So you've got a great tournament underway, and now it's the first break; time to color up! But how? Look no further - I explain it all and break it down!
Not a stupid question - just one that I neglected to answer! Getting rid of smaller denomination chip when the blinds go up and they no longer are necessary is helpful in running the tournament smoothly - because otherwise you will end up with a TON of extra chips that you don't need on the table. When blinds are 2000-4000, and many players have been eliminated the T25s will only get in the way and slow things down a lot.
Just found your channel and I love it. Been playing for years with the family and friends and we got so many things wrong LOL Thanks for teaching us old dogs new tricks...or old tricks that I never learned LOL We usually play more turbo type games for $10 buy ins with around T2000 to T3000. We like to play several games per night rather than one long one. We usually only have one table and keep it friendly. Thanks again!!!
Great video! I do the Chip Race in my tournaments (15-20 player low stakes home game), during a break so there is plenty of time to do it. One advantage I find to doing the Chip Race (which is easy to do once you get the hang of it and is, technically, the way The Book says you should do it) is that you do not increase the total number of chips in play for the tournament. That may or may not be a big deal for your tournament; as is always the case; it's up to the individual tournament director, especially in a home game.
Getting ready to start hosting my own games .... my brother in law deals at Mohegan sun in CT and I’ve always wanted to host my own games 👌🏾👌🏾 videos very very helpful
man i lover your videos they are really helpful for me, but i have another question, how about de colour up for the T100s and T500s? You do exactly the same?
Hey Chris, could you do a video about your multi table tournaments and how you know when to consolidate players to less tables and the process of that?
Yes, I plan to do one on running tournaments soon I hope! Right now we are remodeling a room in our house so the garage is full of stuff! But when that clears out and my work slows down I'll get back at it!
Hey Chris, you're helping me alot with your vids! my second tournament was perfect yesterday! Thanks! One question, how do you color up the 100's and 500's in the second break? Do you color them up step by step? I mean, coloring up all 100's first, get them away, and go for the 500's after? Or do you have a special trick here? Greetings from germany
So I think you would do the same thing with a couple tweaks 1) bring 2 5k chips and an empty rack. 2) change the 5k chips with a player or two that have a lot of T500 and T1000 chips. 3). Use the change to buy up the quantity of T100 chips using the change from step 2. 4) use the remaining change to round up the odd chips players may have .
Same way, stacks of 5 for the 100s since you color them up to 500, any remainders less than 5 chips get colored up to a 500. For the 500s stacks of 2 since they’re going to 1000, leftover chip means it gets colored up to 1000.
I have three poker tables. The red one that you see in most videos is an ultimate poker table from BBO, a blue one is the aces pro from the same company, and I also have a green one that I built myself. I like the BBO tables but they both are very heavy.
Hey Chris, great videos. Really helpful. I'm hosting my first tournament at my home next month and have found your tutorials really helpful. I do have a question on the last colour up of the T1000's however. How do you make the change to round up/race off the last odd chips on the table? Thanks, Matt
If you have 25K chips you can do it that way, you should have a barrel of 20 if you're doing 2 tables or more. Bring in a 25K chip and get change from the biggest stack (five 5K chips) and use those 5K chips to round up any odd 1Ks left over.
@@matthewsleeman6716 One thing that might be helpful, 25K chips can also be non-denominated, so you don't have to track down a 25K chip that goes with the set you have - you can just use a generic non-denominated chip and simply tell your players "This chip is worth 25,000" - I did it for years with my original ASM set that didn't have a 25K chip. I used a hot pink solid super diamond (very cheap) barrel of chips and just let everyone know that they were worth 25K. It wasn't a perfect system but it was clear and easy for everyone.
@@chrismanzoni3586 Ideal. That's helpful. My sets highest denomination is 5k. I'll see if I can find any 25k chips, but failing that, I'll grab a barrel of non-denominated chips instead.
When you colour up the 100s you would have $8000 at the table to buy up. Do you bring 2xT5k or one T10K chip? If a T10K would this make change an issue?
I tried doing this at my last game and I have the same chip count that you gave us in the last video but I’m a little confused. When I color up the second time for the T100 and T500 am I still suppose to bring just one of the T5k or am I bringing in more? I thought the whole idea was to only use one? I’m new to poker so I’m a little confused by this.
You can bring in as many larger (5K) chips as you need to get the job done. If you're coloring up 100s and 500s (as I do) make sure to do all the 100s first and separately, then move on to the 500s.
