Button every hand (Texas Hold'em)?

[Morbo]

Maybe this is a question that has been dealt with before, but would it be profitable if you could pay a BB every hand in return for having the button every hand? This would not replace the regular BB, just add another one.

Is there an exact way to calculate this? It feels to me as if this proposition is more profitable the less people are in the game, but I have no theory to back this with. If this is the case, what is the least amount of players you would play with for this to be profitable, ranging from 2 to 10? Also, would it be any different if the game in question would be limit/PL/NL?

[felson]

Even from the button, most hands are -EV (otherwise, starting hands requirements would be incredibly loose). The hands that are +EV are almost certainly not profitable to make up for the -EV hands. Therefore, this is not a good proposition for limit HE.

In NL Holdem, some people have played "any two cards" from the button. This works if the money is very deep (the blinds are tiny compared to people's stacks) and you are seriously able to outplay the opposition. But quantifying how profitable this is hugely dependent on game conditions.

[Monty Cantsin]

This question was discussed a week or so ago: here.

I believe the perma-button is worth considerably less than a big blind per hand.

I think that, because position magnifies your advantage, the greater your earn rate at a particular table, the more the perma-button is worth to you.

I give the perma-button a per hand value of about win rate (per 100 hands) times .08 big bets. So, if your win rate is 2BB/100 the perma-button is worth about .16BB/hand.

Then again, I also believe that Fidel Castro is controlling my actions with shortwave radio signals, so you never know.

/mc