$20 buyin, what limit?

[Milky]

Hi there,

We've had a weekly HE poker game at a friends' house for a few months now and I think it's time to change the structure. The buyin is $20 and we've been been playing the following way:

25 cent/50 cent blinds
50 cents to see the flop
Min bet is 25 cents on flop, max bet $1. Structure doesn't change at all through the streets.
Oh, and unlimited raises are allowed.

I think this is a pretty crazy structure since it only allows for 20 big bets and there is no increase when the turn/river comes. I'm thinking something like 25/50 cent limit. What say you?

[pukenpete]

Playing a structured $.50/1 game with $.25/.50 blinds would be reasonable. However, most of the home players I've played with over the years are used to a spread-limit structure. From my experience, going down in limits usually isn't well received. You can also increase the buy-in to $40. Or just play no-limit since you already have unlimited raises.

[messenger309]

My game is NLHE with a $25 max buyin. Blinds are .25/.25. Works great.

Rob

[Milky]

What kind of limit/blinds would you suggest for a spread limit game?

[pukenpete]

Well, you're essentially playing a spread limit game now. I'm not sure what you would consider the problem in your game to be. You could simply raise the max bet to $2 overall or just on the later streets. If you're worried about guys having to rebuy all the time (you don't sound pleased about the 20 big bets issue) then either raise the buy-in, lower the stakes to $.10/.20 blinds, or you can play cheap buy-in tourneys with sides games afterwards.

I'll assume you guys just play hold'em the whole time? Personally, I'd get bored after awhile in a structured hold'em game as there are much softer games to play online for those stakes and for me the home game is all social. At my game we just play dealer's choice using a single $.50 blind posted by the dealer and the current dealer can set the limit to whatever he wants. This came about b/c a few guys just refused to ante and play new games (that they now love) while everyone else was tired of NL hold'em. Anyways, good luck with your game.

[Scotty O]

[ QUOTE ]
My game is NLHE with a $25 max buyin. Blinds are .25/.25. Works great.

Rob

[/ QUOTE ]

I like the 100 BB structure for the buy in. I would be reluctant to let short buyins for this type of game.

[Hedge Henderson]

It is a crazy structure.

Outside of special "theme" nights, we play casino rules. Our $20 buy-in game has $0.05/$0.10 blinds in NL and PL, and $0.10/$0.25 blinds in limit, meaning $0.25/$0.50 bets. It's worked well for us.

Pete's right about people being reluctant to move down in limits. If you want to change things, you'll need to figure out both where the players want to go with that game, and how much money they're willing to lose while still having fun.

[JKDStudent]

I did a game recently that was $20 buy-in, .15/.25 blinds, NL. Went well. In fact, I was one of two people that didn't rebuy at all. One guy rebought twice, and another three times. The other benefit is if people rebuy, stacks are deeper, so you see more larger bets. Natural progression and such.