How much do you buy in?

[Davey]

I play in a friendly home game 2 or 3 times a week. It's small stakes with both blinds at .25 That way we dont have to deal with nickels and dimes at the end of the night. We all used to buy in for $10. That always seemed small to me but no one minds re-buying or just adding on whenever. Now we play with some people who buy in up to $25.

Would it be better to buy as much as you are willing to play with (possibly lose) at the start.

Or would you just buy in for the table average?

Thanks for any opinions.

[mreinecker]

If you aren't a good player, and you plan on losing your buy in, I would suggest just buying in the minimum. But if you're a decent player at the table and have the ability to win, I would buy in the maximum. This way you start with the advantage of being highstack. The only downside to this is that all your money is there for you to lose incase you're not playing well.

[CaptLego]

[ QUOTE ]
If you aren't a good player, and you plan on losing your buy in, I would suggest just buying in the minimum. But if you're a decent player at the table and have the ability to win, I would buy in the maximum. This way you start with the advantage of being highstack. The only downside to this is that all your money is there for you to lose incase you're not playing well.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think I'm not a very good player, so I do better with a smaller buyin.

The advantage is that it limits the amount of money I can lose on a single stupid or unlucky play. Also, it helps to get action when I do play a big hand, since my stack is less threatening to the other players. The downside, of course, is that when a dream hand comes around, I'm limited on the size of the pot available to me.

Once I have a bigger stack (by winning some chips), I play worse. Maybe I start to convince myself that I'm either good or at least lucky, since I have a bunch of chips in front of me. Often, I'll find myself making loose calls or chasing unprofitable draws, because "I can afford it".

This all applies mostly to cash games, where I can buyin for more chips if I bust out. In a tourney, of course, the bigger the stack, the better.