Congrats again on the contest! Well deserved, imo!
I've recently learned that you don't need as many $500s as you might think. Really, no one ever needs more than 1 of them to make a bet... so people tend to use them 1-at-a-time (as long as they have enough $1000s). Generally, we skip a denom when we colour up, so the $100s will exchange for $1000s, $500s for $5000s, etc., so you don't need to worry about "extra $500s" in terms of colouring up, either.
For my T50,000 HORSE tourneys, I start people off with:
20 x $100
12 x $500
12 x $1000
6 x $5000
... and that's more than enough chips (change-making is very rare), but I like having LOTS when you have antes and bring-ins and such.
For a T20,000 NLHE tourney with , I'd do something like:
10 x $100
4 x $500
7 x $1000
2 x $5000
For 20 players, you'd need about
:
200 x $100
80 x $500
200 x $1000
60 x $5000
-------------
540 chips
That would give you full colour-ups to $1000s, and you could colour-up all the $1000s to $5000s + bricks if you wanted to (although you'll probably always have 2 denoms of chips in play). In fact, you could get away with fewer $5000s if you wanted (maybe 40).
This breakdown would allow you to have much bigger stacks for 10 players... maybe something like:
15 x $100
7 x $500
15 x $1000
for a T20,000
You could do an 8-player T50,000 HORSE (or stud-type) tourney with:
20 x $100
10 x $500
18 x $1000
5 x $5000
... Sweeeeeet...
By the way, to take into account colour-ups, I'd recommend using this:
Chiptalk Pokerchip Breakdown Calculator
Linear Mode
