Buying into a cash game

[3LeM3nT]

Hey, so I was wondering how much should I buy into a cash game?

Because the way I've been doing it in the past was buying the minimum and playing hands where I would be willing to put those minimum chips all in. I realize with this kind of strategy I would be winning less than if I buy in with the maximum. However, I'd also be losing a lot less.

Is this the wrong way to go about it?

It depends on who will make more mistakes deeper, you, or your opponents?

[Sir Pawnalot]

You can very well be a successful short stacker, but buying in for the minimum is a little too short IMO as you get very little value for your Equity.

Buying in full requires more skill, but is also more helpful when it comes to improving your game.

Whatever you chose you always need to be comfortable losing all your stack over and over.

[Hoopy]

Buy in full when your at a table full of fish/stations, as they'll make more mistakes than you when deep, otherwise I'd stick with 100BB buy and try to improve your game. Also be sure to follow bankroll management.

[Xamb2000]

This depends of you. If you like play with more or less money do the best for you. If you play with the maximum and lost you lost it and if you won you can double it. if you play with the minimum and lost lost less but if you double this is not a hight valoue.. And one think is with a small stake you will be payed more times who if you had more chips.

[tbills81]

yea I agree with most of these guys... just stick to your comfort zone.

[TonyB73]

If you want to get better, move up stakes and perhaps become a reasonable player, buy in full and learn to play post-flop.

If you want just donk around with all-in lotto, donate your skinny-ass buy-ins to better players, and not actually play poker, then keep buying in short.

[van.dog]

Buy in for half of the max and don't expect to "hit it big" every time. Sit and wait and the opportunities come. Leave when you are at 2x max and look at how big your bankroll is.

[Pretender85]

I'm a fan of buying in halfway between min/max and going from there..never liked the buy in at max and try to muscle a few pots with it strategy..

[Proviper]

For me i look at the table look at the players stacks and buyin with the a decent amount that each player has.. If each play has alot more than i can afford thats when you know you are doing bad bankroll managment and shoudnt even be thinking of buying into that cash game stake level

[Proviper]

Did not want that link in there i had just typed in Bankroll managment and it linked itself to another thread :/

[Dizza]

40$

[Punished]

I don't play much, but pure short-stacking play, especially with the dashers, drives me nuts.

Yes, I am new to the site...

[Monsieur_chat]

lol at this thread. Read the beginners digest, buy in for 100bbs learn to play real poker.

[GatorJH]

lol at this thread. Read the beginners digest, buy in for 100bbs learn to play real poker.

This!!!

You guys that are buying in for half or less are tilting the shit out of me this morning. We play appropriate stakes for our bankroll so we can buy in full instead of "half the max".

Van.dog, your post is so bad it isn't even funny. You buy in for half, sit and wait for an opportunity to "hit it big", but then only hit half as big as you could. This is just plain dumb.

In addition to losing opportunities to win $$$ by buying in short you are also totally missing out on opportunities to learn how to play deep stack poker. When you are short stacked as you are most of your decision making will be made pre-flop and on the flop because by the time you get to the turn the pot will be so big related to your stack that you are either done with the hand or are pot committed. By buying in full stack you now have opportunities to learn how things like bet sizing affect decisions that get made on the turn and river.

To sum it up, unless you are playing a specific short stack strategy buying in for less than the max means that you are either playing higher than you should or you are not a smart player.

[Stacks]

Well I'll weigh in here with my thoughts. As much as I dislike the idea of shortstacking, because I feel I have an edge over the majority of the villains at my stakes, buying in short is likely ideal for new players. The shorter the buyin, the easier the decisions, and the less costly the mistakes you will make. Hands will play easier, and you won't be making 70bb mistakes on the river. So, if you are inexperienced, and don't feel you have an edge over the villains, I say buyin short (20-60bb). When you do have an edge, put as much money on the table as you can (100bb, or buyin deep if you can).

[van.dog]

-1 for reading comprehension. I believe I said don't expect to "hit it big".

Van.dog, your post is so bad it isn't even funny. You buy in for half, sit and wait for an opportunity to "hit it big", but then only hit half as big as you could. This is just plain dumb.

By the way, the way you phrased your reply makes you look like a big douchebag.

[Monsieur_chat]

I think there's definitely value in what Stacks is suggesting, although I think I'm still in the 100bb from 2nl camp.
It's important to recognize the difference between buying in for 50 or 75 bbs as a means of limiting our losses (which I think is what Stacks is advocating) and buying in for 20ish bbs and playing an actual shortstacking strategy.
I'm not going to knock shortstackers (although they tilt the shit out of me at times) as I know there are some people who have studied it at length and are able to utilize it to great effect. I just think that in the long run we want to learn to play 'real poker' as for the majority of players it will yield better results (as well as being far more stimulating).

