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Cash Game Very small - non standard denoms vs standard? (2 Viewers)

GamingWithChips

GamingWithChips

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Hi guys,

I am making a set of chips to be ordered from Tina and during the design process I’m also thinking about what I’m actually going to order lol.

I am going to order a tourney set, likely a low denom set and a high denom set for fun. But I also started to think about a cash set.

My game would be small, typically 4-6 people (max 8 I would think, but as people have said…plan for more, so let’s say max 10). Stakes are also small, $20 buy in, likely $0.10 or $0.25 BB’s at most. We are pretty casual and most people will only buy in for $20-60/person for the night. This game is mostly social while watching sports and hoping you get a nice hand and win a big pot every once in a while.

For context, we mostly play tournaments and we play with pennies so the black $100 chip is really a $1 bet. I’ve noticed that for about the first 1 hour of our tourney people usually bet between $0.30-0.50, $1 lead off would be a big bet for sure. So it feels like a comfortable standard bet is about $0.30-0.50.

With all of that said, I’m considering doing a non-standard set also with some non-standard colours since I’m making my own design anyway. I’m thinking of doing $0.10 base and having denoms of $0.10, $0.50, $2, then having $10, and $20 for a few rebuys. Breakdown maybe as 20/15/5 or 20/20/4?

As for the amount of chips…I was thinking like 400-500. I know it’s smaller than people would recommend, but this isn’t a “serious” cash game. I’d like people to start with about 30-40 chips and build a nice little stack if they are doing well. Also, the reason for more of the smallest denoms is to slightly encourage smaller or more tamed betting. Maybe we should do a betting limit instead?

Does anyone have an experience with these denominations? How do the games go? Do you think this format and breakdown would work well? Obviously this compared to doing $0.05/0.10 games with standard 10/10/7/2 or whatever one might choose.

And yes, I’ve spent many hours looking at different setups and structures and thinking this over, but I think I’ve overwhelmed myself with the amount of options and possibilities lol, I’ve become lost.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated. Thank you!
 
On the one hand Tina chips are relatively inexpensive and since you are considering 400 or so chips you are only talking about a couple hundred bucks. If you have the money, go for it. Have fun and do something different.

If you are on a budget like many, I wouldn't advise it. I would stick to more traditional denominations. There are reasons and they have been well documented. You can always divide by 10 or even 100...whatever and make the game as small as you wish. That works just fine.
 
Nanook said:
On the one hand Tina chips are relatively inexpensive and since you are considering 400 or so chips you are only talking about a couple hundred bucks. If you have the money, go for it. Have fun and do something different.

If you are on a budget like many, I wouldn't advise it. I would stick to more traditional denominations. There are reasons and they have been well documented. You can always divide by 10 or even 100...whatever and make the game as small as you wish. That works just fine.
Click to expand...
Ya, that’s ultimately why I’m considering going slightly different for the cash set. I already have a set of 500 chips that are labeled as standard denomination. And since I’m planning on having those as backups, then the new Tina’s as my main “tourney” set, I thought it would be fun to be slightly different for the few cash games we play, plus, like I mentioned we often make around $0.30 bets so I thought $0.10 base might work out well.

Just hoping to hear from someone else with experience with it (and ideally both) to give me some confidence that it isn’t a bad idea lol
 
Felt_Lizard said:
Yes, unless you are intentionally trying to be a special snowflake, use above denoms. Do this not only for the sake of chip efficiency and versatility, but also to have mercy on those already familiar with poker.
Click to expand...
Well, if you looked at my suggestion you’d see that it’s the same efficiency wise, and I also mentioned how we often make bets in around $0.30-0.50 (or $0.10 increments). So I was curious if people have played this and liked it. It also should make the game slightly larger, while still being small stakes and fun for us.

But thanks for your input 👍
 
I'm in the 5c, 25c, $1, $5 camp as well. The lowest game is 5c/10c, and the next is 25c/25c (which plays virtually the same as 10c/20c).
Since these are fairly standard denominations, its easy to grasp and you can still easily make the 25c or 50c bets.
 
