Cash Game Cash Game Initial Buy-Ins and Top Offs - What are People Doing? (1 Viewer)

I run my game (25c/50c) with a 200BB initial cap, and rebuys to 200BB or half the big stack. I initially did match the stack and I will never do that again, it nearly broke the game and I had to do some serious rebuilding. I am on the fence about raising the stakes because initial raises are getting progressively larger, but everybody seems to bring about 600 BB to play with which is 3 buy ins, so I think we might be in a good spot. There is another larger game in town (1/2) that gets out of hand really fast because of 1-2 players, and it sounds like everybody else complains about them ruining the fun.

Right. That’s not my thing. But fortunately it’s not how my game plays. So like I said, if one guy gets down to $75 and wants to top off another $100 (in a .25/.50 game) sure, go for it. If it becomes a problem at some point, I’d stop it. But that’s not where we’re at.
Now that my game has matured this is where we are at. A few players want to buy in for $120-150 instead of the $100 and it's no problem, rebuys are fine too, nobody has gone wild. If it gets out of hand, I'll be sure to address it asap after the debacle I had while building a new game.
 
IDEA:

Players can buy back at any time in for the total amount each has put in.

1/2 game. I buy in for the $300 max initial amount.

If I bust, I can rebuy for $300.

If I bust again, now it’s $600.

Again? $1,200.

And so on.

Add-ons/top-offs would be treated as part of each player’s running tally.

In other words, I always have the chance to make my losses back.

The amount might be less than the big stack, or more, depending on how one’s losses got distributed.

PROBLEM: As a host, I don’t really want to keep track of that for a full table of players.

And I also don’t really like to remind players how much they are stuck…
 
IDEA:

Players can buy back at any time in for the total amount each has put in.

1/2 game. I buy in for the $300 max initial amount.

If I bust, I can rebuy for $300.

If I bust again, now it’s $600.

Again? $1,200.

And so on.

Add-ons/top-offs would be treated as part of each player’s running tally.

In other words, I always have the chance to make my losses back.

The amount might be less than the big stack, or more, depending on how one’s losses got distributed.

PROBLEM: As a host, I don’t really want to keep track of that for a full table of players.

And I also don’t really like to remind players how much they are stuck…
Your last sentence makes this a nonstarter for me. Best way to shame or scare people away.
 
To keep it sane reduce the craziness we changed it to $100 for your first and second buy in. Anything after that was $200 max for the rest of the night. It's worked out well so far with no one complaining that they couldn't match a stack since 800bb is pretty deep lol.

1/2 game. I buy in for the $300 max initial amount.

If I bust, I can rebuy for $300.

If I bust again, now it’s $600.

Again? $1,200.

And so on.

Add-ons/top-offs would be treated as part of each player’s running tally.

In other words, I always have the chance to make my losses back.

The amount might be less than the big stack, or more, depending on how one’s losses got distributed.

PROBLEM: As a host, I don’t really want to keep track of that for a full table of players.

I admit I don't hate this idea, but to solve the problem @Taghkanic points out as a host, the simpler version from @200 Motels above seems better.

This is an escalator I feel a little better about, it's more about giving players an option to buy in enough to double up and get even than about making sure everyone covers everyone. This approach incentivizes a 3rd buy in that may seem hopeless if they are limited to the original stack.

So I am thinking maybe this rule. If a player gets felted and has lost at least twice the cap over the evening, that player has the option to double the table cap. All player then may add on accordingly. Once any player uses this option, it is no longer available for the remainder of the session. One thing I would like about this rule is it kind of back-door encourages players to bring 3-4 buy ins for a session.
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account and join our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Back
Top Bottom