I was watching this video and i thought to myself: "those are nice chips, i wanna buy 'em". Yea nah i don't feel like selling my house.

Great video man, thanks for sharing all the details of how you run your home tournament games in your garage plus how many chips people would need etc. that's awesome!

This video was exactly what I needed to order the right amount of tournament poker chips. Thank you!

Just getting into Poker and I ran across your channel. Just wanted to say Thank You! Very informative and full of information explained clearly. You've helped me immensely! Great Channel Chris!

About to host a poker night with some friends for the first time, and this video had exactly what I needed in terms of the chip breakdown.

this was so helpful i am planning a poker torny as well, and before seeing this video i was kinda surprised just how similar everything i had was to yours

Thank you for this video. I feel confident about my home game I’m about to do in few hrs. Appreciate you bro!

Hi Chris. I hosted our first tournament this weekend. 19 guys. It went great. A few small hiccups, but very smooth. It's all because of your videos! Ty!

Great videos! Thank you for being informational. Looks like a good structure. What tables are you using or did you build them? Also would like to see a video on how you host and run a game night including tips for beginning players.

I hope your pokerplayers appriciate the effort AND the fact you got Aurora star poker chips. Those 25s are sooo gorgeous! Thx for the vid!

You did very well on this video. To the point, with a few explanations and examples. Great job, and thanks for the help!

Wow Chris, Thank you SO much for sharing these great insights! Finally going to take the plunge and invest in some really nice Poker gear (table, chips etc) and start hosting a monthly Poker Night with my friends. This video gave me SO much inspiration and great tips! I also do videos here on KZfaq, but on Personal Finance, Investments and Real Estate - So a far short from your content! Feel free to drop by some time😃 Loved the Perfect Starting Stack breakdown, so smart (I hadn’t even thought of that)!!

Thank you so much the guidelines were amazing.

Just finished your video and I gotta say I really enjoyed this one !

Just found your video. Mr. Jon Hobby also is a fan of Poker Chip Forum. Its great to get this new perspective. Now, I need to find your videos on these poker chips. They look great.

Chris, not sure how your video popped up on my channel but I’m so happy it did. Before the pandemic hit, I was asked to run a charity poker tournament with 80 players. This event would include re-buys in the first hour and I’m struggling to determine how many chips I need. Watching your video gives me some sort of idea but my OCD to get this right is killing me. Your expertise and experience would really be appreciated.

Really great video. I love your content. Keep it coming.

Thanks to this video I have hosted around 20 tournaments this last year ranging from 6 to 14 guys and it has been a blast. The 20K structure is great!

Newbie...trying to set up a friendly game with my co-workers. Decided to set up a tourney...to cut time...cause 3/4 of us have to work the next day. Thank you!

Those chips are beyond beautiful!

Really practical and sensible advice here! 😂

OMG, those Aurora Star chips look AMAZING!!!!!!!

So glad I found you have already wanted to run a gentleman's card game I plan to use your videos as a Bible to follow as I like your setup and teaching Im totally green but with experience and time perfection is learned Any suggestions other than studying everyone of your videos TABLES RULES SETUP REQUIREMENTS and so forth Thanks look forward to watching all 21 videos

Oh my! Look at those Aurora Stars. Minty fresh Paulson!

Some beautiful chips man. Gorgeous. Wish there were more out there for lower prices. Your set is my dream one day!

Lol "a face made for radio." Dude, same.

Hi Chris, love the videos. I’ve patterned my hime games after yours including the 8, 8, 6, 6, 2 $20,000 starting stacks. How do you manage your rebuy chips? Seems I remember you mentioning in another video rebuys get you a large denomination chip? How’s that work at the table. Does the rebuy player then sit down and begin to make change with the big stack? What do you give rebuyer in chips in this tourney as well as a similar $40 cash came rebuy chips? Thanks in advance.

Great video, thank you for sharing your knowledge. It is very helpful in my search of an ideal tournament set. Would it be possible to host a single table 10 hand with only 300 chips with the proposed stacks?

