For example, if you are assembling a set of four chip values of $1, $5, $10, and $25, the number of chips by ratio should be 4:3:2:1. For a set of 500 poker chips, for example, you should have 200, 150, 100, and 50 chips in white, red, blue and green, respectively. Browse FREE Antique Poker Chips Price/Value Guide - Appraisals, Valuations & FREE Sale Advice. See TODAY's Antique Poker Chips for SALE, BEST OFFER and Auction; plus Expert Appraisal/Valuation, FREE sales advice and brokerage services, FREE sale prices, values, wish list and more - FIND 150+ Specialist categories Bath Antiques Online - Buy, Sell & Value!
Being a supplier of poker chips we are often asked what a good breakdown is for a poker game. Our immediate response is normally, “it depends”. Is it a cash game or tournament? How many chips do your players like to have in front of them? Do you ever see your stakes rising in the future? How deep do your players get by the end of the night?
Dia de los Muertos poker chips
There are many factors to consider when figuring out a breakdown of chips for your poker game. Make sure to consider them all. Take some time and work out your breakdown in writing so you can visualize the chips being used.
Let’s consider a poker game that is only a tournament. This is the most common type of game that is being played in home games.
Try to not think about just how many “chips” that a player starts with. You can have a player start with 100,000 chips but if the blinds are 1000/2000 in the first level they will have shorter stacks compared to a player that starts with 5000 chips with the first blinds being 25/50. In the first situation the player starts with 50 big blinds while in the second situation the player starts with 100 big blinds. That is a big difference!
So, try to think about how many big blinds (BB) you want each player to start with. A good rule of thumb is that most tournaments start with 50-100 BBs but some players prefer deep-stack tournaments that start with 100+ BBs.
Now, consider how many actual physical chips you want each player to start with. Most players like to have a HUGE stack in front of them, but you have to realize that players need to start with a smaller stack or else you will have to purchase a very large number of chips. In a normal home game tournament players will start with 20-30 chips.
Tournament
Finally, consider how many players you will have in your tournaments and how long the tournament will normally last. If there are a lot of players (20+ players) it will mean that there will be a lot of initial chips on the tables. There will be so many chips that you will have to “color up” the lower denomination chips at some point during the tournament. So, you will need to have higher denomination chips than the initial starting poker chips.
Let’s look at an example set up:
Total players: 20
Starting blinds: 25/50
Starting stack: 5000 (100 BB)
Number of poker chips to start with: 21
Initial chips that each player has in front of them:
- 4 – “25” chips = 100
- 9 – “100” chips = 900
- 8 – “500” chips = 4000
Starting stack of our Nevada Jack Skulls poker chips.
Total number of physical poker chips to start with: 21 X 20 = 420 poker chipsAt some point during the tournament the “25” chips will be useless since the blinds will be in even “100’s”. At that point you can “color up” the “25” chips. So, you will need more “100” and possibly more “500” chips. So, it is suggested that another 20 “100” chips be added.
Extra “100” chips for coloring up during the tournament:
- 20 – “100” chips
This brings the total chips needed for this game to 440 poker chips. At this point it is suggested that extra chips are added for a few reasons. Maybe you will have a game where 22 people show up. Some chips may get lost over time, etc.
Extra chips for special circumstances:- 30 – “25” chips
- 20 – “100” chips
- 10 – “500” chips
This brings the total count of chips to:
- 110 – “25” chips
- 220 – “100” chips
- 170 – “500” chips
- 500 total poker chips
That is a general overview of how to figure out what poker chips to get for a tournament. Let’s discuss a cash game since this will be a bit different.
Cash Game
It is understood that cash games can vary drastically in stakes. Therefore, let’s not focus on the actual value of the chips but think in terms of big blinds (BB’s). I will discuss a $1/2 NL Holdemgame, but will mention BB’s.
The difference with a cash game is that players are often able to rebuy many times. Also, in many games the buy-in is not capped so a player can typically buy-in for 50 BB’s, 100 BB’s, 200 BB’s, or sometimes much higher. So, by the end of a game the value of chips can far exceed what you start with. However, home cash games generally do not involve more than 10 players.
Let’s consider an uncapped $1/2 NL Holdem game that has unlimited rebuys.
On average, the initial buy-in may be 100 BB’s per player ($200). So, let’s figure out the starting chips for each player:
- 15 - $1 chips = $15
- 17 - $5 chips = $85
- 4 - $25 chips = $100
- Total – 36 chips = $200
This brings the total number of chips starting out on the table to 360 poker chips (36 X 10 players).
As mentioned, players will often rebuy (sometimes many times) and players may be allowed to buy-in for more than 100 BB’s. This means we have to consider the extra poker chips needed for the game.
The starting value of the chips on the table is $2000 (10 players X $200).
During a typical game, the total value chips at the end of the game will be 2-3X the starting value. So, let’s figure out the extra chips needed if the value is up to 3X the starting value:
- 100 - $5 chips = $500
- 20 - $25 chips = $500
- 10 - $100 chips = $1000
This brings the total chips needed to (490 = 360 + 130).
As with the tournament, it is best to add extra chips for the situations where the game gets very deep. You also may want to prepare for if the game grows into a higher stakes game such as $2/5.
