[philhutchings]

CRD is right on with his chip counts, the small blind chip is only needed in small #'s.

If you have dealers don't hand out any $0.50 chips in the starting stacks at all, 75- .50 chips in the dealer tray can change out any small blinds should that come up.

If your players rotate the deal, you may wish to give out 10 $0.50 chips per player, given that you want to do two tables i think 1200 chips would make a better breakdown
180 - $0.50 (10 per player position possible)= $5 per
400 - $1 (20 per starting stack)= $20 per
500 - $5 (15 per starting stack)= $75 per (5+20+75 = 100)
100 - $25 (used for reloads)
20 chips of your discretions either more $0.50 chips or any other chip i doubt you would require $100 chips for this game with this chip breakdown. You will definately be able to have a big stack game with a set like this.

** oh and not that you would be doing this but if for the purpose of a rake you would need more $0.50 chips in which case i would recommend the set i described or CRD with an extra 100 small blind chips so that the dissapearance of the low value chips isn't as apparent. Not for home games!

[BrettButter]

Lots of great opinions, and options, on what to go with here. My friend is being stubborn and not wanting to spend over $200, so I may have to tell him to look elsewhere, or consider maybe splitting a bigger set with him. Or..since I reside here at ChipTalk, maybe just buy a set for myself, and bring them with me

It is a rotating dealer game, no rake, and the rule of thumb at his house is generally take whatever people he promises will be there, and subtract at least 5. His last three "18-people games" have had 13, 12, and 7 (he was close..)

If I do buy the set for myself, my normal game is a .25/.25 game, so quarters would be completely necessary. We're also used to playing with a .50 chip (they insist upon it for some reason) - so it'd have to be flexible with both fractionals if I end up buying the set. I don't understand it, but people of my game (actually, myself included) love small value chips. Back when the game was .10/.25 we started with 20 dimes, and I made a habit of collecting as many of them as possible. Then again, my standard game is usually a 6max, so 120 chips isn't all that many of a certain denomination.

[hod]

Originally Posted by philhutchings

If you have dealers don't hand out any $0.50 chips in the starting stacks at all, 75- .50 chips in the dealer tray can change out any small blinds should that come up.

I've played in many (mainly casino) games run like this, but if there's any noobs, inexperienced players or drunks in the group, this can be an extra confusion, which ultimately slows things down, in my experience.

[Jonah 99]

I stand by my original break down,
you want more chips in play,
If you have to much value tied up in bigger denom chips
some players will rat hole the larger denoms once they get them
basically taking them south. That's a lot harder to do when you have a rack of quarters in front of you (rather than one $25 chip)

It might depend on your crowd, I guess some people get loose with big chips, but in the games I've played in if someone colored up you might as well have put the cash in their pocket.

admittedly I play more pot limit and limit as well, so the flexibilty in the chip set needs to be there for me. And for cash games our blinds are static so there isn't a need to skew the set towards the middle like a tournament set.

But ultimately you'll have to decide what'll work best for you and the group you play with, I've had the guys I play with give me conflicting opinions from game to game (too many chips, starting stacks too small, too many denoms, not enough denoms, some contra comments from the same person in the same night, go figure)

Anyway good luck and welcome back.

[NoFear]

Originally Posted by philhutchings

180 - $0.50 (10 per player position possible)= $5 per
400 - $1 (20 per starting stack)= $20 per
500 - $5 (15 per starting stack)= $75 per (5+20+75 = 100)
100 - $25 (used for reloads)

God! this setup remind me of my game in Campbell with Scott. Is that you Phil?

I recommend what Phil is saying, we have been playing .50/1 for a while and the setup Phil mentions worked really well.

We place the chips (10-.50 and 25-$1=$30) on the poker table for 9 players. Once the player show up we ask how much do you want to buy in? I usually buy-in for $80 so dealer gives me 10-$5's chips plus the $30 that already on the table. Very nice way of setting up the cash game.

I hope this help, there is a lot chips on the table. Good luck.....

[99%evil]

I stopped reading after the 2nd post, so here's my 2 cents...it may be repeated above...who knows, no time to read.

If you plan on 18 people 1000 chips sounds better..

if you plan on playing 25¢/50¢ I'd grab one rack, just for small blind, you can mix in some 50¢ chips in that game too.

I'd grab the following ($1 chip is the workhorse here!)

100 - 25¢
150 - 50¢
400 - $1
250 - $5
80 - $25
20 - $100
That's almost $6k on the table....do you really ever have that much on the table?

Realistically you can can the $100's

[guinness]

Including .25 in a .50/1 game. FAHK NO. I never get why the common denominator wins. But...I guess I understand the start with big stacks. In my case, I usually end with big stacks so I don't have an inferiority complex with a starting stack.

[philhutchings]

if your not sure of the stakes that are going to be played all the time, and you don't want a massive set to cover all the denominations why not go non-denonimated?

a non-denom set of 1000 chips like Nexgens can now be picked up for less than $200 most anywhere in the states in 3 difference styles. You could label em later but they could be your chips that serve any stakes. The nexgen set I run is
300,300,200,150,50 in breakdown (u pick whatever colours u like)

then you can just change the chip values to suit the game your playing. rather than being fixed with 0.50 chips and $1 chips.

if he rarely really has 18 players then he doesn't need such a huge set but a good non-denom set would do any stakes with the breakdown i have. I played it thru 2 20 table tournaments with large chip stacks (in my opinion) and never ran shot, and was able after some colour ups of red 300/white 300 players that were already out were able to start up their 1/2 table amoung themselves.

[BrettButter]

He has non-denominated chips, but of course, they're dice chips. He's still refusing to spend over $200, and it's looking like he doesn't even want to do it at all anymore. He insists on using his dice chips over my FCs as well, and sadly that's my only playable set.

There's still a possibility that I end up buying a set for myself that I'll bring everywhere and force people to use - but, I probably won't settle for the Dunes Commems if I do that. I've settled before, and regretted not going all out when I did buy a set. Then again, I'm not set up for games at my house anymore, so I don't know exactly what to do.. it's a lot of money to spend on occasional use, and not even at my own place.

Thanks for the help everyone!

[mizuchaud]

Originally Posted by BrettButter

it's a lot of money to spend on occasional use, and not even at my own place.

Uhh, who said anything about practicality?!

Get what you love. The use side of the equation will resolve itself sooner or later.

Or look at it this way: the better the set is that you get now, the easier it will be to sell off later.
If you start with something low, it'll stay low. I don't think you want that.