Another great idea! I will definitely do it - but it might be awhile before I can film again, this whole pandemic has really put a kink in things here at home. It's all good, but when I'm not working I'm on other home improvement projects and errands. Hopefully the schedule will clear up at some point!
Are these the Royal China clays? I wanna get them, but interested in going for that high roller feel with large denominations. T1k, T5k, T25k and T100k. I'm thinking 10-8-10-2 is a nice starting stack which gets you $500k with 30 chips. What do you think?
Yes, these are the Royal China clays that apachepokerchips.com offers. They are fun and very vibrant chips at a good price for the quality. I love your starting stack breakdown, unfortunately I haven't gotten around to hosting a 500K starting stack tournament so I don't have a blind structure for you. Hopefully it will happen in 2021 and I can make a video about it!
After you mention "racing off"(7:08)...you took three greens from player one back and gave one black..the second player had one green and you gave him one black...the third player had two green and you gave one black. How does player one (with three greens, player two with one and player three with two) get the same amount of money/black chips!?? Sorry, I just don't get how three players who all have different amount of greens get the same amount of blacks. Seems like you're rewarding the player with less green chips. Sorry if this is a newb question...I'm a newb. Love poker and poker chips, just poor at both.
Racing off is the old way of coloring up, these days most rooms (and myself) simply round up. The biggest reason for this is that modern poker tournaments now start with 400 big blind stacks and by the first break the starting stack is still worth 50 big blinds, so in other words, rounding up quarters to 100 really doesn’t add up to an amount of any significance. It’s only 1/4 of a big blind. It’s much quicker and easier to simply round up rather than waste time and effort for an amount that is mathematically insignificant.
Yes, but only if your starting stack it is at least 10K, you don’t want to bring in oversized chips if it impedes players ability to make bets and change.
@@chrismanzoni3586 Thanks. I guess I thought it didnt make sense if it reduces the look of all the stacks to me. If I have 5 x $1000 would that be preferable or do you always like to go with a $5000 chip Also, when "rounding up" players, do you find that putting extra black $100 chips in play has any impact in the end. Since it would be changing the chip count in the game, and the overall beginning chips in play. For example if it was T10000, and there was 10 players, youd have 100k chips in play. Although, if you round up, you might end up with 100,004 chips in play. Ive typically just taken odd amounts off the table and rounded down since they're so little. Thoughts?
@@KhalidJiwa With a 20K starting stack I always go with a higher chip. Likewise I always round up when coloring up, I don’t round down and take chips off the table., But as long as you are open and consistent and transparent with your players, there’s lots of different ways to do it. If you and everybody prefers a lot more chips on the table, then by all means use smaller chips in your color ups. Whatever is the smoothest and makes everybody the happiest, no wrong answers!
You're not dumb! It's a newer concept called "rounding up". Whereas before all casinos would "race off", dealing out cards to determine who gets the next highest denominated chip, now many rooms and most home games simply round up odd chips so everyone with an odd chip - whether it's x1 or x2 or x3, gets rounded up to the next highest denominated chip. So for example, if you are coloring up from T25 up to T100 you exchange any odd number of T25s for a single T100.
I mean, racing off takes like 30 seconds. 3+1+2+1+1+2+2=12 extra chips, play for 3 black chips. One card per chip per player, 3 guys with highest card (suit tie breaker) gets a black chip.
Racing off is easy enough for people who know how to do it, but it takes longer than 30 seconds (for arguments sake say it did take 30 seconds, that’s still a minute and a half lost out of a ten minute break for the host) and is far more complicated than is necessary in my opinion for a low stakes tourney with a 20K starting stack. But if you enjoy it, go for it!
I do prefer chip-race to rounding myself, but I do understand the argument it isn't significant for the small color ups. But if you plan the structure to require say 3 or color ups, it's probably a better idea to use the chip race or else you would be introducing way too many chips. Cumulatively, you could be introducing the value of a starting stack or more. This is the best video I found on how to do it. czcams.com/video/NO9HoCUL3Gg/video.html Some day I will start a war on PCF about this. (I am username JustinInMN) All that said @Christopher M, I love this video, I have watched it a few times, I do appreciate the minimalist approach of what to bring to the table at color up time. I will use this sort of method going forwar.
I know right? This whole pandemic nonsense has me working from home, and it's crazy that I am now working more, even on the weekends! So I haven't had time. Hopefully I will soon.
