When playing 1/2, when do you reload (to not be short stacked)?

Let's say it's 1/2 NL, min. buy-in is $60.
Most people are buying in with $100.
After a bad beat, later some people buy back in with $200.
Obviously, you don't want to buy in with $500 and look like a dick and/or get mugged outside after the game.

So, let's say you buy in with $100, and are hovering there.
Down to $75, up to $200, etc.
At what point do you buy back in so you have chips to fire if you get a killer hand?
When you get to $50? $75?

For basement house games, are there general rules like this?
Can only buy back in once you go bust to $0? Or, do you keep buying in to keep your level high?
Like if you buy in for $200, and then lose $10, obviously, you don't immediately buy in for $10 to keep your level at $200.

How many BBs do you buy in for, in general?
Or how many BB's do you want to maintain?

Ladybugger said:

Let's say it's 1/2 NL, min. buy-in is $60.
Most people are buying in with $100.
After a bad beat, later some people buy back in with $200.
Obviously, you don't want to buy in with $500 and look like a dick and/or get mugged outside after the game.

So, let's say you buy in with $100, and are hovering there.
Down to $75, up to $200, etc.
At what point do you buy back in so you have chips to fire if you get a killer hand?
When you get to $50? $75?

For basement house games, are there general rules like this?
Can only buy back in once you go bust to $0? Or, do you keep buying in to keep your level high?
Like if you buy in for $200, and then lose $10, obviously, you don't immediately buy in for $10 to keep your level at $200.

How many BBs do you buy in for, in general?
Or how many BB's do you want to maintain?

Click to expand...

You should always buy-in for the maximum amount permitted and chip up to the max amount any time your stack drops below 95% of the max buy-in amount.

Also, if it's 1/2 NL then you generally will not be allowed to buy-in for more than $200.

-HooDooKoo

Always buy in for the max, which is usually 100BB or $200 in a 1/2 game. The edge is bigger for skilled players when stacks are deeper.

I play at a casino, and I usually buy $300 in chips at the cage and put $100 of it in my pocket. That way I can pretty much keep my stack at $200 at all times by adding chips from my pocket when needed.

keep topping off after every hand if they have a max, keep like $100 off the table and add it in between hands to keep it topped off

personally i like to keep the 'lvl' at a certain amount and buy in after i drop down to less than 20-25 BB so at a 1/2 40-50$ my main reason for this is because if you have a good hand you want to be able to have enough money for your 'stratagy' to work, to be able to bluff or bet enough so bad hands get out, not so much as to ; have enough money to double up - which is a good reason but i dont worry about that as much as to if i dont have enough money i am more likely to be forced to make a mistake, like not bet enough to force a bad hand out. like if i have 35$ at a 1/2 and bet 10$ preflop with AK (25left) and 3 players call, flop comes A 4 3 i bet all in $25 if a player with say A Q calls then the player with a lesser draw hand like 56 can call 25 for a chance at 80 pot. (10 10 10 preflop plus 25 25 flop) but if i had more money and pushed all in with say 50$ then the math would make alot less sense for him to call his draw

also you always want a minimum of 40 BB when you initialy buy in, my comfort level is 50-75 BB (1/2 table 100-150) some people like to have much more than that like 100-200BB which isnt a bad thing, i think this is because they dont want to have to buy back in and they have power, they can push lower stacks around and bully people, be agressive. alot of what your asking has to do with how the table is , tight? stack sizes? styles? alot of fishes? and YOUR game play,plan.

When I play at a casino, I buy $620 in chips, one stack each of $1, $5, $25 and put the extra $25's in my vest/coat pocket. Whenever I drop $25 below table max I add-on.

When playing at my local Poker Club, I just add-on anytime I drop below $20 from the max.

I always want to be able to maximize my big hands when they occur.

I don't like to go below 40-50bb because I feel like at that level i have enough room to maneuver and make whatever play best fits the situation. (For the most part.)

Id want to bi for the max so lets say a donk bi for max then I can take all his money when I have him beat

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for myself, whenever I play I always have the max stack and I ALWAYS reload ASAP even if its for a very small amount. The only exception is if I was going to do something crazy like take a shot at a 10/20 game or something, in that case I would probably buy in for the minimum or like 1k, but that wouldn't be poker, that would be gambling

Also if your playing online their is a psychological component to stack size. When you see a player buy in for $200.00, or sit down and see one guy with 683.29, you will take this into consideration when they take action, whether you realize it or not. Conversely, when a player buys into a 1/2 game for 118.45, that is an indication that they might be sitting in with their entire bankroll, and if that is the case you already have a substantial advantage over them. This player generally isn't looking to call many raises and play later streets, they want to double up and move back down to .10/.25 where they just spewed off the first 80$ of their $200 roll. That's how I see it anyways, might not always be the case.

Noob here, so take my 2 satoshis with a grain of salt

I think that it can be profitable to consider the opposite of every mainstream tactic in skillful Poker play.

