At one poker room that plays loose and big, the standard is to color up $500 into a stack of $25 chips which I'm happy with as they will get use and if I'm winning will multiply into more $25 chips. If I'm in pretty much any other room I'll start coloring up 3-4 of my stacks of $5 for $100 chips or trade them to new players coming in with. What is a short stack in poker? A short stack if poker is usually any chip stack that is 40 big blinds or lower. 50 to 100 big blinds is a mid stack, while greater than 100 big blinds is usually called a deep stack. What poker table shape is best for home games? The best poker table shape for a home game varies based on how many players you are. Three-Way Pot Creates a Monster Stack 2 days 12 hours ago 'VonSchenken' Drops 'dutchfish81' First Eliminated in the Money 2 days 13 hours ago '3934CAPJON' Catapults into the Lead 2 days 14 hours ago 'GG.22.TH' Takes Down Another Early Pot 2 days 16 hours ago. XL Winter Series #1: $50,000 Opening Event Kicks-Off Today 2 days 19 hours ago. Take some ordinary poker chips and make two piles of four. Put three fingers on the side of one pile, and the thumb on the side of the other pile. Gently squeeze the chips together. Put your fore finger in-between the two piles and run it upwards causing the chips to interlock one by one from alternate piles. Push them together into one big stack, and then separate them, ready to go again. A bunch of chips are out there, and you drag in a pot. So you win a big pot, and now you're going to stack them. How you stack these chips is going to have a lot to do with, how easy it is for you to count them, how easy it is for other players to count them, and also, how easy it is for you to manage them yourself, so that you can bet, and call and raise, with a lot of comfort.

Early Stages

With most MTTs, you will start with a huge stack compared to the blinds. You may start out with 10,000 chips and the blinds at 25/50, making your stack 200 big blinds. That can be a large stack to manage if you're used to Sit 'n Gos or micro-stakes cash games.

With the big stack-to-blinds ratio, it's important to play tight early on. More confident players will start MTTs the way they finish them: like a juggernaut. They will raise the majority of pots, steal blinds when they can, and very slowly build a stack. They might go through a lot of swings too, however, with their stacks fluctuating from chip leader to shortie.

Try to avoid the style: sticking to a tight, no-nonsense strategy early on is key. That means playing solid hands in good positions. When in Early Position (EP, seats 2-5), Middle Position (MP, seats 6-8) or Late Position (LP, seats 9-10), stick to big pairs like Q-Q, K-K and A-A. In LP, you can also raise unraised pots with K-Q, Q-J, J-10 suited etc. or even throw in some medium pairs like 8-8 or 9-9.

How To Stack Poker Chips

In the early and middle positions consider just calling with small and medium pairs like 4-4, 5-5, 6-6 and 7-7, and you can comfortably raise in all positions with A-K.

Best Way To Stack Poker Chips At Home

As for raises, a raise of 2.5-3x the big blind is standard so as not to scare off too many opponents but also to attract at least one call.