Feels like what you want to hear is that your plan is great and it will be amazing. Also doesn’t seem likely you’re going to hear that. Standard denominations are standard for a reason, but as @Craig D mentioned, “it’s your game your call”. If you just want validation, this is the wrong forum. 🤣🤣🤣

FWIW, I get blasted non stop for playing for too high of stakes. And I give zero fucks. My advice would be to not ask for advice when you want validation.
 
GamingWithChips said:
Well, if you looked at my suggestion...
Click to expand...

I forgot to mention another reason that may (or may not) matter to you.

In the unlikely future event that you sell the cash set (you get out of the poker phase, your players only want tourneys, or you decide to go full clay) you will have many, many more takers with the standard denoms.

But of course, you should do what you want with your denom choices.

Good luck and may your game always be a great one.
 
Jers28 said:
Feels like what you want to hear is that your plan is great and it will be amazing. Also doesn’t seem likely you’re going to hear that. Standard denominations are standard for a reason, but as @Craig D mentioned, “it’s your game your call”. If you just want validation, this is the wrong forum. 🤣🤣🤣

FWIW, I get blasted non stop for playing for too high of stakes. And I give zero fucks. My advice would be to not ask for advice when you want validation.
Click to expand...
Ya, I have noticed that lol.

And also I know my post was long (I wanted to give all of the info because in every other post people will comment: what are the stakes? How many people? Are you guys betters not? Etc etc) but I thought I was pretty clear in that I understand the “standard” and I’m just curious if others have played the non-standard (I know they have) and I was hoping for some input in how they liked the overall feel versus standard.

And definitely don’t just want validation, like I said in a reply to another, I was hoping for confidence that the idea is not dumb. From what I’ve learned, it is not dumb, but before I went ahead and ordered a set, I was hoping someone would have offered some advice, that’s all

And yup! It’s our game and we still have fun regardless
 
Felt_Lizard said:
I forgot to mention another reason that may (or may not) matter to you.

In the unlikely future event that you sell the cash set (you get out of the poker phase, your players only want tourneys, or you decide to go full clay) you will have many, many more takers with the standard denoms.

But of course, you should do what you want with your denom choices.

Good luck and may your game always be a great one.
Click to expand...
Yup, I would agree that there are many reasons for the standard, because it’s standardized lol.

And as you mentioned, I was making custom chips that would also have my home town name on them, so no plans to sell them. And if I ever did sell them, I’d do it for a heavy discount because regardless, they are custom to my game and I’m sure someone else wouldn’t want that.

Thanks for the advice!
 
GamingWithChips said:
Hi guys,

I am making a set of chips to be ordered from Tina and during the design process I’m also thinking about what I’m actually going to order lol.

I am going to order a tourney set, likely a low denom set and a high denom set for fun. But I also started to think about a cash set.

My game would be small, typically 4-6 people (max 8 I would think, but as people have said…plan for more, so let’s say max 10). Stakes are also small, $20 buy in, likely $0.10 or $0.25 BB’s at most. We are pretty casual and most people will only buy in for $20-60/person for the night. This game is mostly social while watching sports and hoping you get a nice hand and win a big pot every once in a while.

For context, we mostly play tournaments and we play with pennies so the black $100 chip is really a $1 bet. I’ve noticed that for about the first 1 hour of our tourney people usually bet between $0.30-0.50, $1 lead off would be a big bet for sure. So it feels like a comfortable standard bet is about $0.30-0.50.

With all of that said, I’m considering doing a non-standard set also with some non-standard colours since I’m making my own design anyway. I’m thinking of doing $0.10 base and having denoms of $0.10, $0.50, $2, then having $10, and $20 for a few rebuys. Breakdown maybe as 20/15/5 or 20/20/4?

As for the amount of chips…I was thinking like 400-500. I know it’s smaller than people would recommend, but this isn’t a “serious” cash game. I’d like people to start with about 30-40 chips and build a nice little stack if they are doing well. Also, the reason for more of the smallest denoms is to slightly encourage smaller or more tamed betting. Maybe we should do a betting limit instead?

Does anyone have an experience with these denominations? How do the games go? Do you think this format and breakdown would work well? Obviously this compared to doing $0.05/0.10 games with standard 10/10/7/2 or whatever one might choose.

