# Poker Chip Question **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 29, 2005, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poker-chip-question/323952 "2005-09-29T01:16:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jkirkman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac8455/32.png) [@jkirkman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jkirkman)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2005, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poker-chip-question/323952/1 "2005-09-29T01:16:41Z")
I’m buying a set of 500 chips for an (ex) father-in-law I have a LOT of respect for. I’m not much of a “chip” poker player—in my low-rent games quarters make good chips and dollars and fives make good plaques that draw the “oooohs” from the players. The problem is, it is a special series with 8 distinct chips, and I want them all in the set, but don’t know how to break down that many chips into 500 properly. I’m thinking 100 100 100 50 50 50 25 25. Does that sound workable? He normally plays a 4-6 person game. For any chip aficionados, I’m talking about the Nevada Jacks American Beauty chips. If I was buying for myself, I’d go for the Paulson Pharaoh’s Club chips, but the American Beauties are just right for him, composite or not. Bonus question—These are NCV chips and not strictly in traditional colors—would anyone have a cow over me breaking the above numbers into Pink/Light Blue/Red (100), Green/Orange/Purple (50), Black/Red White Blue [coolest chip _ever_] (25)? The Orange has to go somewhere, and I’m flipping the Purple and Black because the gal on the Black is holding a gun, which _has_ to be worth more than whatever-the-heck the gal on the Purple is holding 8-). Thanks for the help. –jack ---
**Author:** ![John\_F](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@John\_F](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_F)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2005, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poker-chip-question/323952/2 "2005-09-29T01:42:24Z")
> [@jkirkman](#): > > I’m talking about the Nevada Jacks American Beauty chips. If I was buying for myself, I’d go for the Paulson Pharaoh’s Club chips, but the American Beauties are just right for him, composite or not. So you say you’re not much of a chip player huh…Just NJ’s or Paulson’s? Low rent games you say…? Hmmmmmmm. I’ll give you the leery benefit of the doubt anyway. Cash games or tournaments, and if tournaments what buy-ins do they play? 1500 with re-buy(s) 1 or 2? 2000 freezout 2500 freezout I personally like black as 100’s. I had another question about where a trout lives OR if you enjoy luxury but the exact wording escapes me at the moment. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![John\_F](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@John\_F](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_F)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2005, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poker-chip-question/323952/3 "2005-09-29T02:35:14Z")
I took a look at the set and I think these are Chipco not Nevada Jack but I’m not sure. I also started thinking about how to build a set with 8 colors and it’s a bit funky IMO. I think you would be chipping up too much or have some denoms that never made it to the table. If it was me I’d build a set with 5 colors then pick up one of each ship for a display case or something. FWIW I built my 500 chip set like this: Denom 25 Red X 100 chips 50 Green X 200 chips 100 Black X 125 chips 500 Purple X 50 chips 1000 Yellow X 25 chips I used a lot of green because It’s fun to always have a lot of chips to play around with. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jkirkman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac8455/32.png) [@jkirkman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jkirkman)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2005, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poker-chip-question/323952/4 "2005-09-29T03:39:34Z")
We’re talking normal folks here. The buy-in will be about $20. I’m buying these chips because I respect the man, not because he has a big bankroll. –jack ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2005, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poker-chip-question/323952/5 "2005-09-29T06:34:13Z")
> [@jkirkman](#): > > We’re talking normal folks here. > > The buy-in will be about $20. > > I’m buying these chips because I respect the man, not because he has a big bankroll. > > –jack Three colors will suffice for a $20 buyin. Eight colors is a waste, and he’ll likely run short of the lower colors with all those wasted higher chips. Big stacks are much more fun than constant changing in to maintain enough playable chips. ---
**Author:** ![John\_F](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@John\_F](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_F)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2005, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poker-chip-question/323952/6 "2005-09-29T13:17:49Z")
> [@jkirkman](#): > > We’re talking normal folks here. > > The buy-in will be about $20. > > I’m buying these chips because I respect the man, not because he has a big bankroll. > > –jack That’s why I asked “cash games or Tournaments”. In cash games the $20.00 will get you $20.00 worth of chips but in tournaments your $20.00 will get you some other amount of chips like 1,000, 1,500 etc. Seems like you might be talking cash games and thought I was giving you goofy #'s but the set I showed you IMO is pretty versatile for different tournament structures for games the size you mentioned. We do plenty of $10-20 buy in 1 re-buy games with it and it works out fine. Perhaps you should look at [this](http://www.homepokertourney.com/) and check out the chip section.