Buy in stack size for full ring cash games

I started reading Professional No Limit Hold'em and am enjoying it and learning a lot.

The book advocates/suggests for beginners to buy in 100bb ($2) in order to make decisions easier and to lesson risk. I have read many many posts here suggesting buying in for less than the max ($5) is a bad idea as it reduces your maximum winnings. So which is a better idea? I am playing 2nl so I can't imagine the play is to great but would like to start forming good habits now rather than having to relearn them later. thoughts or suggestions

Buying in for 100BB, and keeping it at or above that level, is completly fine and that is what I would suggest. Since 2NL allows for 250BB it is a little different, most levels allow for 100BB and is considered a full buy-in which is what most people suggest. Just dont buy in for 50BB or whatever just to make it so you dont lose more.

i disagree if your just beginning you should buy in for 50 bb at most because you are the fish and others will stack you ...and you will be more likely to call one of their bluffs if it only costs you 50 versus 200 or more...you might even want to consider<50 until you feel more comfortable at that level...learn cheaply.

Buy in for 100xBB normally or 20xBB if (and only if) you understand how to correctly play short-stack.

I`m sorry to disagree, but it`s deeply unwise to buy in for 50. That confers neither the tactical advantage of a short-stack, nor the drawing opportunities of a full one and falls into negative EV no-man`s land.

pfb8888 said:

i disagree if your just beginning you should buy in for 50 bb at most because you are the fish and others will stack you ...and you will be more likely to call one of their bluffs if it only costs you 50 versus 200 or more...you might even want to consider<50 until you feel more comfortable at that level...learn cheaply.

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This is just poor thinking. You also make a big assumption that SteveG is a poor poker player just because he plays 2nl.

Also, I don't see how you would be more likely to call a bluff with 50 chips and not 200? Wouldn't you call with more just in case you are wrong and you'd still have a stack to play with? If a player bluffs for 49 of his 200 chips are you going call with 49/50 chips just because you have a short stack and leave 1 chip behind if you lose? I'm not quite following the logic here. If anything, you'll be playing much more tighter waiting for big hands, which means you're likely to get pushed around a lot more.

Lets see, if you buy-in for 100BBs+, you have room to manuever, can make plays back at opponents, profit a lot more/get paid off more for your big hands, can take a few hits to the stack and still be ok, open your hand range a bit more. As a short-stack of 50BBs or less, you're pretty limited. You don't have as much manueverability, its hard to make certain plays like resteal shoves (esp. if you're really short), you're most likely playing very tight and waiting for big hands, more likely to get bluffed off of hands, you can be easily pushed around by big stacks. If you lose a lot more in profits from big hands when you win....

As for OP: Buy-in for at least 100BBs, more at lower limits if you wish but nothing less than 100BBs.