And yes, I’ve spent many hours looking at different setups and structures and thinking this over, but I think I’ve overwhelmed myself with the amount of options and possibilities lol, I’ve become lost.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated. Thank you!
Click to expand...
Go with it, except skip the $20 and make it a $50. That structure will play fine with anybody that can do second grade math.
 
ekricket said:
Go with it, except skip the $20 and make it a $50. That structure will play fine with anybody that can do second grade math.
Click to expand...
It won’t ever be big enough to need $50, so that’s why I was planning on $20. Was likely going to order chips for the $0.10-$10 range and then have a few $20 plaques.

Thanks for the reassurance!
 
If you're going to do this, I think it makes the most sense to use .05/.10/.50/1/5 (and then standard denominations like 20 or 25 and 100 from there). A $2 chip is silly, it might be more efficient but it's not how people think and count. This has precedent too: standard tournament chips go 100/500/1000/5000 (then 25,000) even though that's slightly inefficient (edit: ok it's not a perfect analogy because I'm suggesting two 2x jumps and the tournament standard only has one, but hey we're talking about "least bad" suggestions).

For all the reasons everyone above has cited .05/.25/1/5 is still the best route to go, but if you're determined to do something non-standard, consider .05/.10/.50/1/5.
 
Bacon Dad said:
Hmmmmm....
Based on all of your responses to the advice you asked for and are receiving, I think the correct response here his - "You are 100% correct. Run with it!"
Click to expand...
Ya, at this point I’ve realized the advice is either, “Do what I and most people like to do, or just try to have fun with your own game…” lol.

I just thought it would be fun to mix things up a little and it kind of fits what happens in my group already. The advice I was hoping for was “your set won’t work because of this problem” and not “I don’t prefer non-standard sets”
 
I honestly think it would work fine. I’ve considered a .50/5/25/100 for playing 1/2. Not standard by any means but perfectly workable.
 
Tarsus4 said:
If you're going to do this, I think it makes the most sense to use .05/.10/.50/1/5 (and then standard denominations like 20 or 25 and 100 from there). A $2 chip is silly, it might be more efficient but it's not how people think and count. This has precedent too: standard tournament chips go 100/500/1000/5000 (then 25,000) even though that's slightly inefficient (edit: ok it's not a perfect analogy because I'm suggesting two 2x jumps and the tournament standard only has one, but hey we're talking about "least bad" suggestions).

For all the reasons everyone above has cited .05/.25/1/5 is still the best route to go, but if you're determined to do something non-standard, consider .05/.10/.50/1/5.
Click to expand...
So my current set right now is as follows:

$5
$10
$25
$100
$500
$1000

But we play in pennies so it’s really like $0.05/0.10

A couple years ago I asked a similar question about building my first set, and as you can well imagine I got similar responses…this time, I thought about making the chips more efficient (ie doing 4/5 times jumps) and more standard, but just starting with $0.10 as it might make our game slightly bigger or double the size of our old game in theory, but also just having fun with different chip denoms and colours since I’m custom designing my chips. Because again I already have a “standard” set, so where’s the fun in just having another one? (Outside of just different colours and designs)

But it seems people don’t like that idea lol
 
ekricket said:
I honestly think it would work fine. I’ve considered a .50/5/25/100 for playing 1/2. Not standard by any means but perfectly workable.
Click to expand...
This is my thought as well.

Yes, it’s different denoms, but a $4 bet in your case would be 8 fifty cent chips in your set, or 4 dollar chips in a standard set. So I don’t see it as being much different, you just have to count your chips sometimes instead of defaulting lol.

And my thought was that we would have more smaller chips so that it’s fun to throw a few chips in the middle for a bet, rather than just tossing in like 1 $1 chip or whatever.

I just thought it might be fun to mix it up. Thanks for your input!
 
GamingWithChips said:
This is my thought as well.

Yes, it’s different denoms, but a $4 bet in your case would be 8 fifty cent chips in your set, or 4 dollar chips in a standard set. So I don’t see it as being much different, you just have to count your chips sometimes instead of defaulting lol.

