How many chips do you need for a full-fledged poker tournament in no-limit Texas Hold’em (no-limit Texas Hold’em poker tournament)? Is there a relationship between the color of the chip and its face value? How to correctly distribute the initial chips among the participants of the tournament? We will try to answer all these questions in this article …
There are many factors that you should consider before purchasing your poker set. The ratio of poker chips will depend on the number of players entered in the poker tournament – the more participants, the more high denomination chips they will need in the future, since as players fly out, the average number of chips in the stack will increase, and the need for low denomination chips disappears by herself. The type of poker tournament also affects the set of poker chips (Texas Holdem, Stud or Cash), the chips you will need to play limit poker are slightly different from the poker chips you need to play no limit poker (on this page we are considering the option of a home or professional poker tournament in no-limit Texas hold’em poker). Also of great importance is the number of starting chips distributed at the beginning of the players in your poker tournament.
In general, you should have approximately 500 poker chips in three or four different colors to host up to 10 people at your poker table, approximately 1000 chips in four or five colors to host up to 20 guests at your poker tournament. Below is a table that describes the recommended total number of chips, the number of chips dealt from the beginning to each player, and their ratio depending on the value of the poker chips.
Keep in mind that the rebuy option (you allow tournament participants to buy more chips per game, usually in a limited amount and only after the player has lost his initial stack) will increase the total number of poker chips needed to play. An upgrade by color will help you out (about it below …), that is, when the need for chips of a low denomination disappears, we exchange them for chips of a higher denomination.
Upgrade rules by color (color-up) (extract from the rules approved by the World Association of Poker Tournament Organizers):
when low-value chips are not used in mandatory bets – the big blind, small blind or ante, but simply take up space on the table, then the organizer of the poker tournament or its main observer gives the command to make an exchange. Let’s explain with an example: let’s say we have 5 players, we exchange red chips with a face value of 5 for green chips with a face value of 25, the exchange is made by the dealer. After the exchange, the player occupying place No. 1 (small blind place) has 3 red chips with a face value of 5, which are naturally not enough to exchange for one green chip with a face value of 25, place No. 2 (big blind place) has an excess of 2 red chips, place No. 3 – 1 chip, place number 4 – 4 chips, in the 5th place there are only 3 extra chips. What to do in such a situation?
The dealer deals cards to them, face up for everyone to see, depending on the number of chips left – seat number 1 receives 3 cards, seat number 2 – 2 playing cards, seat number 3 – 1 card, seat number 4 – 4 cards, place number 5 – 3 cards.
The dealer collects their red chips from the players, in total there are 13 of them, exchanges them in the bank for 2 green chips with a face value of 25. But there are still 3 red chips with a face value of 5 – if the sum of the face value of the remainder of the chips is more than half or equal to half the face value of the chip, on which is being exchanged (in fact, it is very simple – we have three chips of 5, that is, the sum of 15 is more than half of 25), then he gives out another chip of a larger denomination, in our case green with a denomination of 25, if the remainder If there were only 2 red chips, they would automatically go to the pot.
Next comes the drawing of chips of the highest denomination, we remember that there are only 3 of them, and there are 5 players. The player who has the highest card (for example: the King of Hearts fell out of three cards at place No. 5) takes the first green chip for himself, then player No. 3 – he has the Queen of Diamonds and the third chip with the Cross Ten is taken by place No. 4. There are several nuances in this draw – the player cannot fly out of the tournament as a result of these actions, that is, if the player has only one chip with a face value of 5 – he in any case, they will get a green chip with a face value of 25. If 2 participants have an equal card and only one green chip with a face value of 25 remains, then they look at other cards, if there is parity here, then the place that is closer to the dealer takes the chip.
The number and value of chips depends on the tournament you are running. If this is a T100 tournament (the total amount you have in your hands is about a hundred), then you basically have to stock up on low-value chips – 1, 5, 10, if this is a T10000 tournament (by analogy – the total amount you have in your hands is 10,000), then here the most chips with denominations of 25, 50, 100, 500 will be running.
It must be said right away that there are no “standard” rules for indicating the color and denomination of poker chips, each poker establishment can use its own colors.
