starting stacks = 50 x BB.
starting blinds 10/20.

starting stacks 10 x $5, 10 x $25, 7 x $100 (total starting stack = $1,000).
need at least
100 x $5
100 x $25
70x $100.

if you chip up, add 20 x $25, 30 x $100. so 320 chips total.

i allow rebuys for the first few rounds, i keep enough on hand for 16 total buy-ins.

160 x $5
160 x $25
112 x $100.

if you chip up, add 32 x $25, 48 x $100.

so i could suggest keeping on hand:
160 x $5
192 x $25 (round up to 200)
160 x $100
i did something slightly different, i have 120 x $100, plus a barrel of $500s (to free up some $100s to allow chipping up the $25s, if it goes that long). this gives me an even 5-rack set.

 

[AK Chip]

5,000 stacks
8 T25
8 T100
8 T500

We play two tournaments 3-4 hours each

80 T25
80 T100
100 T500
40 1,000

Until I started reading post on PCF I had full racks of each denom but now see there are chips that aren't needed going that route.

Where was BGinGA on Home poker tourney 12 years ago, could have used his advice back then.

 

[Blaster]

In this thread I'd like you to post your preferred single-table tournament breakdown along with a very brief synopsis of why its ideal for you/your poker crew. Please also list your preferred starting stacks and, if you can, blind schedules.


Please, keep debate/discussion to a minimum in this thread. A breakdown that works for you may be trash for another person's game for various reasons. My purpose here is simply to solicit a variety of opinions, not the "best" opinion.

Like others, my philosophy is also ( if your chip set allows) to give players a lot of chips to start.. Players all seem to like it, I enjoy it, (I've even heard a few guys complain when they play in a tournament that the starting stack, in total , is just a "fraction of a barrel" in chips quantity)...
It's easy later to thin the low denoms when they need color up, 200 25's can be taken off the table by just bringing around half dozen or so larger denom chips ...

I use blindvalet.fr as a rough guide for sane blind levels that never "double" & fit within my tournament's plugged in timeframe/stacks, & just slightly modify it to taste
So a 15K starting stack Tourn, I might give out to start something like :

20 T25
20 T100
7 T500
4 T1000
1 T5000

 

[FCCDAD]

4,000 stacks
8 T25
8 T100
8 T500

um, that's 200 + 800 + 4000 = 5,000 per starting stack.

 

[Jambine]

After many years I have come to love simple. This is truly a one table KISS tourney.
Blind schedule is a WSOP T-10,000 (level duration is up to you).
I like to have plenty of low denom in the game to keep things moving as far as antes and making change.

Starting stacks:
12 / T-25
12 / T-100
7 / T-500
2 / T-2,500 (I know conventional wisdom says a T-2,000 here. Tried it for a while and ended up going back to T-2,500)

Chip set is minimal for a freeze-out (398 chips). Just enough to color up all the way
120 / T-25
150 / T-100
94 / T-500
34 / T-2,500

Chip set with one re-buy (518 chips).
120 / T-25
150 / T-100
194 / T-500
54 / T-2,500

 

[AK Chip]

um, that's 200 + 800 + 4000 = 5,000 per starting stack.

lol it was pretty early here. nice catch.

 

[grantc54]

We have gone full circle, pre online poker forums we had a lot of chips on the table, then we reduced starting stacks and now we are back to more chips on the table.

For my weekly Wednesday night tournament we used to use the following for 4,000 starting stacks (4 - 5 hr tournament):
8 x T25
8 x T100
6 x T500 (or event 4 x T500 and 1 x T1000)

For the last few months I have been putting more chips on the table and people seem to prefer that (more chips to stack after winning a few hands):
20 x T25
20 x T100
3 x T500

Rebuys don't get T25.

Weekly blinds - 25 minute levels (I find any shorter adds too much confusion as to what level it is)
SB BB
25 50
50 100
75 150
100 200
150 300
200 400
300 600
400 800
500 1000
1000 2000
2000 4000

For multi-table tournaments (4-5 times a year) I now use higher denom chips with a T30,000 starting stack (starting 100/200 blinds):
15 x T100
9 x T500
4 x T1000
4 x T5000

Multi-table levels (25-30 minutes each)
100 200
200 400
300 600
400 800
600 1200
800 1600
1000 2000
1500 3000
2000 4000
3000 6000
5000 10000
8000 16000
10000 20000
15000 30000
20000 40000
30000 60000

Grant

Edited: listed levels

 

[Poker Zombie]

I use a number of different setups and structures. Each is tailored to a specific chipset and targets slightly different play styles (though each tournament is 4-5 hours in length, so some amount of luck is always a factor).

