If you don’t know how to split your chips effectively in poker, then your home poker game might end up going on for much longer than you expected. Having a sensible starting stack breakdown (like the examples below) will make the game run smoothly by eliminating the need to make change during each hand and by keeping the number of chips on the table to a manageable amount via a ‘colour up’ during the later stages of the tournament. (And, should you be lucky enough to get an extra player at the last minute, you’ll be able to accommodate them.)
Secondly, by keeping some of the chips in your set aside as spares, you will have enough chips left for rebuys and add ons. The more chips you have in your home poker game, the longer it will take for the players to get rid of them and bust out of the tournament. The first, and main reason, for having a predetermined starting stack is that it allows you to control how long the game will last.
However, that’s a terrible way to do things, for a number of different reasons. We understand that when you’re looking at your case of 500+ chips, with 8 players waiting on you to get the table set up, it's tempting just to divide them all equally amongst the players. It can be hard to know how many poker chips you should give to each player at your home game.
