taking money off the table

I am going to try and host a home game. Most likely No Limit Hold-em ring game, $10 max buy-in.

One rule I'm unsure about: are you allowed to take money off the table? For example, say my friend has won up to $20, can he take $10 of it and put it in his pocket, and then continue playing with the remaining $10?

What is the rule on this at casinos? Do any home game people here make rules on this? Is this considered to be poor etiquette?

I would not allow this at my home game because it could create some very hard feelings. If everyone agreed, I *might* allow some very limited and rigid rule about it.

IMO, you set the buy-in to minimize the risk wrt to NL. If someone is up and they want to protect their stack, they should just fold all but the strongest hands.

Fortunately, the guys I play with care more about bragging rights than the money itself, so this isn't a big issue for me.

Not letting someone cash out when they want is absolutley ridiculous if youre playing a live game. if you really want all of your friends to play all night, then you cant have a live game, do a tournament instead.

Folks at my home game can cash out (and stop playing) whenever they want.

What they can't do is take some money off the table and keep playing in order to avoid risking their winnings to other big stacks. If we wanted to avoid risk in that way we'd play limit.

Originally Posted by Holdemtime

Not letting someone cash out when they want is absolutley ridiculous if youre playing a live game. if you really want all of your friends to play all night, then you cant have a live game, do a tournament instead.

Holdemtime, what is in question is the ability to partially cash out while remaining at the table. Anyone could still totally cash out at any time, but they would have to be done playing for the night.

We usually play a $20 buy in, $2 max bet game.

When I am up I take my original $20 and put it in a little pile to the side, so that I know when I'm playing with profit. I never take money off the table, except to figit with chips, but no one would complain if I did.

The only reason I could think that you wouldn't allow people to take chips off the table is because you don't trust them / they don't trust someone. I'm assuming at a $10 buy-in, it's not too serious of a game. I can't see why someone would have a problem with it.

Sorry, I re-read the post and realized that you are playing NL HE. I'd say that you can't partially cash out. You can stop playing for the night... at any time, but that's it.

Here's an example why:

I have $30 and MrNatural has $30, since I already cashed out $10 I only have $20 on the table. It'd be unfair to go all in with MrNatural when I'm not really risking all of my chips. It'd be like saying, "I won't call your raise but I still want to play the rest of this hand."

In a max bet, or a limit game it is different.

In my home games as well as the casinos I play in, all money must remain on the table for the duration of the game unless you're done for the night.

Dudes, thanks for all the input.

I'm going to make the rule that you cannot take money off the table unless you are totally cashing out and calling it a night.

Originally Posted by Big J Money

In my home games as well as the casinos I play in, all money must remain on the table for the duration of the game unless you're done for the night.

That seems reasonable to me.