[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
the max buyin at 5k is ridiculous

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Not necessarily. I only saw the broadcast for a few minutes but I did notice that some of the players rarely play no limit, despite being "whales". The buy-in and structure seemed to be a large version of the fixed buy-in games that have become overwhelmingly popular in LA. These structures make it easier for people not used to deep stack no limit to make the transition.

For example, a few years ago the smalest game had $2 and $3 blinds with a $100 buy-in. Generally you could add $100 if you had $50 and below. The next biggest game had $3 and $5 blinds with a $200 to $300 buy-in. Scaled up re-buy rules apply. Expect 50 to 70 games this size in LA any given evening (among the five major clubs).

Now we have fixed-buy NL games with $5 and $10 blinds and $400 or $500 buy-ins. On a typical night expect about seven games this size in Los Angeles. Note the Bike doesn't have this game (they do have an unrestricted buy game with these or bigger blinds) but they do have a game with two $5 blinds and a spread buy-in of $300 to $500.

Once again, keep in mind these structures make the limit players far more comfortable entering NL and eventually some of the players end up in deep buy games.

~ Rick