Limit buyin

What would be the proper buy in at limit tables? I have seen it run the gamut from table minimum to your whole bankroll. I have been buying in at the table average. In other words on a 50/100 FR table you have about 6 people sitting with around $20. You have one big stack with $990, (don't laugh, this was at a table I sat on last night). You have one stack at $10.

What would be the right amount to buy in for?

Strategically, the only thing that matters is that you have 12BB (big bets) at the beginning of each hand. The two generally used buy ins are, buying in for 12BB and using auto-rebuy, or buying in for 30-50BB (basically enough so you don't have to be rebuying).

Image-wise, if you have anything less than 12BB, you will be seen as fish by any regs. Also, if you have a huge stack regs will probably treat you as fish readless.

How do antes figure in for this?

Antes in ring?

Anyhow, the basic idea is that you want to be able to win the maximum amount possible for any given hand. Thus, if there is an ante, just add that to your minimum buy in.

While the ideas are not the same in FL and NL, think of buying in for less than 12BB + antes as the FL form of shortstacking. Anyone who buys in for less alters the strategy that must be used (shortstacking in limit is impractical because the stack size relative to the short stacked buy in changes so drastically with any given hand meaning we can't double and jet because it will happen too often). However on the high end of buy ins, because the amount we can win in FL is capped every hand, it doesn't make any difference whether or not we buy in for 100BB or 12BB + antes because we can never win/lose more than 12BB + antes per hand so strategically, it doesn't make any difference assuming you rebuy to 12BB + antes at the beginning of every hand.

Oh, and just in case it wasn't readily apparent, the 12BB comes from 8 small bets from preflop and on the flop, and 8 big bets on the turn and river giving us 8*.5+8*1 = 4+8 = 12

I primarily play Limit and buy-in for 50 BB in both a live game and online.

Ummm.....if you're playing 50-100, you better have more than $100 on the table.

I want to have at least 20 big bets on the table if there's uncapped betting HU. If it's capped no matter what, then just auto rebuy to 12 big bets, and you're always covered no matter what happens.

That's quite a large stack for limit. 1/6 of the suggested bankroll


This is accurate. If I'm at the casino and someone sticks $400 on the table, my "weak player" radar goes off. I'm going to pay attention to what he's doing, and look for exploitable tendancies, because it's very likely he's new to the game. He's a fish until proven otherwise.

I voted Cake and or Bastard, because,I like cake,
Mmmm Cake, and for the fact that I am a bastard, not in the true sense of the word though.

Where do you find community card limit ring games with 'antes' ....

I like to go with 2x the capped rounds, where the $25 comes closest in a 50/100 Holdem game. Since I play mostly stud ring, I have to allow for 5 capped betting rounds (x2) and the antes (which is minimal for all pratical purposes). That puts a 'stud/razz/etc' buy-in at around $45 for 50/100.

IMO, the purpose of putting up at least a 2x capped rounds is that other players know you are not running as a shortie and cannot generally be chip-bullied. You are also not going back to chip-up every hand.

At a live limit table, I buy 1 rack (100 chips) and table stake at least $100 cash in bills. Clarifies to the table of my intent to stay and play.

I've also run into the monster stack players online like your $900 example and have seen 4 digits as well. My guess is that the majority of players over-stacking are not normally limit players, and may be easy marks. The rest are most likely ego-maniacs, under-(one of many possible)-influences, posting notice that we can expect to see the lukboxes extraordinaire trying to buy every pot, or a few other minor (often rather pointless) reasons.

Quoted this because its right.

just have enough money that if it gets capped on all streets u can cover all bets

everything more is unnecessary and anything less is losing value

Thanks for the replies. I'm starting to play stud/8. I'm doing alright play wise but wasn't too sure of how much to bring to the table.

If you haven't played a lot of stud hi, I personally would recommend that first. It's not unlike the diff between Omaha h/l and OmaHi. Even playing limit, having a solid background in stud hi can help a lot when switching to a hi/lo game.

The fact that there is a hi win and a lo win in stud8 does not mean you can lose less or learn more ...

bbb, knowing ur style of play, i would seriously recommend u do not play stud hi/lo

Why would BBB's style of play in a different game have any bearing ... >> totally

If BBB expects to use nlhe 'style' to play in stud8, then no, it's NOT a good idea. The whole point behind a different game is that it is ... DIFFERENT. Stud requires a different mindset and strategy. My stud game is quite diff than my nlhe game (thank gawd ).

If a player expects stud to play out like nlhe, then they are not informed at all about 'poker' in general. The only similarity between nlhe and stud and stud8 is the word poker. All similarity ends thereafter.

LOL believe it or not I am extremely patient at this game. It comes from playing all that NLO/8.

but didnt u play o8 like 60/10?

no actually i was pretty nitty but the swings were really crazy. Stud/8 suits me better

I play $2-$4 and $3-$6 Limit, as those are the only Limit games that are usually going at my casino, so $100 - $150 buy-in is enough.

Where I play live, there is unlimited raising heads-up. I've only seen that happen twice in playing there for two years. If that ever happens, the pot will be "chump change," because most likely those players just busted the Bad beat Jackpot, which usually varies from about $45,000 - $150,000!

Mase31683 said" This is accurate. If I'm at the casino and someone sticks $400 on the table, my "weak player" radar goes off. I'm going to pay attention to what he's doing, and look for exploitable tendencies, because it's very likely he's new to the game. He's a fish until proven otherwise."

This is just the opposite of what happens at my casino. Anyone who buys-in for less than $60-$80 is seen as a fish.

u should know that stud8 swings are huge as well

So Am i wrong, to load in to a .05/.10 with 5.00 ?
even tho most only have 1.00 or less, at the table?