Here is a suggestion for extra chips that will cover deep games and slightly higher stakes:
- 80 - $25 chips = $2000
- 30 - $100 chips = $3000
Also, consider adding extra poker chips for the occasional lost chip:
- 50 - $1 chips
- 50 - $5 chips
As you can see, with the cash game there are more poker chips to purchase. This is often the case, but you are also prepared for a deep game and for future games when the stakes move up. For this situation the total poker chips suggested is (490 + 120 + 100 = 700).
There are no rules regarding the poker chips needed for a game. You may find that your games don’t need as many poker chips or you prefer to have more. The most important thing is to write out what chips you think you need. Try to break down your game like the examples above. It is much better to be prepared before your game starts than to find out that you do not have the poker chips you need to run the game.
Help your child get to grips with place value with these free printable charts. Plus there are some simple activities to try too!
Today’s post is all about place value. And in particular, place value charts.
Place value is such a crucial math topic for children to understand. They need to understand the place value in order to make sense of numbers and their value.
This post will show you what a place value chart is, and it will give you some ideas for a couple of place value activities you can do with your child at home.
Plus, you can grab your own printable place value charts at the end of this post.
But first…
What is place value?
When we write numbers we use a set of ten digits. Those digits are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
The value of those digits depends on their position in a number.
For example:
In the number 4528, the digit 4 has a value of 4000 because it’s in the thousands column (4 x 1000 = 4000).
The digit 2 has a value of 20 because it’s in the tens column (2 x 10 = 20)
Ours is a base ten number system. This means that each place value column has a value ten times bigger than the column to its immediate right.
So for example, if we put a 1 in each place value column we have the number 1111.
But, in the ones column, the digit 1 has a value of 1.
In the tens column the digit 1 has a value of 10.
In the hundreds column that digit 1 has a value of 100.
And in the thousands column the digit 1 has a value of 1000.
In order for children to be confident in reading, writing and working with numbers (particularly large numbers), they need to have a good understanding of place value.
Related post: Free place value printables for ordering numbers (both 2 and 3 digit numbers)
A word here about vocab…
If you’re helping your child with place value, you can help them get the vocab right from the get-go.
Sometimes there is a bit of confusion about digits vs numbers.
When we talk about digits, we’re talking essentially about a set of math symbols (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9).
We use these digits to construct numbers. So, for example the number 324 is a 3-digit number. It is made up of 3 digits: 3, 2 and 4.
The confusion arises with numbers to 9, where the number and the digit are the same. When we get to 10, it’s easy to make the distinction: 10 is a number. And that number is made up of 2 digits: 1 and 0.
Related post:Place value riddles (for 2 and 3 digit numbers)
What is a place value chart?
So, on to place value charts.
A place value chart pretty much does what it says on the tin! It is basically a chart which shows the different place value heading columns in order.
Usually they have space underneath where you can practise making different numbers.
The download at the end of this post has 4 different place value charts. You can use whichever suits the age/ability of your child.
The first chart is great if your child is just starting off with place value. It just has ones, tens, hundreds and thousands:
Printable Poker Chip Value Chart Template
The second chart included allows you to construct large 7 digit numbers up to millions:
The third chart is a decimal place value chart showing thousands down to thousandths. This chart allows you to make numbers with up to 3 decimal places. It has the decimal point already on the chart:
The last sheet is a place value recording sheet. It has lots of space underneath the place value headings to record numbers.
You can trim down this chart to whichever columns you need as this chart has a very wide range (millions to thousandths!)
Place value activities to try!
If you want to help your child get to grips with place value and need some ideas for activities to try, here are a few suggestions.
You can do all these activities using one of the first 3 place value charts (which you can download at the end of this post). Just pick whichever place value chart is best suited to your child and their ability.
All you will need in addition to the charts is a set of digit cards. Just cut out 10 small pieces of card and write the digits 0 to 9 on the cards (like in the picture for below for activity 1).
Activity 1:
This first activity helps get children familiar with the different place value headings.
Free Printable Poker Chips
Describe a number to your child, by telling them which digit goes in which place value column. For example:
“This number has a 7 in the hundreds column, 8 in the thousands column, 0 in the tens and and 1 in the ones column”
As you describe the number, have your child build the number using the digit cards, like so:
When your child has built the number, have them read it back to you. (In our example 8 thousand, 7 hundred and one).
Activity 2
For this one, ask your child to build any number within a lower and upper limit. For example:
“Use your number cards to build a number bigger than 200 but smaller than 230”.
Obviously there are lots of numbers that they could build here (anything between 200 and 230!).
Get your child to tell you what number they have built (this is great practice for naming large numbers)
Activity 3
This activity is a version of ‘guess my number!’. Ask your child to build a number on their place value chart with their digit cards, but not to show you what their number is.
Then, ask your child questions about the number they have built.
As they answer the questions, try to work out what number they have on their place value chart (you may need a piece of paper and pencil to jot the digits down as you go!).
You can ask all sorts of questions, for example:
- Is your number bigger/smaller than (……)?
- Does your number have an even/odd digit in the tens column?
- Is the hundreds digit less than/bigger than (…..)?
Don’t make your number too long (perhaps start with a 3 digit number), or you may be there all day trying to guess the number.
DOWNLOAD YOUR OWN PLACE VALUE CHARTS HERE:
Before you go, don’t forget to grab your own copy of these charts:
And there we have it! Thanks for reading today’s post about place value charts. Have a great day!
If you liked this post, why not pin it? Thanks for your help!
More from Math, Kids and Chaos