Texas Holdem Rules Chip Values
Choosing what type of poker chips, (known as ‘cheques’, or sometimes ‘checks’) you want to use for your game is a decision that everyone who plays home poker needs to make, as it dictates the entire game. Some of the lower-stakes at-home poker games use coins as chips, as it can be more convenient, but it can be quite inconvenient finding the change when you need it.
Chips come in all different colours and carry different values. Tournament chips and game cash chips differ, especially so in a casino. Luckily, most of the chips have a dollar value written on them, so that makes life easier.
I use the Poker Tournament Manager Deluxe chip calculator to determine how many chips of each color I need based on the number of players and the buyin chip value. One thing to consider is that you don't want the players to have to few chips because people will tend to go 'all-in' faster.so it is better to setup your chip distribution so that each player has 20 or more total chips when possible. Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is one of the most popular variants of the card game of poker.Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five community cards are dealt face up in three stages. 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. The first three cards in Texas Hold'em are called the Flop. These cards are “community cards” meaning everyone will use them in combination with their own hole cards to make the best hand. From the flop on, betting begins with the player to the dealer’s left, who can check or bet. A fourth card is dealt face up onto the board. A Texas Holdem tournament is over when one player has acquired all of the tournament chips and is declared the winner. Usually around 10-20% of the field 'makes the money' in a tournament with a 'min-cash' being the smallest amount a player who cashes can win.
You may also be interested in Texas holdem poker for beginners which goes in more depth on how to play.
Table of Content
- 1 Home poker
- 4 Poker Chip Values & Colors
Home poker
Complete basic sets of chips used for private poker games usually comprise of simple block colours such as white, red, blue, green, and black chips. The larger, higher-stakes tournaments may potentially use sets with additional colors. When playing Texas Hold ‘Em Poker it’s vital to know each chip value.
While there is no official “rule” for how chip values are assigned, there are common standards used for most poker events. There is no nominal value written on the chips themselves, and the values should be agreed before playing.
Hosting a Poker Night
If you’re hosting a poker event that consists of up to 10 players, it’s advisable that you have approximately 500 chips in three or four basic colors. If you’re hosting a larger game, that could involve up to 30 people, you should go for up to 1,000 chips in 4 or 5 colors.
When putting together a set of chips to run your own games, you should keep the number of different colors low, and your put your collection together so the majority of your chips in the lowest denomination, with progressively smaller numbers of chips as the denominations ascend.
So, to demonstrate: A set of four chip values of $1, $5, $10, and $25, the number of chips by ratio should be 4:3:2:1. With 500 poker chips, you should have 200/150/100 and 50 chips in white/red/blue and green (respectively).
Casinos
Casinos commonly have a custom-design on their chips which includes the monetary value and the name of the casino which is printed (or engraved). The chips can be multi-colored and/or patterned so it is unique to that casino. The color-coding may follow the values below, or an individual casino may a truly bespoke color coding system.
If you’re in a casino, simply ask the dealer. They’ll explain it to you (ideally before you bet). Most dealers will be happy to explain things to you (but their help stops there!).
Tournament Chips
You will find in most American casinos that tournament chips (as well as other cash games) are, more often than not, the same thing, and so commonalities can easily be found.
The answer is that it truly depends on where you’re playing, as geography will facilitate variations.
In casinos in Atlanta, most will follow the basic primary color-coding values for white, pink, red, green, and black chips, with the addition of yellow chips at $20 and blue at $10.
Las Vegas casinos do also subscribe to the basic primary color coding but add $20 chips.
In California, where there are no legal mandates on gaming chip colors at all.
Poker Chip Values & Colors
| Colour | Value |
| White | $1 |
| Pink | $2 or $2.50 |
| Yellow | $5 |
| Blue | $10 |
| Green | $25 |
| Black | $100 |
| Black | $100 |
| Purple | $500 |
Texas Holdem Rules Chip Values List
High-Value Dominations
Chip values above $5,000 are very rarely seen (or used) by the general public in casinos; since such high-stakes games are, generally, not held in view of, or by the public. For very high-stakes games may, casinos have special rectangular plaques which they issue to players.
They are roughly the size of a deck of cards. In casinos where high-stakes gambling is permitted in public areas, there could these special plaques in denominations of $5,000, $10,000, $25,000, and up, but these casinos are typically limited to Nevada and Atlantic City.
In summary, it depends where you are, and what you’re playing.
Sources:
10 Quick Poker Tips – Upswing Poker
Strategy to Win Poker – WikiHow
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
Texas Holdem Rules Chip Values Price Guide
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.