And my thought was that we would have more smaller chips so that it’s fun to throw a few chips in the middle for a bet, rather than just tossing in like 1 $1 chip or whatever.

I just thought it might be fun to mix it up. Thanks for your input!
Click to expand...
I’ve got six racks of .50 if you are interested
 
ekricket said:
I’d worry about their opinion more if they actually played in my game
Click to expand...
Yes lol, and maybe it got lost in my original post or I didn’t frame it well enough.

But I wasn’t looking for someone to say “you are 100% correct on your opinion of poker and how it should be played” lol

I was just looking for overall advice on my denom breakdown and set building and how it might play in real life. You have given the closest advice to what I was hoping for :)
 
Last edited:
Bacon Dad said:
I think they call this "irony".

So are you guys (@ekricket) like dating now???:ROFL: :ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...
To quote myself and the original question:

“Does anyone have an experience with these denominations? How do the games go? Do you think this format and breakdown would work well?”

So I don’t think it’s ironic, I was looking for advice if my proposed set would work well or not. Most people said “I prefer the standard”, and Ekricket said “it should work well”…so yes, that answered my question and what I was what I was hoping for.
 
GamingWithChips said:
So my current set right now is as follows:

$5
$10
$25
$100
$500
$1000

But we play in pennies so it’s really like $0.05/0.10
Click to expand...
So the $5 chip is only going to be used for the small blind? Why not just make the game 10c/10c and you wouldn’t need the $5 (5c) chips at all.
I like more chips as much as anyone, but this just seems more efficient.
 
Colquhoun said:
So the $5 chip is only going to be used for the small blind? Why not just make the game 10c/10c and you wouldn’t need the $5 (5c) chips at all.
I like more chips as much as anyone, but this just seems more efficient.
Click to expand...

You need the $5 because $10 doesn't divide evenly into $25. If you did a $50 instead of a $25, then you could play 10/10 without a 5.
 
Colquhoun said:
So the $5 chip is only going to be used for the small blind? Why not just make the game 10c/10c and you wouldn’t need the $5 (5c) chips at all.
I like more chips as much as anyone, but this just seems more efficient.
Click to expand...
It probably got lost in all of the comments but that is my current set that I’m looking to shelve. Again, I agree that standard is a standard for good reasons lol, not trying to deny or change that.

And for a new set I was considering skipping the $0.05 and going with a base $0.10 chip. Then doing blinds of $0.10/$0.10 or $0.10/$0.20.

And the denoms would then go:

$0.10
$0.50
$2
$10

So it’s still standard, just applied a 2x multiplier.

And the reason for doing this is all above in my original post and comments lol.

Was just curious if people have tried this breakdown and if my proposed set would functionally work with the denoms, starting stack, and chip count.

I think I already had my answer before making my post, but as I said, I’ve spend enough time thinking about the options I have that I’ve kind of got lost in it all. But I wanted to make the post to, I don’t know, ask the community for some friendly thoughts as I’m sure it’s been done before? Lol
 
GamingWithChips said:
It probably got lost in all of the comments but that is my current set that I’m looking to shelve. Again, I agree that standard is a standard for good reasons lol, not trying to deny or change that.

And for a new set I was considering skipping the $0.05 and going with a base $0.10 chip. Then doing blinds of $0.10/$0.10 or $0.10/$0.20.

And the denoms would then go:

$0.10
$0.50
$2
$10

So it’s still standard, just applied a 2x multiplier.

And the reason for doing this is all above in my original post and comments lol.

Was just curious if people have tried this breakdown and if my proposed set would functionally work with the denoms, starting stack, and chip count.

I think I already had my answer before making my post, but as I said, I’ve spend enough time thinking about the options I have that I’ve kind of got lost in it all. But I wanted to make the post to, I don’t know, ask the community for some friendly thoughts as I’m sure it’s been done before? Lol
Click to expand...

You can tell that it works because if you multiplied it by 10 nobody would bat an eye. Actually if you just bought the multiplied-by-10 denominations and scaled up/down buy-in/outs you'd be good. As-is I'm still scared off by the $2 chip, but that's just me :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:
 

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