How many chips per player?
Between 20 and 35 chips per player is the sweet spot. Fewer, and precise raises become impossible; more, and stacks turn unreadable and counting takes forever. The calculator above targets that range whatever the stack.
What matters is not the number printed on the chip but the value you assign it for the night: a “1, 5, 25, 100, 500” set plays perfectly well as 25, 100, 500, 1,000, 5,000. Just announce it before the first hand.
Which chip values should you use?
Four or five values are enough. The smallest must cover the first level's small blind; the largest should stay under half the stack, or it is only decoration. For a 20,000 stack at 25/50, that means the 25, 100, 500, 1,000 and 5,000.
- Small chips (25, 100): 8 of each, to make change for blinds and antes.
- Medium chips (500, 1,000): 6 of each, the bulk of early-tournament betting.
- Big chips (5,000): 2, holding half the stack's value in two pieces.
Is my chip set big enough?
The Total column of the calculator shows how many chips of each value the whole table needs. A 300-chip set usually covers 8 to 10 players with 5 colors; a 500-chip set goes up to 15. If one color runs short, lower its per-player count and make it up with the next value up: what matters is that every player gets exactly the same stack.
Always keep some chips aside for rebuys and the add-on: a player who rebuys gets the same stack everyone started with.
Coloring up: removing the small chips
As blinds rise, the smallest values become useless. At the break before the level where the small blind exceeds the smallest chip, run a color-up: each player swaps small chips for bigger ones. Leftovers that don't convert are rounded up to the next chip, or settled with a chip race in tournaments that follow the rulebook to the letter.