Cash Game Smaller Cash Chip Denominations - Opinions welcome (3 Viewers)

Magnusbob

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For your home cash games, do you prefer to have larger stacks of lower denominations, or a mix of low and high? It seems like my home game squad prefers larger denominations. I sometimes wonder if not having more lower denominations influences the betting later in the game.

Common scenarios are that late in the game people rebuy with large chips only. Then, instead of changing out chips with other players to ensure that they have plenty of low stakes, they bet larger than they probably would have simply because they only have large chips in front of them and somehow feel like asking for change would reveal something about their cards, or something.

Curious if people have an opinion. Thanks.
 
I like having more workhorse chips, usually the next highest chip denomination from the blind chip. So for instance in 0.25/0.25, it would be the $1 chip. Having more blind chips than workhorse chips just feels too cluttered for me.

What stakes are you playing? You really shouldn't need more than 100x of the chips used for blinds, and have around 200x of your workhorse chips.

They're dozens of threads here that deal with ideal breakdowns for your chipset, just gotta do some searching.
 
You dont need a lot of the lowest denoms that are only useful in the opening blinds.
 
I agree with @AnteAndy 's approach as well.

I like to just have 10 or so blind chips per player on the table. These chips are only useful on the initial round anyway. Most bets and raises will be in terms of the second chip in the set. Why we tend to call that the "workhorse" chip.

Also in no limit you have more occasions to count entire stacks, too many blind chips become a liability in that scenario.

I like targeting 40-60 workhorse chips per player, but some PCFers think that's excessive :).

In 0.50-0.50 nl, 60 max I usually give players 8/41/3 of 0.50/1/5 chips for example.

Hope this helps.
 
I like lots of chips on the table, seems to loosen some people up a bit having big stacks. For my usual .25/.50 game, I put 100 quarters and 400 dollars on the table before I really break out the redbirds.
 
And you can never underestimate the fact that MOAR chips are always infenitely cooler.

PS: The coolness factor (imo) scales with the amount of chips you have :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:
 
You gotta find the right balance for your game. I'd rather have too many chips than not enough. Having to constantly make change for blinds is more annoying than counting a few extra stacks for an all in.

For my home game I do a barrel of quarters and a barrel of $1's, then however many $5's they need. Rebuys are in $5's or $20's.
 
My home game has the exact same problem later in the evening. I’m not sure if it’s the booze or the fact that everyone has nickels in front of them that the betting significantly increases. I’m looking for a rack of $.50 to hopefully make the games last a little longer.
 
You gotta find the right balance for your game. I'd rather have too many chips than not enough. Having to constantly make change for blinds is more annoying than counting a few extra stacks for an all in.

For my home game I do a barrel of quarters and a barrel of $1's, then however many $5's they need. Rebuys are in $5's or $20's.
For your cash set, what is the breakdown you have for each chip ?
 
What is your starting buyin and breakdown per person?
Initial buy ins capped at $60. I do 20x$.25, 20x$1, 7x$5 for first five players, and 40x$1, 4x$5 for the next five. Rebuys are 20x$1, 8x$5 until I'm out of whites.
 

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Initial buy ins capped at $60. I do 20x$.25, 20x$1, 7x$5 for first five players, and 40x$1, 4x$5 for the next five. Rebuys are 20x$1, 8x$5 until I'm out of whites.
Is it a pain to have to make change for the quarters? Or doesn't it happen that much?
 
It's not bad, I got all my regulars trained so they either buy quarters from the big stacks or the pot. I just round up or down to the nearest dollar for payouts.
 
Initial buy ins capped at $60. I do 20x$.25, 20x$1, 7x$5 for first five players, and 40x$1, 4x$5 for the next five. Rebuys are 20x$1, 8x$5 until I'm out of whites.
I hate the idea of sitting at the table, and the first thing I have to do is get change. I'm fine with rebuys being in larger denominations to keep the total number of small ships manageable, but initial buy-ins should always be playable stacks.
 
I hate the idea of sitting at the table, and the first thing I have to do is get change. I'm fine with rebuys being in larger denominations to keep the total number of small ships manageable, but initial buy-ins should always be playable stacks.

So it's the @Poker Zombie method versus the @abby99 method.

I used to host a game similar to @Dugthefish except it's 0.50-0.50 blinds with a 60 max. So I would plan 8 stacks of 8/41/3 of 0.50/1/5 so one "playable" stack for each seat. (And I am reserving extra 0.50 chips if I am expecting turnout that would mean two tables.)

But I do get the merits of dividing all fractional chips on the table at once. Does make it easier to on the banker to only have to verify future buy ins with fewer denominations. Guess it just depends on how comfortable players are.
 
Clearly the best approach is to use as many different colors of chips as possible, but assign them all the same value (typically the small blind). That way, you maximize how many chips you're using and how tall the towers can get.
 
Common scenarios are that late in the game people rebuy with large chips only. Then, instead of changing out chips with other players to ensure that they have plenty of low stakes, they bet larger than they probably would have simply because they only have large chips in front of them and somehow feel like asking for change would reveal something about their cards, or something.
Conventional “wisdom” says the opposite - that people will play looser and bet more when they have lots of small chips in front of them, and that they’ll tighten up when they have fewer large chips in front of them.

