I agree that it is wise to buy in for 50bbs as a successful deep stack player taking a shot at a higher stake, as well as certain scenarios like Bill mentioned. Other than that, it boils down to how big of an edge you have. If you're the table fish then you wanna buy in for min, if you're the table shark you want max, and if you're somewhere in between you may want to buy in somewhere between.

I think the idea in this thread that opponents pay off substantially lighter to mid stacks is an illusion. A lot of these hands are good for around 50bbs, but not for a 100. It is, however, safer to play shorter, but that is at the expense of more money when you are one of the good players at the table. I'm sure it's already standard knowledge that the shorter the stacks, the lower the potential winrates.

Besides, I recall Fnord saying about a year ago that he always buys in full since he always eventually gets deep anyways. Now he's indirectly suggesting to rathole it seems. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I'm not one of those morans who hates shorties and hit n runners.