Poker Chip Calculator
Hosting a home game? Enter how many are playing and what's in your chip set. You get how many chips of each colour to hand out, the blinds, and for a tournament, a blind structure that finishes when you want it to. Free, no signup.
Players
Your chip set
| Colour | Worth | How many |
|---|---|---|
| White | ||
| Red | ||
| Blue | ||
| Green | ||
| Black |
Set a count to 0 to leave a colour out.
Home game chips and blinds
6 players, a 3-hour tournament, 300-chip set. From pokerleap.app/poker-chip-calculator
Give each player
| White | 10 × 1 | 10 |
| Red | 4 × 5 | 20 |
| Blue | 7 × 10 | 70 |
| Green | 4 × 25 | 100 |
200 in chips, 25 chips each
Left in the box: 40 white, 26 red, 8 blue, 26 green, 50 black. Keep them for making change and colouring up.
Blind structure
15-minute levels. It should finish around level 12, about 3:00 in.
| Level | Starts | Blinds | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0:00 | 1/2 | |
| 2 | 0:15 | 2/4 | |
| 3 | 0:30 | 3/6 | |
| 4 | 0:45 | 4/8 | |
| 5 | 1:00 | 5/10 | |
| 6 | 1:15 | 6/12 | |
| 7 | 1:30 | 8/16 | |
| 8 | 1:45 | 10/20 | Colour up the white chips |
| 9 | 2:00 | 15/30 | |
| 10 | 2:15 | 20/40 | |
| 11 | 2:30 | 25/50 | |
| 12 | 2:45 | 30/60 | Expected finish |
| 13 | 3:00 | 40/80 | |
| 14 | 3:15 | 50/100 |
How the chips are split
The calculator tries every way of dividing your set into a round starting stack and scores each one against what home games aim for: about 20 to 45 chips per player, at least 8 of the smallest chip so everyone can post blinds and make change, no colour skipped between the ones in play, and no single chip worth more than a quarter of a stack. It also aims for the right depth: about 100 big blinds for a cash game, and 50 to 100 for a tournament, fewer when the game has to finish in an hour or two. A small set for a big table can't meet every aim, so the answer says which ones it had to bend.
For a cash game, enter the buy-in and it only offers stacks that make every chip worth round money: a white chip worth $0.10, not $0.13. For a tournament, it keeps enough bigger chips in the box to colour up (color up) the small ones when the blinds outgrow them.
The blind structure climbs the blinds people are used to seeing (1/2, 5/10, 10/20, 15/30, 25/50 and so on), never more than doubling in one step, and sets the level length so the big blind reaches about a twentieth of all the chips in play at the time you chose. That is roughly when a home tournament ends: the last two players have about 10 big blinds each. Once you know the chips, learn what to do with them: the free preflop trainer drills which hands to play from each seat.
Questions people ask
How many chips should each player get?
About 20 to 45 chips each is comfortable: enough to bet with, few enough to stack and count. The colours matter more than the total. Everyone needs at least 8 of the smallest chip in play, and a few of the next colour up, to post blinds and make change.
What is a good chip distribution for 6 players with a 300-chip set?
For the common 300-chip set (100 white 1s and 50 each of red 5s, blue 10s, green 25s and black 100s), give each player 10 whites, 4 reds, 7 blues and 4 greens. That is a stack worth 200 in 25 chips, with blinds starting at 1/2. The blacks stay in the box, because one would be half a stack.
What should the blinds be in a home game?
Make the small blind the smallest chip in play and the big blind two of them. A cash game usually starts everyone with about 100 big blinds. A tournament starts with 50 to 100, or fewer if it has to finish in an hour or two.
How long should blind levels be?
Long enough that the big blind reaches about a twentieth of all the chips in play when you want to finish. Six players sharing a 300-chip set for three hours start on a stack worth 200 and play 15-minute levels, from 1/2 up to 30/60.
What does it mean to colour up chips?
Colouring up (or coloring up) means taking the smallest chips out of play once the blinds no longer need them, and swapping them for bigger chips of the same value. Odd chips that do not make a whole bigger chip go to a chip race: each player gets a card for every odd chip, and the highest cards win the bigger chips.
How much is each chip worth in a cash game?
Divide the buy-in by the value of a starting stack. A $20 buy-in for a stack worth 200 makes each point 10 cents, so a white 1 is $0.10 and a red 5 is $0.50. Pick a buy-in and stack that give round numbers like these, never $0.13.