Personally, I think anybody whose style is influenced by the number of the chips in front of them (as opposed to the value) is an idiot
But then again, it’s probably good to have idiots in your game.
I take the middle ground - enough chips to be comfortably playable, but not so many schools that people are building sculptures with them.
 
What is your starting buyin and breakdown per person?
For your cash set, what is the breakdown you have for each chip ?

For .25/.25 & .25/.50 games with $10-$30 & $20-$60 buy-ins respectively, I have a 500 pc. case consisting:

120x 0.25
180x $1
175x $5
25x $25

$1710 bank. Perfect for one table, 9-max as that's the most I can fit. Haven't touch the $25's yet and have plenty more extras of each denomination for future-proofing the bank.

Have starting stacks of 12x 0.25 and 17x $1's for $20 worth, and the rest in $5s for whatever buy in amount total. I much prefer to have starting stacks like this instead of barrels so no one has to worry about making change right from the start, and 12x qrtrs per player should be plenty for either blinds we have for less overall change making. I rarely see much change being made at my games.
 
But I do get the merits of dividing all fractional chips on the table at once. Does make it easier to on the banker to only have to verify future buy ins with fewer denominations. Guess it just depends on how comfortable players are.
I put all initial buy-ins into a rack. Since most our buy-ins are predictable, it's pretty simple.

If a player arrived a couple hours late and wanted to buy in for more (because the big stack was bigger by this point), I would still give the initial buy-in rack, but make up the difference in $5s.

If a player bought in short... we would probably all laugh.
 
Too many chips of any given denomination (American school) can be just as dysfunctional as too many denominations (European school).
Try to find a balance.

Beyond that, in the US you suffer from the curse of the "quarter".:rolleyes:
For really low stakes games, it's a lot better to go 1/5/20/100 dimes, IMHO, to play either 1/1 or 1/2 or 1/3 or 2/5 dimes.:)
 
For .25/.25 & .25/.50 games with $10-$30 & $20-$60 buy-ins respectively, I have a 500 pc. case consisting:

120x 0.25
180x $1
175x $5
25x $25

$1710 bank. Perfect for one table, 9-max as that's the most I can fit. Haven't touch the $25's yet and have plenty more extras of each denomination for future-proofing the bank.

Have starting stacks of 12x 0.25 and 17x $1's for $20 worth, and the rest in $5s for whatever buy in amount total. I much prefer to have starting stacks like this instead of barrels so no one has to worry about making change right from the start, and 12x qrtrs per player should be plenty for either blinds we have for less overall change making. I rarely see much change being made at my games.

This might work for my cash game crew, who ADORE the .50 chip for some reason. I’m currently narrowing down some labels for my chips and I’d like to go with what 95% of you say makes efficient sense (.25/1/5/20) - we typically play .25/.50 games.

My current bank is as follows:

200 - white (preferred .25 chip)
150 - blue (has been our .50 chip, but would like it to move to our 1.00 chip)
100 - red
50 - green

We typically have no more than five, maybe six players, at the table, and we buy in for $50 max. That being said, my bank has plenty for not having a .50 chip right?

The group’s worry is that we won’t have enough .25’s on the table to make blinds easy, but if everyone were to get a barrel of whites/.25s there’s still plenty to go around. Do I have enough 1’s/blues though?
 
This might work for my cash game crew, who ADORE the .50 chip for some reason. I’m currently narrowing down some labels for my chips and I’d like to go with what 95% of you say makes efficient sense (.25/1/5/20) - we typically play .25/.50 games.

My current bank is as follows:

200 - white (preferred .25 chip)
150 - blue (has been our .50 chip, but would like it to move to our 1.00 chip)
100 - red
50 - green

We typically have no more than five, maybe six players, at the table, and we buy in for $50 max. That being said, my bank has plenty for not having a .50 chip right?

The group’s worry is that we won’t have enough .25’s on the table to make blinds easy, but if everyone were to get a barrel of whites/.25s there’s still plenty to go around. Do I have enough 1’s/blues though?
Your breakdown is solid enough if you make the blues dollars. Me personally, I would make the blues quarters and the whites $1s, that way you have 200x $1 chips and 150x quarters (and I prefer blue quarters, white dollars). You generally dont need more than 100x quarters for a single table since the quarters are used mostly for the blinds. Hence some people calling them the blind chips, and your dollars being the Workhorse chips that will be used most often. And having too many quarters (blind chips) for one table just feels cluttered IMO.

If you still want the whites to be quarters and blues $1, it can still work fine, especially if you make the reds $5 and the greens $25 as those are the traditional denomination colors.
 
200 - white (preferred .25 chip)
150 - blue (has been our .50 chip, but would like it to move to our 1.00 chip)
100 - red
50 - green

We typically have no more than five, maybe six players, at the table, and we buy in for $50 max. That being said, my bank has plenty for not having a .50 chip right?

Yeah if you do this you're good, especially for only 6 max. You could make 100 quarters disappear and you wouldn't miss it either. Ideally a few more blue and a few more red down the line (assuming singles and fives) if you get to more 8-9 games.
 

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