curious on why have so much at the tables

im not trying to sound like a whiner or anything but can someone give me their opinion on why people bring in so much money to the tables when the blinds are really small...i mean i can go in to a room with the blinds are 1-2 cents and most people in there are playing with a couple bucks about 2-3 dollars but you alway have that one person who has like 5-10 dollars. now i know alot of it is because they won that much but i also believe people bring in as much as they can to attimidate the little guy.. i figured it out a couple times so i learned to play tight with those guys then in long run ive hurt their stack...now of course i go to different tables or wait till another day and end up loosing it but i find it interesting that people with a big stack will tend to play really aggressive agaisnt the smaller stacks..give me some opions please

In online NL holdem cash games, there is always a limit to a player's buy-in. There are some sites that have "deep" tables where players can buy-in with what is usually twice the amount of regular tables.

In online LIMIT holdem cash games, players can buy-in for as much as they want since there is a set LIMIT to the betting.

I always max buy in so you can maximize the amount you can win with your big hands. when you hit the nuts would you rather have $2 to bet or $10? I assume that's why everyone else buys in for the maximum amount

If there is a fish that would gladly pay off 200bb on middle pair to your made nut straight, then why not bring 200bb to the table?

pretty much this

Remember that in a cash game the smallest stack size in a HU pot is the only one that matters. So the big stack can't push you around because they're only playing with the size of your smaller stack.

I think it's a not-so-subtle message that says, "I can afford to lose this much and more, so call my bluff, I dare ya."

Why bring a large stack to a table? Implied odds. simple as that IMO

Plus too it's a lot harder to protect a hand with a small stack. Depending on odds (or intelligence of player) you may not be able to push someone off a mediocre hand without enough to really make them pay to call your bets.

very true.

there +'s and -'s to both large and short stacks. why i prefer a large stack is i think i make better desicions and get all my money with the best of it more often than the next guy. so i want to maximize the amount i can win when allin. being a short stack would make the posible amount i could win less than the max possible. i dont buyin to push short stacks around in fact i try to avoid them if possible i find a table with 0 short stacks. the reason being is playing them allin the most i can win is only a short stack as oppossed to a larger one.

I can hear the wounds in your tone...

Intimidation is part of the game, I think if your bankroll is insuffisant to buy in at least 40 times the max buy in, well you should not be playing that limit just yet. You wouldn't be giving your self a good edge.
Also the people how buy in for the max amount are doing the right thing in "maximizing" there winning hands.

There are arguments for and against every style of play. Playing deep isn't "right" without some other strategic forces in play.

As people have mentioned playing deep will maximize your winnings, but when you lose a stack that is also maximized.

Short stacking can be an interesting form of play, and perhaps your decisions becomes a bit easier. I have never been able to play all that well short.

IMHO playing deep against other deep stacks is the funnest and sometimes hardest poker you can play.

Personally I believe if your game is superior to most players at the table you

should buyin deep. If you think you are one of the worst players in the game

buyin short. This should only ever be applicable in live games however, as

Internet sites spread so many games at so many limits. you should never put

yourself at a disadvantage by buying into a game when you are worse than the

majority of players. that's just poor game selection in my opinion.

The way I see it, bringing a big stack to a Limit Poker game would intimidate smaller stack players from bluffing - especially on the river. He/she is basically saying is " I'll you you down regardless of what you have". Another reason is loose passive play. He's able to see more flops/hands with a large bankroll to push around. This shouldn't scare you away from the table, but use this to your advantage. Build a tight image until you can read him to eighty five percent of his range of hands. If your lucky, he may very well be seated to your right hand side. Jock for no more than three seats to his left, your position play can induce fear if you play tight/super aggressive when he's in a hand against you. When your strong and he's a none believer of your hand, the payoff is likely to reap toward your benefit. Play on.

Short stacking from what I have seen is just a way for someone who has no confidence in their abilities to minimise their losses. As others have said before why would you not want to have a stack as big as or even bigger than your opponents, when you double up you want to double up to the max. jmho.

I always buy-in for max ammount and have auto top-up enabled. I believe this is the only correct play in online poker. If you don't feel confident about playing a normal/deep stack, then you should play at lower limits until you feel ready to move up (even if your BRM allows you to play higher).

I could be proven wrong, but I find a 3-bet preflop hand often requires a 100BB stack to be played correctly. Otherwise, you can either find yourself in a situation where the only correct move is to go all in even tho you know you are beaten, or a situation where know you could extract more money but are limited by your own stack...

My read of the OP was that he wasn't talking about short stacking but rather about a few people at the table who had build up really deep stacks.

Playing a short stack relative to the blinds effects your strategy. Playing a short stack relative to another stack shouldn't.

Errr... You're right

The short stack will enjoy playing players that he still feels like he can intimidate. Often he will stray away from a big stack against a common raise with a mediocre hand but he will happily go all in against this same raise with a premium hand, hoping that the lack of fear of the big stack will cause a poor call.

the more money you have at a table, the more you can win. That is what they say when i ask them. However, the more you have at a table, the more you can lose

To the op, ive been 'bullied' by donks with $10 stacks at 2nl and it just makes me larf most of the time, only the effective stack size counts (the smallest stack in the hand is the effective stack size) so just make your raises and 3bets the right size so that you can confidently commit on most flops, then the issue of whether he wants to 'bully' you and put you all in doesnt matter in the slightest.

Depends on villains though, if he has decent stats then take him for a good player until he proves otherwise, if he's like an 80/30 thats sat on a huge stack then you could quite confidently say that he's just a fish thats donked his way up to a huge stack.

If your not buying in for max at my table, I see you as a insta fish. Playing on scared money, and very predictable. Always play at a table where it fits in your bankroll managment to buy in for max at the table. Another nice thing about buying in big is you have to chances of all-ins vs a smaller stack.

If a guy buys in 1k chips everytime, and another guy with 100k chips goes all in everyhand. the 1kchip stack can only go so far playing well till he gets sucked out. This is why the big chip stack has such huge advantage. Overtime big chip stack will win at most tables because of thise, though most people dont notice. All the pros buy in for max, your laughed at if you don't. Just move down a stake.

Ok, there is more to poker than you think. The things that you write about short stacks vs big stacks are just not true.
Playing short stack can be very effective too.
You cant make the same plays vs a short stack, and a short stack is not that difficult to play.
The reason to have a big stack is that you feel comfortable winning big pots, as a small stack can only win smaller pot.

I have found that the amount of chips I bring to the table has a directly relationship to my confidence over time. The more I've learned the closer to a full-buy in I bring, if not a full buy-in. If I am trying a new level, I likely will come with less than a full buy-in until I have confidence at that level.

Try keeping track of how often you double up vs how often you get stacked as a simple test. If you're doing A more often, you might want to bring a full buy-in.