I think I can answer this one. You don't have to color up any of the chips in your tournament, there is no rule that says you have to do it. The reason its done is after a certain blind level, ex 150/300, the 25's are not being used anymore and will only require 100 chips for the next blinds, 200/400. Yes its cool to have a mountain of chips in front of you but the tournament is easier to manage when lower denoms are taken out.
And of course I make a mistake right off the bat! This is video 19 NOT 18 lol
Not a stupid question - just one that I neglected to answer! Getting rid of smaller denomination chip when the blinds go up and they no longer are necessary is helpful in running the tournament smoothly - because otherwise you will end up with a TON of extra chips that you don't need on the table. When blinds are 2000-4000, and many players have been eliminated the T25s will only get in the way and slow things down a lot.
Thank you appreciate it
Just found your channel and I love it. Been playing for years with the family and friends and we got so many things wrong LOL Thanks for teaching us old dogs new tricks...or old tricks that I never learned LOL We usually play more turbo type games for $10 buy ins with around T2000 to T3000. We like to play several games per night rather than one long one. We usually only have one table and keep it friendly. Thanks again!!!
i would start with 500 for 10 players
Your video's are a great help and very easy to understand. Keep up the good work! Many thanks, Pieter
Great video - well explained at a good pace.
Great video man! I can't wait until your channel blows up!
Good stuff, I really enjoy all your videos mate, keep them coming!
Thanks so much, hope to make more soon!
Great guidance videos, love 'em! Thanks a lot for your stuff! ☺👍
Great video! I do the Chip Race in my tournaments (15-20 player low stakes home game), during a break so there is plenty of time to do it. One advantage I find to doing the Chip Race (which is easy to do once you get the hang of it and is, technically, the way The Book says you should do it) is that you do not increase the total number of chips in play for the tournament. That may or may not be a big deal for your tournament; as is always the case; it's up to the individual tournament director, especially in a home game.
Chip race is fun that's for sure - an extra sweat for players, for me it's a trade off of time but I know others enjoy it!
Getting ready to start hosting my own games .... my brother in law deals at Mohegan sun in CT and I’ve always wanted to host my own games 👌🏾👌🏾 videos very very helpful
Great video, good way to color up
Thank you! Cheers!
Great Videos !
Thanks so much, glad you like them!
These chips are nice! Thought about getting them too, but for cash games, as it looks really similar to the Aria chips used in High Stakes Poker.
You are a great CZcamsr
Thanks so much! I enjoy it, hopefully I will do more soon!
man i lover your videos they are really helpful for me, but i have another question, how about de colour up for the T100s and T500s? You do exactly the same?
Hey Chris, could you do a video about your multi table tournaments and how you know when to consolidate players to less tables and the process of that?
Yes, I plan to do one on running tournaments soon I hope! Right now we are remodeling a room in our house so the garage is full of stuff! But when that clears out and my work slows down I'll get back at it!
Hey Chris, you're helping me alot with your vids! my second tournament was perfect yesterday! Thanks!
One question, how do you color up the 100's and 500's in the second break? Do you color them up step by step? I mean, coloring up all 100's first, get them away, and go for the 500's after? Or do you have a special trick here?
Greetings from germany
All the 100s first and then the 500s. It’s a bit of a pain, but in the end less work with this structure.
How about the next color up? You replace 100’s and 500’s with 1,000 and 5,000 chips?
I’d like to know this too
@@giusepperaccuglia231same😊
So I think you would do the same thing with a couple tweaks
1) bring 2 5k chips and an empty rack.
2) change the 5k chips with a player or two that have a lot of T500 and T1000 chips.
3). Use the change to buy up the quantity of T100 chips using the change from step 2.
4) use the remaining change to round up the odd chips players may have .
My home game is always one table and mostly the same guys so the chip race for color up takes about 5 seconds.
Being that this is so old, I'm not sure I'll get a response, but howdo you do the next level color up, removing the 100's and 500's?
Same way, stacks of 5 for the 100s since you color them up to 500, any remainders less than 5 chips get colored up to a 500. For the 500s stacks of 2 since they’re going to 1000, leftover chip means it gets colored up to 1000.
Hey! Very thankful for your tutorials!
I've hosted a few home games now and they've gone great.
QUESTION! What Poker tables are you using?
I have three poker tables. The red one that you see in most videos is an ultimate poker table from BBO, a blue one is the aces pro from the same company, and I also have a green one that I built myself. I like the BBO tables but they both are very heavy.
Awesome man! Thank you for the info👍🏽
@@chrismanzoni3586 let’s see the one you built yourself, I would like to make one too.