Dude, great video- Just added some chips to my Tiki chips order- I’m using the 5000 plaques instead of chips so should be fun 🤘

Hi Chris! Love this video, gearing up to host a first tournament among friends. In regards to payouts, do you treat re entries as another player? For example, if you had 10 players who all re-entered, do you still calculate payouts as paying 25% of a field of 10 or 25% of a field of 20?

Thanks for sharing Chris! I discovered your channel by this video and I must say that I am impressed with all these chips, Your collection is the envy of many ;) I've played a few 2-table tournaments with this structure and I have to say it works really well. For a one table game however (6-9 players), I've change the denomination to 12/12/8/7/2 (22500) as there are less chips in play and players love to have more chips in front of them. I've also change level 9 to 700/1400 (16bb) then which I find is by far the level where everyone comes out at the same time taking unecesseray risk with the recommended 800/1600 (14bb) (works well with multiple tables but finds it just too much for a single table game). I also increased the level time to 30 minutes and left the antes as they are. Tournaments usually last 5-6 hours, maybe 7 hours with a group of 9 more tight players. If you want 7 hours with 6-7 players, get rid of the ante. Anyway, hope this helps anyone trying to set up a one table tournament and again thanks for sharing this valuable information. I would also love to have your thoughts on this, maybe you have different perspective that may even more improve a one table game, as I believe is the most played format by everyone as multiple table home game takes much more time, organisation and ressources. Thanks!

Dude those solid colored Auroras are gorgeous, the only way I can get my fix is watching them over and over, wish they were purchaseable.

How we play home cash games. whites $1, reds $5, blues $20, greens $50. (Chip values are 10-20 times higher than actual cash values.) Blinds start at $1/$2 in chips as a deepstack warmup, quickly move up to $2/$5 and stay there. min buyin, $200 in chips ($10-$20 in cash) $1 x 20 $5 x 16 $20 x 5 $50 x 0 max buyin, $500 in chips ($25-$50 in cash) $1 x 20 $5 x 16 $20 x 10 $50 x 4 Chip-to-cash conversion rates are pretty simple: If the min buyin is set at $20, Chips ÷ 10 = Cash. ($200 in chips ÷ 10 = $20 in cash.) If the min buyin is set at $10, Chips x 5 = Cents. ($200 in chips x 5 = 1000 cents = $10.00) Other details: We run a $1 ante that you can bypass if you take a drink. Some of us roll 2 die to determine the size of our preflop open. We do alternative gambling games for low stakes (white chips only) every 10 hands or so. Hope this helps.

Great vids, Chris. Ppl like Tourneys bc it limits their expenditures. They bring a buy in and 1-2 rebuys and they’re comfy w that. Others, like me, look for games where a cash game follows the tourney as people bust, and use the tourney as a gate to a profitable cash game. If Incash in tourney, great. If not, I try to make my buy in and more, through the cash game. But you know this, I’m sure.

Update after using your stack for several months now. I love it. The only problem I run into is with newer players not throwing out their chips smarter. Example being that if someone wanted to make a 200 bet they would instead throw out all their 25s. Again, not a problem with your stack method just a problem with the players being inexperienced. But would love to see a sort of vlog of one of your tourney nights and highlights, would love to see those gorgeous hot stamps in action

Hi Cris, I wanted to ask for information? to organize Texas holdem poker home tournaments for around 8 people with re-buys which poker set do you recommend? how many pcs? 500/750? And of what value above all? Thank you

Love your videos!! question for you... If I have a 20 person tourney with 2 re entries how many of each chip would i need?

excellent video buddy!

So glad I found this, I just learned the game and got my first set, 300 chips and then thought I needed a ton more. I think one more sleeve of chips and I can hold my first single table tourny next month! Unfortunately my set consists of 1s(100),5s(100),25s(50),100s(25) and 500s(25). Using your setup im thinking to buy 25 more 100s and distribute 8-10-6-6-3 respectively. Should work? ( I could return the set and search for a 500 )

Chris you’ve got a sick garage going on there buddy. Love it. Your videos have gotten me back into chips. Already trying to find the Paulson private card room chips that I sold like an idiot back In the day. Rn I just have some cps chips. Here’s my predicament. I want to play tourneys with 9-10 players but I don’t have 25, or 100’s. I have 500s-1000s, 5k and 25k. Could you help me figure out a starting stack and blinds structure with this setup I have until I get ahold of some 25s and 100s

This is great, thank you.

