Low Stakes Limit Hold Em (1 Viewer)

shorticus

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I’m considering offering my players an option for low stakes limit hold em. What’s the lowest stakes you guys ever played? I’m thinking a limit game of like $1/$2. Could you really go any lower? Does anyone have low stakes experience? What’s the limit and blinds?
 
I’m considering offering my players an option for low stakes limit hold em. What’s the lowest stakes you guys ever played? I’m thinking a limit game of like $1/$2. Could you really go any lower? Does anyone have low stakes experience? What’s the limit and blinds?

Why? Have people complained? Have you been losing players who burn through the $25 they brought playing NL real quick and then leave never to return?

Lowest stakes I've ever played LHE? I dunno I think the first home game I ever attended was a $1-$2 limit game back in like '02 or '03. But there's no floor... you could play one penny two penny if you were so inclined.
 
5¢ / 10¢ seriously, 25¢ / 50¢ is our "high stakes"

We're all friends and play for the fun of the game and bragging rights. The ¢ amounts don't make it any less cutthroat for this crowd.

I would cap every street in every hand I played at those stakes just to amuse myself. No fucking way I would take a game like that seriously enough to play right in order to win 50 cents/hr.
 
Why? Have people complained? Have you been losing players who burn through the $25 they brought playing NL real quick and then leave never to return?

Lowest stakes I've ever played LHE? I dunno I think the first home game I ever attended was a $1-$2 limit game back in like '02 or '03. But there's no floor... you could play one penny two penny if you were so inclined.
I have a few cheap friends who won’t really participate even in a .25/.50 NLHE game. Also, some of my other players would like to go and play limit at the casino. Because NLHE and Limit are two different strategies, it would be a good opportunity for them to see how the game can play differently at times.
 
Play any limit you want. Limit is super fun. I’d let the buy ins define the limit. 1/2 limit would work well at $50 buy ins. Depending on what stakes you want you could increase or decrease. In limit games I try to set it where most players are ok rebuying are least once.
 
I have a few cheap friends who won’t really participate even in a .25/.50 NLHE game. Also, some of my other players would like to go and play limit at the casino. Because NLHE and Limit are two different strategies, it would be a good opportunity for them to see how the game can play differently at times.

The best reason to introduce FL vs NL is so people don't bust out quickly and leave. In a casino it doesn't matter because there's usually a list of players ready to fill empty seats. Not the case in a home game and the table can get short pretty fast in a big bet game.
 
We do limit games .20/.40 with my set. I am hosting a 4/8 mix game this weekend.

I think you figure out where your players "budget" is for a night and divide by 50 to get the big limit. If players are willing to lose 20 bucks a night a 0.40 or 0.50 big limit is probably right.
 
Limit 20c - 50c (with 10c - 20c blinds) is the lowest limit stakes I played.
 
I’m considering offering my players an option for low stakes limit hold em. What’s the lowest stakes you guys ever played? I’m thinking a limit game of like $1/$2. Could you really go any lower? Does anyone have low stakes experience? What’s the limit and blinds?
I have a few cheap friends who won’t really participate even in a .25/.50 NLHE game. Also, some of my other players would like to go and play limit at the casino. Because NLHE and Limit are two different strategies, it would be a good opportunity for them to see how the game can play differently at times.
I've played 50c/$1 limit with 25c/50c blinds. You could go even smaller if using nickel or dime chips.

For your 25c/50c NL crowd, plan on limit stakes that are roughly three to four times those that you play at no-limit. So if your group is playing 25c/50c NL (with 25c and 50c blinds and $50 buy-ins), then a comparable limit game would be 1/2 (with all 50c chips and 50c/$1 blinds). Buyins for a limit game should be for at least 25BB (so minimum $25 for a 1/2 limit game) since that covers the maximum exposure for a single hand (if betting is capped on all streets), but many players opt buy in for 50BB (or 25 big bets) or more.

But if your players are balking at $50 buyins, at least they'll usually last longer when used in a limit game. But you may need to drop down to $25 buyins for a 50c/$1 game (using all quarters with 25c/50c blinds).

Two-chip/four-chip limit games play much better than one-chip/two-chip games.
 
5¢ / 10¢ seriously, 25¢ / 50¢ is our "high stakes"

We're all friends and play for the fun of the game and bragging rights. The ¢ amounts don't make it any less cutthroat for this crowd.
$0.05-$0.10 limit? I think I'd shoot myself.
 
There's a threshold to where it doesnt matter anymore that you are playing poker. If it means nothing to burn thru a bunch of chips to most of the players, it's a pointless game with zero skill and the best run of cards that night wins. Of course, that will vary a little between your regular players, but I cant imagine there's much folding or successful bluffing going on at anything south of $1/2 limit.

I read a book one time that described the way to set your game up like this (paraphrasing of course): Set your max loss where if an average player would lose that in a night, it would hurt.....then lower it a bit from that number. So, if your average player would cringe at a hundred dollar loss, set your max loss up for stakes that would lower that loss to $60. 1/2 would fit right into this number. If that number is lower, then maybe you are at .5/1. This also means that nobody is going to win much more than this number as well.
 
I run a low-stakes NL game at the office. Blinds are .10/.20 and most of us buy in for $20, one guy buys in for $10. If he goes broke he calls it a night. I get the feeling he doesn't want to lose $20 playing poker, that's not really worth it to him. One night a new guy joined us, played too many hands and dropped $30.

It's all about having a game and hanging out and discussing hands and whatever else.

I mean do whatever works for you, but I can tell you that I've taken it down pre-flop with a raise to .50 and that bluffing still exists. I'm still playing the same game, which is trying to play good poker and make the right decisions and so forth. If you're calling with trash because it's only .50 but you'd fold if we were playing $10/$20 instead, well, good luck. The stakes don't really change optimal play, right?
 