Hey Chris, great videos. Really helpful. I'm hosting my first tournament at my home next month and have found your tutorials really helpful. I do have a question on the last colour up of the T1000's however. How do you make the change to round up/race off the last odd chips on the table? Thanks, Matt
If you have 25K chips you can do it that way, you should have a barrel of 20 if you're doing 2 tables or more. Bring in a 25K chip and get change from the biggest stack (five 5K chips) and use those 5K chips to round up any odd 1Ks left over.
@@chrismanzoni3586 Ah cool, I better get myself a barrel of 25k chips. Thanks for the quick response. All the best.
@@matthewsleeman6716 One thing that might be helpful, 25K chips can also be non-denominated, so you don't have to track down a 25K chip that goes with the set you have - you can just use a generic non-denominated chip and simply tell your players "This chip is worth 25,000" - I did it for years with my original ASM set that didn't have a 25K chip. I used a hot pink solid super diamond (very cheap) barrel of chips and just let everyone know that they were worth 25K. It wasn't a perfect system but it was clear and easy for everyone.
@@chrismanzoni3586 Ideal. That's helpful. My sets highest denomination is 5k. I'll see if I can find any 25k chips, but failing that, I'll grab a barrel of non-denominated chips instead.
@@chrismanzoni3586so, if we color up the 100’s and 500’s we use the 25k as the change?
When you colour up the 100s you would have $8000 at the table to buy up. Do you bring 2xT5k or one T10K chip? If a T10K would this make change an issue?
When coloring up 100’s to 1K, do you also round up? Say if a player has a 100 chip, is that rounded all the way up to 1K?
I tried doing this at my last game and I have the same chip count that you gave us in the last video but I’m a little confused. When I color up the second time for the T100 and T500 am I still suppose to bring just one of the T5k or am I bringing in more? I thought the whole idea was to only use one? I’m new to poker so I’m a little confused by this.
You can bring in as many larger (5K) chips as you need to get the job done. If you're coloring up 100s and 500s (as I do) make sure to do all the 100s first and separately, then move on to the 500s.
Bob chill tf out we’re here to eat your snacks and drink all your beer.
Could you explain how you Shuffle the deck and the most efficient way to shuffle and deal in home games
Another great idea! I will definitely do it - but it might be awhile before I can film again, this whole pandemic has really put a kink in things here at home. It's all good, but when I'm not working I'm on other home improvement projects and errands. Hopefully the schedule will clear up at some point!
Are these the Royal China clays?
I wanna get them, but interested in going for that high roller feel with large denominations.
T1k, T5k, T25k and T100k. I'm thinking 10-8-10-2 is a nice starting stack which gets you $500k with 30 chips.
What do you think?
Yes, these are the Royal China clays that apachepokerchips.com offers. They are fun and very vibrant chips at a good price for the quality. I love your starting stack breakdown, unfortunately I haven't gotten around to hosting a 500K starting stack tournament so I don't have a blind structure for you. Hopefully it will happen in 2021 and I can make a video about it!
What does the letter in front of the chip values mean? Like, T25. What does the T indicate? Thanks
T stands for Tournament, to distinguish from cash chips.
@@chrismanzoni3586 Have you ever asked a question, and as soon as someone answered, you realized how obvious the answer was! Thanks!
After you mention "racing off"(7:08)...you took three greens from player one back and gave one black..the second player had one green and you gave him one black...the third player had two green and you gave one black.
How does player one (with three greens, player two with one and player three with two) get the same amount of money/black chips!?? Sorry, I just don't get how three players who all have different amount of greens get the same amount of blacks. Seems like you're rewarding the player with less green chips. Sorry if this is a newb question...I'm a newb.
Love poker and poker chips, just poor at both.
Racing off is the old way of coloring up, these days most rooms (and myself) simply round up. The biggest reason for this is that modern poker tournaments now start with 400 big blind stacks and by the first break the starting stack is still worth 50 big blinds, so in other words, rounding up quarters to 100 really doesn’t add up to an amount of any significance. It’s only 1/4 of a big blind. It’s much quicker and easier to simply round up rather than waste time and effort for an amount that is mathematically insignificant.
@@chrismanzoni3586 Ahhhhh! Ok, THAT totally makes sense to me now.
Chris, do you still recommend bringing a 5000 chip to the table for colorups if there isnt any 5000 chips in play?
Yes, but only if your starting stack it is at least 10K, you don’t want to bring in oversized chips if it impedes players ability to make bets and change.