Man.. those chips are Beautiful

Hey Chris, have you ever disclosed your blind structure and chip/color count for your high stakes tournaments as you suggested you sometimes have with the 43mm Apache clays that you use 500-1000-5000-25000-100000 ??

Hey Chris, would you make any adjustments to the structure if it were only a single table tournament, say 9 players? Great video, I'm so glad I found your channel! cheers

I want to host a tournament with friends and neighbors. I think I have enough chips for 10 players + 5 rebuys, but thats at a starting stack of only 100. Breakdown could be T1 x 10, T5 x 10, T10 x 4. To color up I have T25 and T100's. Do you see any obvious issues with this small starting stack size or breakdown? Any recommendations for blind structure, with the small starting stack?

Thanks for your important information Sure helps. Can you also please include your breakdown on your cash sets.

Hey Chris! What’s the perfect starting stack and structure for a 7 Card Stud tournament?

Hey Chris glad I found your channel. Enjoying watching your videos. If you have a table of 3 and for argument sake they're all staring even, how do you determine who to pull from which table if you lose players. Do you consolidate into two at 20 people or wait for 10 people and make one? You very well may have a video explaining this but I haven't found it yet. Thanks!

Love your insights! And all the details you share from your own experience. This makes figuring it out so much easier. I wonder if you have any tips on how to modify it to 1-table tournaments that should take something between 75-90 minutes. We play 6-max sit and go and we try to play 2-3 in one evening (approx 5 hours total). I went with your structure and 60 BBs starting stack as a starting point, but I wonder if you have any experience in this area as well. I bet there are more people who run home games as a few sit and gos (how to write that in plural?) per evening.

Great vid!

Hey can you please make a video on bounties. Or you can just reply to this lol how do I host a tournament with bounties . Thanks

Physically Creating starting stacks: I read a lot of the comments but didn’t get through all of them. I run an 11 game tourney , this is my third year and it runs very smoothly. But with 24 players, creating the starting stacks is a drag. Is there a way to do it versus matching up 24 stacks of each? A counter, or trick with the plastic chip holder, etc? After the stacks are created I pit them in small canvas bags and hand out with buy-in. This saves a ton of time and it’s easier to carry your chips before game time. But how long is it taking you to create stacks?

Great video

Chris, great video and thank you! What is your suggestion for the minimum bet to be made during any part of the game? Ive played where the minimum bet is either the SB or BB. Just wondering your thoughts. Thanks

Sweet top hat and canes.

Is the needs for chips still gonna be the same if you don’t do any rebuys at all, or should you still get the same in the video as insurance I’m case something does happen?

VERY helpful video. Thank you! I have one question: If you do a bounty and single rebuy tournament, I assume a person who rebuys get an additional bounty chip on reentry? If so, how do you handle the bounty situation when someone surrenders their stack and reenters?

Hi! Awsome video. How does your payout works?

Question about buying back in. Suppose a single table, 10 player tournament. If you buy the number of chips you suggest, then all the 25s, 100s, 500s, and 1000s are in play, but there are extra 5000s. So when someone busts and buys back in, do you give them the exact composition of their starting stack again (meaning you would need more chips) or do you just give them the value of their buy-in a larger denom and have them make change at the table?

Great video! If I wanted to keep the game close to 4-5 hours would I add the antes even on a single table? or add antes after a specific Break? Thanks in advance.

I used to implement a nearly identical structure in my friend's home game tournament. I think it worked perfectly. Then one day, a new player convinced him to change up the entire format. Now, the starting stack is lower, the on-time bonus has been removed, the rebuys are unlimited, and there's an add-on at the cutoff. It's warped into a turbo shovefest, which I think takes away a good chunk of strategy. I no longer attend this game.

