Fixed Limit Hold'em home game buy-in (1 Viewer)

Jazz79

Jazz79

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Hi everyone !


I love playing Limit Hold'em. However, the group of players I play with is not used to playing Limit Hold'em. The vast majority of them play No Limit Hold'em (NL25, NL50 and even NL100) and sometimes PLO. I'd love to play Limit with them because to me, it's a great format to play with friends.


So my question is : how much would be a typical buy-in for a .50 / 1€ Limit Game ? What would be the equivalent of 100 Big Blinds buy-in for a fixed limit game ? According to what I've read, a 25 Big Bets buy-in is a good one. Knowing that it's a social game with friends who've known each other for years, would you buy-in for 30 Big Bets ?

Could you guys please share your experience playing fixed limit home games ?


Thanks a lot guys !​
 
Obv I don’t know your group but I think you’re gonna have a hard time introducing limit hold em to people who are used to playing NLH and PLO. It may be a good and cheap way to learn the game among friends but it’s not very popular compared to NL.

I would recommend mixed games if you want to introduce fixed limit.
 
25 big bets is a standard buy in for limit.

I ask my friends to buy in for 40 big bets in case someone gets really unlucky (I don't want the game to break early).

If your existing group's average BB for no limit/pot limit is .50, and players are willing to go through 1-3 buy ins a night, a .50/1 limit game may play to small (people won't win or lose as much as they're used to). 1/2 limit, or higher even, may be better unless you want to lower the stakes.
 
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Eriks said:
Obv I don’t know your group but I think you’re gonna have a hard time introducing limit hold em to people who are used to playing NLH and PLO. It may be a good and cheap way to learn the game among friends but it’s not very popular compared to NL.

I would recommend mixed games if you want to introduce fixed limit.
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Agreed, limit is a hard sell :(

It's great for people new to poker though, so if your current group isn't interested you can try to get a game going with your friends that don't play poker regularly.

This worked for me.
 
I used to play limit tournaments all the time on pokerroom.com. Theyre a bunch of fun, especially for a casual tournament, because no one gets knocked out early. It may seem slow in the beginning, but the end game plays much more like no limit than you’d expect.
 
We use limit to play circus games. It would be impossible to get my group to play limit hold’em!

But if you are going to try you need to makes the size several times bigger for limit than you do for No limit. Probably $2/4 would play close in size to where the pots and wins/losses make it feel similar is size.
 
Colquhoun said:
I used to play limit tournaments all the time on pokerroom.com. Theyre a bunch of fun, especially for a casual tournament, because no one gets knocked out early. It may seem slow in the beginning, but the end game plays much more like no limit than you’d expect.
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Limit tournernies on pokerroom.com were awesome. Especially when you almost always had one person who registered by mistake and would donk off their chips.
 
I've mentioned elsewhere on here, but I cut my teeth playing casino poker at 2/4 and 3/6 limit (the latter with a kill) before the gaming commission allowed no-limit cash here. I love the more methodical and surgical nature of limit where you or your competitors can't just push all-in to "end a hand". Figuring out how and when to bet to maximize profits with a very good or winning hand is half the challenge.

My experience back then was like @Old State says above, $60 at 2/4 and $100 at 3/6 to start, but I'd freely add-on when things got below half that, mostly to maintain the stack where I wouldn't have to worry about running out if I got deep into a raising rush with someone.
 
^ This.

Fixed-limit games are great imo. We run a lot of limit tournaments here: HORSE, HORS (alternating Hold'em, Omaha hi-lo, Razz, Stud hi-lo), Scrotum hi-lo, Super-Hold'em, Dramaha, and Razzaho. Cash games are often fixed-limit with alternating orbits of those games (dealer choice).

If your group is playing 25c/50c no-limit or pot-limit games, 2/4 or 3/6 limit will produce similarly-sized pots.

I typically buy in for 50bb, but 25bb is plenty.
 
Thank you guys for your answers. It is very hard to introduce new games, new formats to people who are actually used to playing NLHE. The players I play with are good players who have been playing for years. I introduced them to PLO a few years ago. I also set up a Mixed Game SNG with NLHE , 7 Stud and PLO. A friend of mine watched some 2-7 on Poker Go a few days ago and seems to be curious. So my guess is that I'll try to set up a mixed games session. It might be a great opportunity to play something else.

I'll tell you guys how my game has developped. :)
 
Jazz79 said:
Thank you guys for your answers. It is very hard to introduce new games, new formats to people who are actually used to playing NLHE. The players I play with are good players who have been playing for years. I introduced them to PLO a few years ago. I also set up a Mixed Game SNG with NLHE , 7 Stud and PLO. A friend of mine watched some 2-7 on Poker Go a few days ago and seems to be curious. So my guess is that I'll try to set up a mixed games session. It might be a great opportunity to play something else.

I'll tell you guys how my game has developped. :)
Click to expand...

Watching the WSOP fixed limit games has reminded me how much I prefer fixed limit (even boring hold'em) for my home game with non-poker player/gambler friends. Next game is going to be hold'em Omaha, studd, razz.
 
