What are your home game blinds & buyins (30 Viewers)

[PapaWheelie]

I'm new to hosting and my crew has recently switched from two $25 tournaments a night to 25¢/50¢ blinds with a $25 to $50 buyin. I'm wondering what other low rollers like myself are doing and how they arrived at a happy medium.

 

[Dodger]

Tourneys - $50-$75 buy-in depending on format, length, etc

Cash - .25/.50; $25-$60 buy-in.

It’s worked well for us. We have 20-24 runners for tournies, and 9-16 for straight cash games.

 

[SixSeven]

Tourney's - $20 + $2 for HHJ. $50, $100 ones, 1 x a year.

Cash - $.25/.25 $40 max, and then $.25/.50c with $50 - $100 max buy ins. I like $50 and $60 the best.

10 to 16 for tourneys (NLHE), and 9 usually for cash (NLHE)

 

[GoJo_Dingo]

@Booshme

 

[maxim_666666]

5€!!!

 

[Old State]

I’ve had many over the last 25 years. Technically my first game was .25/.50 Stud $40

When we first started playing holdem, limit was the norm for cash and the game was $2/4 $60 or $3/6 $80. Thus was a VERY successful level and I sometimes had two tables every other week. I live 90 mins from AC and that was most common cash game there.

When NL cash got popular around 2005 I reluctantly switched to $1/2 NL $150-300 max when my players requested it. It was a bad move as many of the players stopped coming that regularly came and the game went to only 5-6 times a year.

After an almost 8 year semi break as we all got married and had kids I tried to restart a game. I weened several neighborhood friends over to cash from single tables tournaments they were used to with a .25/.50 $50 max game. That became popular and eventually got to $1/1 $120 max with several of my old players coming back who normally play a bit higher.

I’ve found $1/1 $120 the Goldilocks stakes for a regular game. For the last year I’m getting a full 9-10 people every 3-4 weeks with some on a wait list for late drops.

 

[detroitdad]

.25/.50, $100 max buy in.

25¢/50¢ blinds with a $25 to $50 buyin

We have played with a $25 to $50 dollar buy in. When we do, we go with .05/.10 blinds or .10/.20 blinds.

 

[suchj0sh]

Started at .25/.50 $50 buy-in, but we just tried .50/.50 with a $50 buy-in and we greatly preferred the .50/.50 set up.

I guess for us having .25’s on the table just made the game kind of trivial. Depends on your player pool for sure. My players don’t know much of anything about the game, and don’t really care to learn. Having the .25’s in the game lead to a lot of .50 river bets, simply because they just don’t understand pot sizes and how to structure bets. When we moved to .50’s I could see the gears turning in their heads, and we had more reasonable bet sizes and pots.

 

[MrBoosh]

Our tournaments are usually a $30 buy-in with 18 to 27 players and cash games are .25/.25 with $20 to $50 buy-ins and match the stack after things start with 9 players max.

 

[Schmendr1ck]

I don't host many tourneys, but they're usually $40 pre-buy (one starting stack and one pre-paid rebuy which becomes an add-on if you don't use it).

Cash is generally .25/.50. We start at $60 max but once at least half the table has $100+ the max increases to $100.

 

[Timmah]

Tourneys $60 - $50 for the tourney, $10 bounty

Cash $100-$200 buy in. Dealers choice from the mixed games cards. $1, $2, $4 betting format.

 

[bunsonthegrill]

.25/.50, $100 cap. Game usually runs larger though as people rebuy.

 

[JohnnyD]

Started my regular game at 0.05/0.10 $10 buy-in (unlimited). Started this low because I have some cheap friends. Family game is at 0.25/0.50 $30-50 buy-in. Both games have grown after a while, regular friends game now prefers 0.25/0.25 with $30 buy-in. Family game is still at 0.25/0.50 but buy in’s have been growing to $60+.

My suggestion is start with what your group is comfortable with (maybe even lower than the average comfort level), then grow as needed as the game becomes more regular. My biggest worry when starting a game is that if it was too much, then people will stop coming.

That being said…I find it funny how my friends will have no problem dropping a $100+ bar tab, but think $10 for poker was too risky at first.