This setup is specifically for players brand-new to poker. We've all been there - limping into every pot, min raises, and lots of callers. These players are crestfallen when they finally have to surrender their biggest starting denom, and can be lost forever if they limp into oblivion in the first hour. Therefore, we have a ton of small chips in play to keep the limpers entertained, but after 2 hours the "real" poker can begin.

Per Player, starting stack:
T5 x15
T25 x13
T100 x6
T500 x2
T1000 x2

12 minute levels with a break every hour puts this at 4.5 hours
SB BB
5 10
10 20
15 30
25 50
50 100
75 150
100 200
125 250
150 300
200 400
300 600
400 800
500 1000
600 1200
700 1500
1000 2000
1500 3000

I can post other structures if you wish but this one is the most unusual because it is purpose-driven, which I feel is the crux of your articles. I am also available to give you more details on the hows and whys if you need to flesh out the article with more than a bunch of numbers.

 

[pltrgyst]

I don't like rebuys, so I don't allow them. And I require my tournament sets to accommodate starting stacks of 300BB, so we can play tourneys at 50/100/200/300 BB, depending on the game or mix. So:

Starting stacks of 12/12/7/5 for the most common 200BB NLHE game.

120 x 25
120 x 100
70 x 500
150 x 1000 (I like extras here so the game can end with only 1000s on the table, but you can get by with 120 and keep some 500s in play)

... plus spares.

I don't use 5000s ever, because it results in too few chips in play at the end of the game. IMO, you need at least 100 chips in play when it's heads-up in order for it to feel like poker.

 

[Mental Nomad]

After many years I have come to love simple. This is truly a one table KISS tourney.
Blind schedule is a WSOP T-10,000 (level duration is up to you).
I like to have plenty of low denom in the game to keep things moving as far as antes and making change.

Starting stacks:
12 / T-25
12 / T-100
7 / T-500
2 / T-2,500 (I know conventional wisdom says a T-2,000 here. Tried it for a while and ended up going back to T-2,500)

Chip set is minimal for a freeze-out (398 chips). Just enough to color up all the way
120 / T-25
150 / T-100
94 / T-500
34 / T-2,500

Chip set with one re-buy (518 chips).
120 / T-25
150 / T-100
194 / T-500
54 / T-2,500

Nice. I also notice that's a perfect set/structure for a ten-player $100 freeze-out played with a cash set... Only it's not T10K, it's 10K cents.

Starting stacks:
12 / . 25
12 / 1.00
7 / 5.00
2 / 25.00

$100 starting stack. There's no security issues with cash chips in this as a $100 buy-in format. If the final players want, at any point, to chop... They can just cash out or switch to playing cash!

 

[Big Jilm]

I like 12/12/7/5 or a 12/12/7/5/1 starting stack. (25/100/500/1000 or 25/100/500/1000/5000 respectively)

 

[Jambine]

Nice. I also notice that's a perfect set/structure for a ten-player $100 freeze-out played with a cash set... Only it's not T10K, it's 10K cents.

Starting stacks:
12 / . 25
12 / 1.00
7 / 5.00
2 / 25.00

$100 starting stack. There's no security issues with cash chips in this as a $100 buy-in format. If the final players want, at any point, to chop... They can just cash out or switch to playing cash!

Game on !

 

[RichMahogany]

Zombie thread.

If starting with T-25, no rebuys, I think this breakdown is the most efficient:

25-120
100-120
500-60
1000-100

Stacks of 12/12/5/6. 10 players. 4 full racks. Add 80-25s, 80-100s, 20-500s, and 20-1000s for 600 chips that will support 16 players.

Starting with T-5, no rebuys, I'd go with:

5-100
25-100
100-100
500-100

Stacks of 10/10/7/3(4/x/x). Could go as high as 10/10/7/8. 10 players. Nice and simple with 4 full and even racks for those with chip OCD.

Or, my current personal favorite, the One Drop half stack tournament:

1000-200
5000-200
25,000-120
100,000-80

Stacks of 25/25/14/10. 8 players for this one using One Drop structure. 600 chips that fit in a bird cage. Of course you could also scale down to use 1/5/25/100.

My 2 cents.

 

[Craig D]

For years our single table is a T$3000 re-buy with add-on:

Starting stack: 5x15 25x13 100x26
Re-buys: 500x6
Add-on: 1000x5

Blinds 15 minutes (Rebuy at or below T$1000)

10-20 20-40 30-60 40-80 50-100 60-120 One more hand 5s Removed

ONLY BREAK REBUY ENDS ADD ON

75-150 100-200 150-300 200-400 250-500 25s Removed

300-600 400-800 500-1000 600-1200 800-1600 1000-2000 1200-2400 100s Removed

1500-3000 until finished

Normally ends at 1200-2400, we have got to 1500-3000 twice

The additional hand before the first break is important, players that are short often try to lose some chips so they can re-buy and add-on

Have Fun