To keep things really simple, owning a 500 set or chips in 4 colours will allow you to play a Texas Hold'em tournament with up to 8 (Up to 10 at a push) players.
Below is a chart which represents the number of chips recommended for a tournament. For cash games and Stud games it is a little different, so do not pay attention to the chart below.
| Number Playing |
Number of chips |
3-4
5-6
7-8
9 or more |
300 chips
400 chips
500 chips
1000 chips |
In general a break down of 3/2/1 from lowest denomination to highest is appropriate for around 300 chips, A break down of 4/3/2/1 would be appropriate for a set of around 500 chips.
Therefore, an ideal split for a 300 chipset would be:
- 150 Red Chips (Value = 5)
- 100 Green Chips (Value = 25)
- 50 Black Chips (Value = 100)
Total value = 8250. With 4 players you could have a buyin of 1000 chips and 1 topup.
and for a 500 chipset:
- 200 Red (Value = 5)
- 150 green (Value 25)
- 100 black (100)
- 50 purple (500)
Total value = 39750. With as many as 10 players you could have a buyin of 1000 chips and a topup.
For a set of 1000 you should expand to a Grey chip and either use a 5/4/3/2/1 formula or use the 4/3/2/1 but add a token number of grey chips, say 50 with a value of 1000.
Remember this is just a guide and you can make use of any of the colours, if you are likely to play 7 card stud, or any other Stud games then you should invest in a larger range of values. Perhaps the best way to deal with this is configure your set for Holde'em and then add other denominations to complete the set. The most important thing to remember is you can always add additional chips at any time, you only need to buy a minimum of 25 chips of any colour.
One last and very important point is if you want to play "Rebuy" tournaments. The number or rebuys could be significant depending on the type of player at the game and many other factors. This however, does not mean you have to have thousands of chips, the breakdowns above will still work but you should add a high denomination chip. Below is our recomendation.
As we are mainly talking about buyins of 1000 chips, the simplest way to deal with a rebuy is to just hand them a 1000/Grey chip, you could also use 2 500/Purple chips.
- For up to 4 players: 25 x 500/Purple chips.
- For up to 8 players: 25 x 1000/Grey chips or 50 x 500/Grey chips.
- For up to 16 players: 50 x 1000/Grey chips. (You could have a mix of 500 and 1000 chips)
This is just a guide, this is the cheapest and easiest way of dealing with rebuy tournaments.
The colours used for certain values are a "Standard" but not set in stone. You can use whatever you like, however, below is a list of the appropriate values to the colours we have available at this time for our custom chips:
- White/Grey: 1/1000 points, £1/£1000 etc.
- Red: 5 points, £5, 5p etc.
- Blue: 10 points, £10, 10p etc.
- Green: 25 points, £25, 25p etc.
- Orange: 50 points, £50, 50p etc.
- Black: 100 points, £100 etc.
- Purple: 500 points, £500 etc.
This is the formula adopted by most Casino's and Poker Tournament Directors but of course is subject to personal preference and denominations required subject to the blind structures commonly used. However, the formula works very well.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like advice on this or any other subject.
