This is a classic problem with cash game chip sets.
Trying to find the best break down, having a flexable set vs a specific set, not having to spend a fortune for chips, etc...
Best thing to do is try to find chips you like and can afford, get samples.
determine if you can get by with non-denoms
If you know the game and limits you will be playing, and you know the number of players you will be supporting then you should be able to work back to what breakdown will suit you best.
Now with all that said, our home game started out with 500 dice chips in red, blue green and black, we did the whole divide by 100 rule for cash values.
This worked fine for about a year then I wanted some thing more a kin to real casino live play.
The casinos around here run a 4/8 limit game with $2 - $4 blinds
My version is a 1/10 scale using 10 cent chips instead of $1
(this is an older picture so my current count is not shown)
For my cash game chip set I have:
10 cent x 400
25 cent x 400
$1 x 100
$5 x 75
$10 x 25
If i was to limit it to 500 I would keep
10 cent x 400 (or 25 cent x 400 depending on what blinds I wanted to support)
$1 x 50
$5 x 25
$10 x 25
for a $10 cash game I would hand out $5 in 10 cent chips and five $1 chips,
I could support 8 players, reloads would be handled with the $5 and $10 chips.
One thing to keep in mind for cash games is more chips means more action,
that's why you will see $5/$10 games played with snappers ($2.50 chips)
I like to keep the various denoms down to 1 or 2 for a cash game and only bring in higher denoms on a reload (in tournament I sometimes start with four or five denoms)
I prefer having seperate cash set and tournament set, I also like having true denomination chips ($1 is a $1 etc...) I'm not saying my setup is the way to go, but it has worked well for my home games. It really comes down to what you think will work best for your group. Hopefully you can figure it out quickly and not have to buy several sets before you find a good fit, but then again I think that's what most of us here have done.