As a tournament director I stand behind this video. Very informative and the 5 hour estimation for this structure is correct although im curious as to the restrictions you put on the re-entry.. can you use it at any time? I mean theoretically if they became heads up and lose but havent used their optional rebuy can they use it and get another chance? That would seem a bit wrong in my opinion and i would suggest the optional rebuy for everyone needs to be used before a certain blind level or before the money or something along those lines

Good amount and perfect number too IMHO. Only thing I do differently is I use plaques for the 2 5k chips. If you're the one buying the chips plaques can add up $$$ quickly, but you shouldn't need a ton of them. I also do a 5k reload and whoeever chooses just gets another plaque. I don't know tourny etiquette for add-on's, so maybe 5k's too low. But on the normal game it's a $25 buy-in for 20k in chips, then there's a $10 reload for 5k at the end of round 6 for anyone still in who wants a bit more chips. But I know not everyone likes plaques. To me though there's something satisfying about tossing one into the pot instead of 1, or a couple regular chips. And just my opinion but having a stack of plaques can make you look like a more menacing player lol. If you have a stack of 6+ big plaques you means business. BR Poker Pro has some awesome chips with matching plaques for a lot of them. For dramatic effect I'm thinking about having some custom all-in plaques made. Only downside to plaques aside from price, unless you have Shaq sized hands you won't be able to shuffle them lol.

Where can I find those aurora star hot stamps? Or is there a site that will customize the same as yours with same material?

I owned the full set but still comeback to see this clip

Chris, Is it possible for you to make a video like this, but just with 600 poker chips? I'm going to do my first home texas hold'em tournament and I have 600 poker chips but I have 10 different colors: 100, 60, 60, 60, 60, 60, 50, 50, 50 and 50. what do you suggest me to do?

Do we use the highest denomination to reload? also I would use 8-8-6-6-4 meaning a 40k starting stack, but i would have a $40 dollar buy in rather than 20-25

I am hosting a tournament for the first time in a very long time and am trying to reacquaint myself with things. I like the bonus chips idea. Also, you said you allow players with micro stacks to forfeit their chips and participate in the one rebuy. What constitutes a micro stack? Is it the number of blinds they have available or something like that? Thanks!

Thanks for the video. I recently bought some new chips and have been struggling to find a good starting stack. This helped a ton. I’ve been running a monthly game with friends for over a year and attendance is not always as great as I would like. I’ve been thinking about trying to set up a year long league to spark more interest. Do you have any experience with a league or have any advice for starting one. Is there a program you could recommend to help me keep stats and points in order?

Great video! Thanks for putting it together. You mention (at about the 3:49 mark) that, "if you make it to the break and have a 'micro stack,' then you can surrender your chips and re-enter." What constitutes a "micro stack," if you don't mind me asking?

Sweet double sided bounty/all-in chip! Anyone know where to get it or something similar?

Another great video thank you. You spoke about bounty chip, could you explain more and can someone buy a bounty chip a place on another player? Thank you for your time.

Chris! Your structure at 10:56 shows blinds of 1,000/2,000 with a 1,000 BB Ante. Is that a typo (meaning it’s a 2,000 BB Ante), or is it really a 1,000 BB Ante?

Trying to start my own game this video has been great. Love the chips. 3 questions. 1. When coloring up which chips are going out for each break. (25s exchange for what chip value? 100/500?, 1000s) When do you send out the 25k’s? 2. When you say “ big blind ante” you mean a forced bet to every seat or a 3rd big blind. 3. What chips go out with rebuys? Are 2nd bounty chips included with rebuy?

Can these recipe apply for 4 players? Sorry, I'm very new with the game 😅

Where were You ten years ago? 😁 Anyway thx for the very usefull information! 🤗👍

How often do you incrase the blinds?

Thanks for this breakdown Chris. Off-topic but where did you find those bounty chips? Those are sweet

So I’m planning on having 5 guys total for a hold’em poker night. $50 buy in and I want the game to last about 2 hours before we switch to playing for change instead of chips and having dealer’s choice. Any suggestions?