Jazz79 said:
Hi everyone !
Click to expand...
Welcome

Jazz79 said:
I love playing Limit Hold'em. However, the group of players I play with is not used to playing Limit Hold'em. The vast majority of them play No Limit Hold'em (NL25, NL50 and even NL100) and sometimes PLO. I'd love to play Limit with them because to me, it's a great format to play with friends.
Click to expand...
Your experience is pretty common. Limit is without a doubt the best format to play among friends, however the trick is getting people to learn this.

If you play with a group of friends and everyone else other than you has hundreds of hours or even thousands of hours experience with nl, but very little experience with limit it will be a hard sell. If the whole group has a minimum of many hundreds of hours playing both formats everyone will agree that limit is MUCH more fun. This is especially true if the whole group is pretty decent, but not experts/pros. NL spirals down into a nitty boring game pretty quickly and that just doesn't happen the same way with limit.


Jazz79 said:
So my question is : how much would be a typical buy-in for a .50 / 1€ Limit Game ? What would be the equivalent of 100 Big Blinds buy-in for a fixed limit game ? According to what I've read, a 25 Big Bets buy-in is a good one. Knowing that it's a social game with friends who've known each other for years, would you buy-in for 30 Big Bets ?

Could you guys please share your experience playing fixed limit home games ?
Click to expand...
This has all been discussed a lot in other threads. Do a search and you'll likely find a LOT more discussion on this.

I have played 10's of thousands of hours of both formats and play regularly in one of the biggest limit cards rooms in the US. In a 2 or 3 chip game 1 rack will do. With that said, 2 chip games don't work particularly well. In a four chip game 2-3 racks are pretty standard in the card room. In a private/ home game people will often make due with many less chips mostly because people don't tend to have 1000 or more chips on hand. 20-40 Big Bets is about right. 20 is a little light, especially is a more wild game or a 4 chip game that plays big and 40 is usually a little over kill.

The argument that you NEED 4 or 5 Bets on every street is non-sence. Wile it is true that it is possible to max out every street, this never actually happens in a real game.
 
Jazz79 said:
Thank you guys for your answers. It is very hard to introduce new games, new formats to people who are actually used to playing NLHE. The players I play with are good players who have been playing for years. I introduced them to PLO a few years ago. I also set up a Mixed Game SNG with NLHE , 7 Stud and PLO. A friend of mine watched some 2-7 on Poker Go a few days ago and seems to be curious. So my guess is that I'll try to set up a mixed games session. It might be a great opportunity to play something else.

I'll tell you guys how my game has developped. :)
Click to expand...
2-7TD is so fun. I think LHE, O8, and 2-7TD is a good mix to start (I don’t even know some of the circus games everyone around here plays).
 
Nanook said:
Wile it is true that it is possible to max out every street, this never rarely actually happens in a real game.
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^ FYP

I was involved in a 2/4 limit hold'em hand several years ago that was max-bet pre-flop, flop, turn, and river, four players all the way:

FLOP -- K A Q (rainbow)
TURN -- 2 (4th suit)
RIVER -- Q

The four hands were AA, KK, QQ, and JT.

I had the queens. :D
 
I do 2-chip/4-chip 50¢/$1 and $1/$2. Either way, buy-in is easy: a rack of small blinds = 25 Big Bets. Makes it super easy to buy-in and clean-up when done.

Limit is fantastic for social games.
 
BGinGA said:
I was involved in a 2/4 limit hold'em hand several years ago that was max-bet pre-flop, flop, turn, and river, four players all the way:
Click to expand...
Yes you are right, it is possible and it can happen. In fact, I have witnessed it also, but I have played more than a million live hands of limit poker and the last time I saw it happen was like 15 yrs ago.

Someone told me a long time ago to never say never. Good advice..... I have learned, although apparently not very well, that if something can happen, eventually it will.

Thanks for the correction.
 
People say 25 BB but in my very limited fixed limit play we seemed to get more chasing, big enough pots and I reccommend 40 BB next time
 
warma said:
If you play 3-chip/6-chip or 4/8, then 1 rack ain’t gonna cut it….
Click to expand...
3 & 4 chip games almost always play bigger and have more action so why anyone wants to play in a 2-chip or less game is beyond me....

& yes, you are right especially in a 4 chip game.

In a 4 chip game the Big blind will be 8 chips. 2 racks = 200/8 = 25 Big blinds isn't exactly overkill & that's exactly why you see people buying in for 3 & even 4 or 5 racks in a bigger 4 chip games in a card room.

I'm not saying you can't play with less, I'm just saying it's not ideal.
 
MikesDad said:
I suspect this is a big reason why no one runs $5 / $10 limit anymore
Click to expand...
Correct.
It just doesn't work all that well. 1 & 2 chip games get no action.

You could run a $5/10 limit game with $1 chip which would make it a 5 chip game, but that doesn't work great for the house so they don't like it.
 
$40-50

I can think I would keep it toward the high end and like another said add in other limit games
 

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