For example, in this thread so far players are saying to stay topped up. This has the apparent benefits of maintaining both intimidation power and high possible earnings from killer hands. That makes sense to me.

Now let's consider the opposite. What if you have plenty of funds in your bankroll, and have a choice of large or small buy in. How could you benefit from a small buy in? I'm not yet experienced enough to have a tight perspective on how to leverage this, but I can speculate.

With a minimal buy in, you create a smoke screen of weakness. You will draw less attention and warrant less fear. So waiting patiently for a sweet hand might not evoke much resistance. More players will call your raises, and especially if you connect before they have time to notice your patience. The max payout is lower, but the fold rate cold be lower as well.

In a small community, this could also add variance to your image. In a large community this could be plied across many tables, sustaining low fold rates to your raises on monster hands.

Anyone with more experience care to critique?

Karozi615 said:

Also if your playing online their is a psychological component to stack size. When you see a player buy in for $200.00, or sit down and see one guy with 683.29, you will take this into consideration when they take action, whether you realize it or not. Conversely, when a player buys into a 1/2 game for 118.45, that is an indication that they might be sitting in with their entire bankroll, and if that is the case you already have a substantial advantage over them. This player generally isn't looking to call many raises and play later streets, they want to double up and move back down to .10/.25 where they just spewed off the first 80$ of their $200 roll. That's how I see it anyways, might not always be the case.

Click to expand...

I think the OP is talking about live play, so this would not happen as much

I strongly agree with Sandbag. You should ALWAYS ALWAYS refill. If you don't refill to max GO DOWN ANOTHER LEVEL.

I reload when I'm under the table limit almost all the time. If game allows you to match biggest stack I usually try to match always. I don't get super nitty about it -- if I buy in for 250 BBs and I'm at 200, I don't worry about it. But if I buy in for 250 BBs and get down to 180 I'm definitely adding on.

I played a home game this week where most people were buying in $100 at a time. Opposite of the advice in this thread. People buy in at stages where they really should take their entire nightly bankroll at once.

I bought in for $200 and was on of the bigger initial buy-ins. I was up most of the time, so I never chipped up, but I knew to keep myself at $200 or more if I dropped.

In a small home game with avg. buy-in at $100, deep stacks ($300) can help you win pots with big 50% of pot raises.

I played a home game this week where most people were buying in $100 at a time. Opposite of the advice in this thread. People buy in at stages where they really should take their entire nightly bankroll at once.

I bought in for $200 and was on of the bigger initial buy-ins. I was up most of the time, so I never chipped up, but I knew to keep myself at $200 or more if I dropped.

In a small home game with avg. buy-in at $100, deep stacks ($300) can help you win pots with big 50% of pot raises.

I played a home game this week where most people were buying in $100 at a time. Opposite of the advice in this thread. People buy in at stages where they really should take their entire nightly bankroll at once.

I bought in for $200 and was on of the bigger initial buy-ins. I was up most of the time, so I never chipped up, but I knew to keep myself at $200 or more if I dropped.

In a small home game with avg. buy-in at $100, deep stacks ($300) can help you win pots with big 50% of pot raises.

Just saw this sub-forum.

In these threads, I learned you should always do max buy-in.
[old link~tb]
https://www.cardschat.com/forum/cash-games-11/when-playing-1-2-when-do-235467/

I played a home game this week where most people were buying in $100 at a time. Opposite of the advice in this thread. People buy in at stages where they really should take their entire nightly bankroll at once.

I bought in for $200 and was on of the bigger initial buy-ins. I was up most of the time, so I never chipped up, but I knew to keep myself at $200 or more if I dropped.

In a small home game with avg. buy-in at $100, deep stacks ($300) can help you win pots with big 50% of pot raises.

If I get to where I cant compete with everyone else because my stack is low, I will re-buy. I like to have one full re-buy when I sit down, and maybe a little more. Generally, I will let it get down to about 80bb and top off. If everyone is playing short I am comfortable playing around 50bb, but that is about my limit.

its different from online to live I think. I top up once I drop below 95 bb

It really depends on how much your opponents have, how well rolled you are, if you're at a card room that takes a percentage out of each buyin, sometimes even how the table is playing. If you are pretty short, but still have the biggest stack at the table there is never a need to buy more. If I like to have several buyins and I'll buy in a bit smaller than max sometimes if I need to do that to have a few bullets back. If the table is wild this applies even more. If I'm very well rolled for the stake I'll pretty much always buy in max, but this is an ideal situation that does not always match the actual situation.

On the other side of the issue, if you play shortstack, how low should you let your stack go before topping back up (to the minimum buyin) ?

Akorps said:

On the other side of the issue, if you play shortstack, how low should you let your stack go before topping back up (to the minimum buyin) ?

Click to expand...

i enjoy playing shortstack a lot.

1. you come off aggressive (hoping that you catch some good hands)
2. you get great action because people think you are over aggresive
3. when your roll is high, they still think you are aggressive
4. pop them big when you have the roll to do so
5. all smiles

You reload when this happens

http://www.handconverter.com/hands/2388664