I don’t understand this: are 8 chips of 100 enough? Is it because when u put money in the pot you can get change from the pot or because the dealer can give you change from the bank?

Hey Chris! Super helpful video! I have a follow up question for you. If I’m running a tournament (10 people) with an option for one re-entry: a) when should I cut-off re-entries? and b) taking into account re-entries and coloring up how many extra chips would I need on top of your recommended 320? Seriously thanks again! This has really added a lot of structure to our home games 🙏🏽

What is your payout to 1st place, second place, ect?

Optional re-entry? Isn't that the same as a one time rebuy?

Great videos btw. 1 question though - why do you need 40xT5000 in the single table 10 handed chip total? Isn't the total based on the starting stacks 20? Or are the 20 extra T5000 useful later in the tournament?

nice chips!

For how long can you rebuy in to the tournament? When i played with your blind structure we played with buy in available until second break, what do you prefer?

Hi Christopher M, thank you for great advice. I am planning to host a game and your video is what I was looking for. ? what do you think about meetup groups home games ? the good the bad and the ugly. need your input.. if you had any experience any.

Hi Christopher M. I need some advice for dummies here. See my friends and I are all beginners (we still need a chart of hand rankings handy to see what beats what) and I'd like to host a simple home game for us. I have an ok set of poker chips and when I watch poker on tv I can follow what's going on, but as far as setting up and running a game myself I don't have a clue how to do it. Unfortunately I'm the most knowledgeable in my friend group about this so if I can't get this going it'll never happen. Anyway here's what we'd hope for: a game that we can come together to play (maybe 5-6 ppl, def not more than 10), a game that'll last about 2 to maybe 3 hours tops to finish, and everyone would pitch in $5-$10 to play if they even want to pay to play at all. most likely it'll be a free event. Just a fun poker night with the guys, but I want it to feel official. If you already have a video that suits my situation please link it here, or if you know where I can find info on how to run it that would be welcome too. Right now everything I find online is too complex for what we'll be doing, because we aren't serious players. Also if anyone in the comments can provide help I'm all ears. Thanks in advance!

Thanks for sharing. how are the rules for the winners? i mean, im using re/buys, how could be the rule for the 2nd place? cheers

Good info here. Thank you for sharing. One question: Is there a different between "re-entry" and "re-buy"? You say you don't like re-buys, but you permit 1 re-entry. Can you clarify please?

Hello chris. I have a question about the re-entry, i like the format with just one "if they have micro stacks they can surrender and re-enter" So no Add-on, just give their chips to the bank and get another 20k?

Where can I find the "No One Cares What you Folded" sign? It's awesome! Would love to get one for my poker room

Chris I tried to read through the comments to see if you answered this. I'd like to skip the 25s and start with a base of 100. Is the starting stack now 10-6-6-2 and do you now only need 100-100s 60-500s 60-1000s and 40-5000s?

Dude this was exactly what I needed!!! I have a question about the payouts... You said you pay 25% of the field. How would this look for places and amounts? Thank you!!!

Chris, where do you buy those Aurora Star chips? Thanks in advance.

I do have a question and I hope I’m not going a bit far. What is you thinking about hosting a tournament that has a good handful of tables, lets say 10 tables for example(just as an example) how many chips MINIMUM would I need to get and how the structure should be and what should be the table number cutoff for hosting tournaments at home?

How would u recommend i go about an 81 player tourney, when i only have three tables? I was thinking four days (1 st day three tables 27 players till there are 9 left)(same thing for day 2 n 3)(day four is the last 27 players till we have a winner) how would the blinds work though?

Where can get my hands on those chips they look amazing!

my next tournament (a company team building/thank you event) im going to with this break down, but i will go with an exact change bonus of 4 green and 4 black...i guess my question is how many people out of 25 buy in with exact change (on average)

Thanks for this video. The stack and structure is a frustrating part of running a tournament. Do you use any particular software/program to keep track of the blind levels?