A poker chip set typically contains a variety of different colors. In a standard set you can expect to find white, red, black, and blue chips, sometimes also green and pink. Each color represents a particular value. There is no universal way to define the value of a chip, but there are guidelines which can help you appraising the values and making the appropriate number of chips for your game.
For a typical cash game with 6 players, you should have enough chips for every player to start with a starting stack of 27 poker chips. This is a good amount and will allow you to run the game smoothly without any problems. If you want to keep the number of chips down, you can always drop the number of 25 point chips to 4 and increase the number of 100 point chips to 9. This will give each player a starting stack of 24 poker chips.
The number of poker chips for a tournament can be slightly more complicated as you have to consider the possibility of rebuys. Nevertheless, most poker sets will still come with enough chips to cover the initial buy-in and even enough for rebuys in case there is need for them.
If you are planning on running a tournament, it might be a good idea to opt for a high quality set. This will not only ensure a good look and feel, but also a high level of durability. In addition, a high-quality poker set will usually be a little more expensive than a cheap one.
To determine the right number of poker chips for a tournament you will first have to decide how much you wish to spend on each person’s buy-in. In most cases, this will be determined by the type of poker you play and the amount of money you are willing to put in the pot yourself.
You will also need to determine whether you will have a quick-play tournament or a longer tournament with set levels of blind increases. The number of levels you will have is entirely up to you, but a 20-minute clock is considered swift for a home game and a one hour clock is often used in live tournaments.
Besides these factors, you will also need to decide how many poker chips you want to give each player at the beginning. For a normal home game, you should have at least one suitcase of poker chips which will contain 300 pieces for each color variation.
A poker tournament will require a lot more than that, as the blinds will increase at set intervals which will make smaller value chips less important. In a tournament, you should use more than one color for each denomination to enable players to swap chips when necessary. This will also help in avoiding confusion when the blinds are raised. It is therefore a good idea to have between 3 and 5 different poker chip colors in a commercial suitcase.