Android app to decide how to use chips in a "no stakes" poker game
The problem this app aims to solve is that before a game of poker can begin the players need to agree upon values for the chips. It is desirable to be able to represent a large spread of values with a small number of chips (which implies the value of the chips should be spread), but it is also desirable that players do not often have to make change with each other (i.e. the chips should not be spread too much). This app simulates different distributions of chips in order to heuristically determine a 'best' set of values.
"No Stakes" poker presents a unique challenge in that there is no obvious total that a player's chips should sum to.
Enter the number of players, the number of different colours of chips and the quantity of each colour (in the order that you want the denominations to be). Wait for the progress bar to turn blue, and then read the results from the bottom. For example with 7 players, 4 colours (with 100, 60, 40 and 40 of each colour) this will look something like:
Tournament ratio: 100
Denominations: [1, 2, 5, 10]
Player Cash: 100 [Start 75, Rebuy 25]
Start chips: [13, 6, 4, 3]
Rebuy chips: [1, 2, 0, 2]
The tournament ratio is the ratio of the smallest denomination chip (which will usually be used as the initial small blind) and a player's total chips. Denominations gives the value that each colour of chip will take. Player cash gives the amounts in chips that a player has at the start of the game, and what they receive for their re-entry (nb. we allow exactly one re-entry, and anybody who hasn't had a re-entry receives these chips at a pre-agreed point). Start chips shows how many of each chip should be given to each player at the start of the game, and rebuy chips shows how many of each chip should be set aside for each player's re-entry.
The app insists that all players receive exactly the same quantity of each colour, which may not make optimal use of the available chips, but does avoid arguments and make set-up easier. The app aims for a tournament ratio of 100. The app will only allow chips to be certain denominations (e.g. it won't suggest giving one of the colours a value of 37).