Helpful info.
So, the standard opens in this .25/.50 game ($100 buyin) are $2-$5, or 4x-10x.
That’s a little bigger than what I’d expect, but not totally out of line.
If the stakes go up to 1/2 as your friend suggested, do you think opens would balloon proportionally to $8-$20, or would it be more like $5-$15 (2.5x-7.5x)? Would there still be multiple callers even at the highest open sizes?
Assuming the max buyin also went up ($300 would be standard for 1/2), would people buy in for the max or just play a very short stacked game—still buying in for $100?
There is a chance that upping to 1/2 would just make the game even more of a blind gamble, with players getting it all in on the flop constantly (due to stack to pot ratios). This would be even less fun for people who enjoy strategy rather than gambling.
Same questions for .50/1 or 1/1. Would changing the stakes actually change behavior?
The other thing I’m not clear on is how deep the pockets are of your player pool.
Are they playing this way just because they are stations/action junkies? Or because the stakes are so low that they don’t really care to be careful? Would their playing styles and willingness to rebuy change if their potential losses were much higher?
(Specifically with the any-two-to-the-river guy… I assume he is rebuying constantly?)
Another way to assess this might be to ask: How much money is in play over the course of the night?
If it’s say $2K total in a .25/.50 game, that’s 4,000 BB in play, or 20 total buyins. Not a lot for such a loose full-ring game, IMHO. If you go to 1/2 and people start nitting it up, there might not be much more money in play and much less action. Which probably would chase away some players there just to see a ton of hands and gamble.
Depending on the answers to the above, I don’t see a clear solution yet. I’d probably try bumping it up to .50/1 or 1/1, with an optional straddle, just to see what happens. Then re-adjust.
But it may be that the real adjustment at these stakes for the better players is just to play differently to exploit this player pool. For example, I might try playing even fewer hands, betting these much bigger preflop and punishing limpers with huge flop c-bets. I’d bring a big roll and rebuy as much as I could to smooth out variance, because there would be some ridiculous beats. Doing this (especially if there is another good player in the game also making life difficult for the stations) may either change the behaviors you dislike… or drive some players away.