 

[MikesDad]

Friendly neighborhood game is 0.05/0.10 with $10 buy-in. Tournament is $10+$2 bounty

Regular game is usually 0.25/0.50 or 0.50/.50 with $100 or 1/2 big stack buy-in. Tournament is $50 + $10 bounty

 

[Booshme]

Honestly it depends on how new the players are for me. With my friends outside of poker who rarely ever play, .05/.05 for total newbs, or .05/.10 for my casual university friends, game will last maybe 3 hours, usually less.

The main game is either .10/.20 or .25/.25, with the smaller one being the one that lasted the longest. I think the smaller stakes helped with that tbh even though it wasn’t a huge difference, rebuys started at $20 and it was only later into the night that we had big rebuys. I think that helped our newer player want to stay longer, we ran until 6:00am.

I’d like a .25/.50 game, we’ve done it before, but only if it’s not too imposing on our newer player. I’m here for a good time, not to super compete, and if the stage is set for a bigger game, up to 1/2, I’m there for it, but likely won’t push for it at my home game unless it’s a majority request.

For rebuys, we’re doing a loose interpretation of match half the stack, which has been working. Been toying with the idea of only rebuying for 100BBs until after a certain time, the more game poker players will likely stay past midnight and be willing to throw more money in anyways.

Tournaments: we don’t really do them, if it’s a home game I’m not a fan unless it’s a turbo, 2.5 hours tops. I’ve only done $10 with bounties, rebuys up until break. I also have a $30 tournament setup but we haven’t done it yet. With two tables minimum 12 people I’d run it, mainly because once we get to the final table we’d have the other table to start the cash game.

Don’t be afraid to toy around with it, feel free to ask for feedback and be willing to adjust. Also, it’s YOUR game, so you get to decide the feel for it. My main guiding points are: be considerate of my players especially the new ones, offer grace but be willing to confront any nonsense immediately (hasn’t had to happen), and be very selective of who gets to play in my home, which is honestly the biggest reason I haven’t had to deal with any BS in my house

 

[Bluegrass Poker]

$1/$2 with $300 buy in.

 

[HolySchist848]

Friendly neighborhood game is 0.05/0.10 with $10 buy-in. Tournament is $10+$2 bounty

Regular game is usually 0.25/0.50 or 0.50/.50 with $100 or 1/2 big stack buy-in. Tournament is $50 + $10 bounty

This is pretty much what I run too. Good to have games with lower stakes sometimes if you are trying to build a regular crowd!

 

[SkyBlue]

We do $50-$100 buy in. We’ve been doing dealers choice lately. No limit Hold’em we do $0.25/$0.50 blinds. He gets raised to $3 pre-flop most of the time. For pineapple we do $1 blinds. For pot limit Omaha we do $0.25/$0.50 blinds.

Back when we use to do $10 buy in and $20 buy in games. We used to only have one blind and it was $0.25 For low stake games I like the single blind, it lets everyone see a flop cheap and more people make it to river without losing all their chips/money. It lets everyone be active in the game. As soon as we moved to 2 blinds $0.25/$0.50 way less people were seeing the flop and the game went down hill. People weren't enjoying the game. People started folding a lot which turned into people being on their phones.

The $10 buy in games we had were my favorite. We all had a great time and no one was going broke. I guess you can say we weren't playing for the money but rather there to have a good time.

 

[HolySchist848]

We do $50-$100 buy in. We’ve been doing dealers choice lately. No limit Hold’em we do $0.25/$0.50 blinds. He gets raised to $3 pre-flop most of the time. For pineapple we do $1 blinds. For pot limit Omaha we do $0.25/$0.50 blinds.

Back when we use to do $10 buy in and $20 buy in games. We used to only have one blind and it was $0.25 For low stake games I like the single blind, it lets everyone see a flop cheap and more people make it to river without losing all their chips/money. It lets everyone be active in the game. As soon as we moved to 2 blinds $0.25/$0.50 way less people were seeing the flop and the game went down hill. People weren't enjoying the game. People started folding a lot which turned into people being on their phones.

