I haven't come across anything about this in the noob stickies so I thought I would ask. When buying into a cash table, do I need to be using the min? It seems to help me protect myself from bad calls in these early stages of learning how to play vs. online players. The problem is, when I hit a monster I am limited to the short stack unless I have already made a killing at this table.

I have tried using the max buyin, which seems to benefit when the table is hot for me as I am able to bully a little but seems to make me more open to getting raped on 2pair or 3of a kind when my oppenent has hit his monster.

Ideas? Other than "learn to bet post flop" :P