@@chrismanzoni3586 Thanks. I guess I thought it didnt make sense if it reduces the look of all the stacks to me. If I have 5 x $1000 would that be preferable or do you always like to go with a $5000 chip
Also, when "rounding up" players, do you find that putting extra black $100 chips in play has any impact in the end. Since it would be changing the chip count in the game, and the overall beginning chips in play. For example if it was T10000, and there was 10 players, youd have 100k chips in play. Although, if you round up, you might end up with 100,004 chips in play.
Ive typically just taken odd amounts off the table and rounded down since they're so little. Thoughts?
@@KhalidJiwa With a 20K starting stack I always go with a higher chip. Likewise I always round up when coloring up, I don’t round down and take chips off the table., But as long as you are open and consistent and transparent with your players, there’s lots of different ways to do it. If you and everybody prefers a lot more chips on the table, then by all means use smaller chips in your color ups. Whatever is the smoothest and makes everybody the happiest, no wrong answers!
why 2x25 exchanged to 1x100 in the end? I am dumb, please explain!
You're not dumb! It's a newer concept called "rounding up". Whereas before all casinos would "race off", dealing out cards to determine who gets the next highest denominated chip, now many rooms and most home games simply round up odd chips so everyone with an odd chip - whether it's x1 or x2 or x3, gets rounded up to the next highest denominated chip.
So for example, if you are coloring up from T25 up to T100 you exchange any odd number of T25s for a single T100.
@@chrismanzoni3586 thank you! idk why I did not get it first. Wish I could play a tournament of your level of organization!
How bout a starting stack video for cash games? Let’s say the buy in is $40 ? How many chips should I buy?
That’s a great idea! I will definitely do one soon!
Christopher M. I go on PCF but there are so many explanations .. Looking forward to see what you have coming about it. Thanks
I would like to see a video for this as well
what do i do with the change if its a single table only
Change disappears, locked away securely especially if the denoms are still in play.
@@chrismanzoni3586 ahh, ok, Thanks for the help❤️❤️❤️
Which poker chips are those?
The lovely Aurora Star Hot Stamps! Check out this video to get the lowdown - czcams.com/video/xVvK990vphc/video.html
Poker tournament
I mean, racing off takes like 30 seconds. 3+1+2+1+1+2+2=12 extra chips, play for 3 black chips. One card per chip per player, 3 guys with highest card (suit tie breaker) gets a black chip.
Racing off is easy enough for people who know how to do it, but it takes longer than 30 seconds (for arguments sake say it did take 30 seconds, that’s still a minute and a half lost out of a ten minute break for the host) and is far more complicated than is necessary in my opinion for a low stakes tourney with a 20K starting stack. But if you enjoy it, go for it!
@@chrismanzoni3586 I guess I dealt for four years, so yeah, randos trying to do it could slow things down.
@@chrismanzoni3586 And yeah, it might be closer to a minute.
You can do chip race if you give players only 1000 or 1500 in chips. That extra 75 chips do not deside winner in 20000 chips tournament
I do prefer chip-race to rounding myself, but I do understand the argument it isn't significant for the small color ups. But if you plan the structure to require say 3 or color ups, it's probably a better idea to use the chip race or else you would be introducing way too many chips. Cumulatively, you could be introducing the value of a starting stack or more.
This is the best video I found on how to do it.
czcams.com/video/NO9HoCUL3Gg/video.html
Some day I will start a war on PCF about this. (I am username JustinInMN)
All that said @Christopher M, I love this video, I have watched it a few times, I do appreciate the minimalist approach of what to bring to the table at color up time. I will use this sort of method going forwar.
If we did that at our game, we would never be able to meet our facility time constraints.
where's video 20??
I know right? This whole pandemic nonsense has me working from home, and it's crazy that I am now working more, even on the weekends! So I haven't had time. Hopefully I will soon.
Christopher M. no worries! just excited to see video 20! just got my self a outlaw poker chip set!
stupid question but why is this necessary
Great question! Is it part of your tournament rules? How do you decide which denomination gets colored up? And do you do this for cash games?
I think I can answer this one. You don't have to color up any of the chips in your tournament, there is no rule that says you have to do it. The reason its done is after a certain blind level, ex 150/300, the 25's are not being used anymore and will only require 100 chips for the next blinds, 200/400. Yes its cool to have a mountain of chips in front of you but the tournament is easier to manage when lower denoms are taken out.
This is weird..why not just do each player this seems way longer
Not a fan of simply rounding up. Take less than a minute to do a race off.
You do you boo