[OnTheButton]

We play 25/50 cent blinds in NLHE, and the initial buy-in ranges from $20 - $40.

The table is always full with 10 players.

$20 gets (40) 25 cent chips, and (10) $1.00 chips.
$40 gets (40) 25 cent chips and (30) $1.00 chips.

I have one rack (100) of $5.00 chips, but they are only used when someone is spilling over with chips, or takes a monster pot with lots of 25 cent chips in it. I'll then turn one rack of 25 centers into five $5 chips right from the pot to help them clean up their stacks a bit.

Tight players are happy with $20 to start, and sometimes buy in for another $20 if they are running cold in the beginning. Very few players lose more than $40, and a big winner might walk away with $150-$200.

But those (like me) that tangle a little more from the start, just sit down with $40.

These levels work great, and small raises pre-flop ($1.00 - $1.50) are common and get a handful of calls, and a "blind stealing" PF raise is usually about $4.00 - $5.00, but does get called or raised at times by one or two players at most.

After I get my ASM order in, I'm going to change it to 50 cent/$1.00 blinds and give people a lot fewer of the 50 cent chips, since they will only be needed for blinds and odd call amounts.

But the way it is right now for some reason people love to toss handfuls of 25 cent chips in as a bet or call, even if they have a bunch of $1 chips in their stacks. That's part of the reason why I give them the large amount of small denoms on cash in at the beginning of the game.