Cue flames from all the shortstackers running at 20BB/100 lol.

[Monsieur_chat]

Also let's bear in mind that at 2nl if you can tie your shoelaces you have an edge.

[GatorJH]

-1 for reading comprehension. I believe I said don't expect to "hit it big".

Van.dog, your post is so bad it isn't even funny. You buy in for half, sit and wait for an opportunity to "hit it big", but then only hit half as big as you could. This is just plain dumb.

By the way, the way you phrased your reply makes you look like a big douchebag.

My reading conprehension is fine tyvm. What you said was that you didn't expect to hit it big every time. Your next sentence was "Sit and wait and the opportunities come". Opportunities for what? Hit it small? As for sounding like a douchebag I can see how my post would do that as I made some pretty harsh comments so let me further explain my thoughts.

If you are playing poker to improve and move up in stakes you need to get better at all aspects of play. This includes such concepts as deep stack plays, controlling SPR through the river, etc. When you buy in for less than a full stack it makes it harder to work on any of these as you will be shortstacked when many of these situations come up and will therefore be pot committed by the turn.

Secondly, for those that say they buy in short because they don't feel comfortable playing with a full stack at that level then I would suggest you move down to a level where losing a buy in doesn't greatly affect you from an emotional perspective. One of the purposes of bankroll management is to allow players to play games at levels where they feel comfortable when buying in full. If you don't feel comfortable with 20-30 buy ins then wait till you get to 50 buy ins to move up. This will help you by allowing you to play hands further and will also allow you to play against stacks shorter than yours so when you do meet people playing specific short stack strategies you will know how to handle them.

My point is that if you don't learn to play all streets of a hand proficiently your struggles will grow as you move up in stakes.

Additionally, losing full stacks to coolers, bad beats, etc. is part of the game so if you are not comfortable losing a full stack then you are playing too high imo.

[melinda1978]

That also depends where you plat at,i like to cash in to play 100 bb but some places lke club 58 will only allow you to cash in 100 max. When i play at mohegan you have to but in for sixty minimun,soit's all different gbut the ideal number is 100 bb, that should give you enough money to read the table and find the weak players a extract money from those. Any less than that can lead bigstacks to try bully you into a bad hand and forty dollars is not a lo, when in places like foxwoods in a 1/2 no limit table there are players with five six hundred dollars, those players will bully and push you around at lease for two hundred you can avoid that. thanks, i hope that helped you out.

[van.dog]

-1 for reading comprehension. I believe I said don't expect to "hit it big".

Van.dog, your post is so bad it isn't even funny. You buy in for half, sit and wait for an opportunity to "hit it big", but then only hit half as big as you could. This is just plain dumb.

By the way, the way you phrased your reply makes you look like a big douchebag.

My reading conprehension is fine tyvm. What you said was that you didn't expect to hit it big every time. Your next sentence was "Sit and wait and the opportunities come". Opportunities for what? Hit it small? As for sounding like a douchebag I can see how my post would do that as I made some pretty harsh comments so let me further explain my thoughts.

If you are playing poker to improve and move up in stakes you need to get better at all aspects of play. This includes such concepts as deep stack plays, controlling SPR through the river, etc. When you buy in for less than a full stack it makes it harder to work on any of these as you will be shortstacked when many of these situations come up and will therefore be pot committed by the turn.

Secondly, for those that say they buy in short because they don't feel comfortable playing with a full stack at that level then I would suggest you move down to a level where losing a buy in doesn't greatly affect you from an emotional perspective. One of the purposes of bankroll management is to allow players to play games at levels where they feel comfortable when buying in full. If you don't feel comfortable with 20-30 buy ins then wait till you get to 50 buy ins to move up. This will help you by allowing you to play hands further and will also allow you to play against stacks shorter than yours so when you do meet people playing specific short stack strategies you will know how to handle them.

My point is that if you don't learn to play all streets of a hand proficiently your struggles will grow as you move up in stakes.

Additionally, losing full stacks to coolers, bad beats, etc. is part of the game so if you are not comfortable losing a full stack then you are playing too high imo.

Thanks for the clarification. I take back the douchebaggery comment. I wasn't clear when I said wait for opportunities. I should have said wait for opportunities to play +EV poker instead of the lottery poker that the OP was describing.