The $10 buy in games we had were my favorite. We all had a great time and no one was going broke. I guess you can say we weren't playing for the money but rather there to have a good time.

This! Most times it’s about the time to chat and catch up with friends and play a game we all love. And hey, if you leave the night up a couple buy-ins, even better!

 

[SkyBlue]

This! Most times it’s about the time to chat and catch up with friends and play a game we all love. And hey, if you leave the night up a couple buy-ins, even better!

None of us would leave sad/upset/mad/frustrated. If we lost $20-$30 no biggie, we didn’t think about it much at all. We had lots of laughs and everyone had a great time playing. We played a ton and I mean a ton. For an example during Christmas break we played every day for 2 weeks straight except I think we took Christmas Eve off. Once the buy ins started to rise, the games weren't as fun, we played less often, and had to find new players. With our current buy in, we play once every couple weeks, usually 1-2 people leave upset/mad. Almost everyone is on their phones so it’s constantly telling people it’s their turn to act.

I make more money in the $50-$100 buy ins but I would go back to the $10 buy in games we had any day. Also, the $10 buy in games was when we were all learning how to play the game. We were playing flushes wrong for several months haha. We were chopping pots if the highest flush was on the board and not in our hand. Makes us laugh everytime we bring that up.

 

[Flopalopagus]

First game = Tournament is $40 + $10 bounty.
Second game = 0.25/0.50 with $100 max buy-in.

 

[Munchies11]

$1/$2 blinds and min $100 buy in .

Usually we do $200 Buyins per player.

Than at 3am - open hand games for $100 each so it’s all relative lol

 

[Jaxen]

We've settled in on $40 buy-in tourneys with the last one of the year a $50 deep stack.
Cash is .25/.50 with $50 buy in, can reload for $75 if you get stacked. Occasionally .50/$1 for $100 but it doesn't play twice as big since few reload after getting stacked.

 

[Benjin024]

.25/.50 with most buying in for $50. We allow add ons through the night and once someone has a big stack we allow add ons to get you up to $100 if you want

 

[Coyote]

IMHO, .50/.50 with a $50 max buy-in is the absolute maximum you can play with friends.

Above that, you are playing with hopefully vetted friends of friends and acquaintances, eventually poker buddies if they prove to be nice and honest.
You only have to do that and engage in an endless recruitment and testing process if you want to play really regularly.
Usually, true childhood friends may have lives or even other hobbies.

 

[Poker Zombie]

Tournaments are usually $30, 1 rebuy. Once a year we have a game with a $30 add on as well. The final game of the year is $50, no rebuy.

Cash games are typically 25¢/50¢, but if I have the players I'll open smaller and bigger tables as per demand.

 

[Machine]

I think most of us here host Frac games, I host a .50/.50 game, with a 100 buyin

 

[Nightowl]

I host a few different types of games to cater to those who like to play a bit bigger
.25/.50 cent blinds with a $50-$100 buy in for the guys that just want to have some fun.

0.50/$1 blinds with a $100 buy in is about standard

0.50/$1 blinds with a $300 dollar buy in on our crazy nights

Tournaments are usually $60 or $100 depending on the conditions.

 

[SetToBean]

NLHE Cash - 25c/25c are $25-$50 min/max, 25c/50c is $50-$100 min/max, and on very special occasions trying out $1/$1, $100-$200 min/max.

Tournament interest kind of died recently unfortunately and haven't been able to get enough interest to run one for months, but finally got something together soon and it looks like $25 rebuy events (with/without bounties) seems to be the go there.

 

[merkong]

Full circle.

In the beginning, at both of my long-running games, it always started out with the requisite $10 rebuy tourneys with .10/.10 $20 buyin cash games. From there tournies usually take a backseat and the .25/.25 $40 add to the big stack became the thing.

After years of the aforementioned cash game running, thoughtful contemplation sets in.

ATM it’s the $10 Turbo Freeze Out follower by the .05/.05 $10 in, add up to $10 when down to $5.

Our .25/.25 game got too big according to over half our regular runners and after a break to cleanse the pallet, the Cheapskate Game was born.

Who knows, maybe we’ll pop it up to .05/.10.

lol