I run a low-stakes NL game at the office. Blinds are .10/.20 and most of us buy in for $20, one guy buys in for $10. If he goes broke he calls it a night. I get the feeling he doesn't want to lose $20 playing poker, that's not really worth it to him. One night a new guy joined us, played too many hands and dropped $30.

It's all about having a game and hanging out and discussing hands and whatever else.

I mean do whatever works for you, but I can tell you that I've taken it down pre-flop with a raise to .50 and that bluffing still exists. I'm still playing the same game, which is trying to play good poker and make the right decisions and so forth. If you're calling with trash because it's only .50 but you'd fold if we were playing $10/$20 instead, well, good luck. The stakes don't really change optimal play, right?
First off, he's asking about limit, not nl.

Secondly, it totally matters what the stakes are. Without the sphincter pucker factor, play is not the same. It's up to the host to figure out where that factor lies. Would you play the same with no buy in, and you knew if you busted you could just grab another handful of chips? Of course not! Would you play the same in a game where you could only afford to buy in once and you had to buy in short? I would hope not! The happy medium is where good poker thrives.
 
As casino stakes go, I have played in super nitty 2/4 games and super loose 20/40 games. It is absolute myth that more money means more skill.
This.

Money means different things to different people. The only thing that's true is that the average skill "tends" to be higher the higher the stakes you play. But that's looking at it in the aggregate, not in a game to game way.
 
I've played 50c/$1 limit with 25c/50c blinds. You could go even smaller if using nickel or dime chips.

For your 25c/50c NL crowd, plan on limit stakes that are roughly three to four times those that you play at no-limit. So if your group is playing 25c/50c NL (with 25c and 50c blinds and $50 buy-ins), then a comparable limit game would be 1/2 (with all 50c chips and 50c/$1 blinds). Buyins for a limit game should be for at least 25BB (so minimum $25 for a 1/2 limit game) since that covers the maximum exposure for a single hand (if betting is capped on all streets), but many players opt buy in for 50BB (or 25 big bets) or more.

But if your players are balking at $50 buyins, at least they'll usually last longer when used in a limit game. But you may need to drop down to $25 buyins for a 50c/$1 game (using all quarters with 25c/50c blinds).

Two-chip/four-chip limit games play much better than one-chip/two-chip games.

Assuming I go with the $25 buy in structure, using 25c/50c blinds, I'll need a lot of racks of quarters for this set. I've never built a limit set before so do I go 6 racks of quarters and a rack of $5's, or do I do quarters and 1's? I've seen where 1/2 sets go $1's and $25's only. Feel like the rack of 5's goes perfectly for changing out barrels of quarters so that might work.
 
Assuming I go with the $25 buy in structure, using 25c/50c blinds, I'll need a lot of racks of quarters for this set. I've never built a limit set before so do I go 6 racks of quarters and a rack of $5's, or do I do quarters and 1's? I've seen where 1/2 sets go $1's and $25's only. Feel like the rack of 5's goes perfectly for changing out barrels of quarters so that might work.
You can get by running limit without racks and racks of the main chip. It's just customary to use a single chip. Since my game is dealer's choice with both limit and PL/NL, I've just used 3 racks of .25 for 6-8 players and the rest in $1s. On the big bet rounds, everyone just throws in $1s instead of quarters.
 
You can get by running limit without racks and racks of the main chip. It's just customary to use a single chip. Since my game is dealer's choice with both limit and PL/NL, I've just used 3 racks of .25 for 6-8 players and the rest in $1s. On the big bet rounds, everyone just throws in $1s instead of quarters.

This is great to hear! I may just do 3 racks of quarters and 2 racks of 1's in that case. Should suffice for 6/8 players I think. I was thinking 4 racks of quarters and a rack of 5's, but I like your thought process better. The 1's are far more fitting!
 
You can get by running limit without racks and racks of the main chip. It's just customary to use a single chip. Since my game is dealer's choice with both limit and PL/NL, I've just used 3 racks of .25 for 6-8 players and the rest in $1s. On the big bet rounds, everyone just throws in $1s instead of quarters.

Ohhhhhh mannn, just thinking about this. How does that work monetarily? I'm just realizing that $25 buy in for 8 people is $200. With 3 racks of quarters and 2 racks of $1's, that's almost all your chips. No room for rebuys. I may have to go with 400 quarters and 100 $5's. Full rack of $5's may never see the light of day in this game, but it just allows me more room for rebuys.

*Edited for clarity*
 
Ohhhhhh mannn, just thinking about this. How does that work monetarily? I'm just realizing that $25 buy in for 8 people is $200. With 3 racks of quarters and 2 racks of $1's, that's almost all your chips. No room for rebuys. I may have to go with 400 quarters and 100 $5's. Full rack of $5's may never see the light of day in this game, but it just allows me more room for rebuys.

*Edited for clarity*
You have some 5s as a big chip to hold extra value.
 
Like I said, it's just customary to run limit with a single workhorse chip and a single "bank" chip. But as long as you have reasonable working amounts of chips that can be used for betting, anything will work.

Just give people 5s for rebuys and change them out from the table.
 
Assuming I go with the $25 buy in structure, using 25c/50c blinds, I'll need a lot of racks of quarters for this set. I've never built a limit set before so do I go 6 racks of quarters and a rack of $5's, or do I do quarters and 1's? I've seen where 1/2 sets go $1's and $25's only. Feel like the rack of 5's goes perfectly for changing out barrels of quarters so that might work.
Generally speaking, there is more action in limit games with lots of low denom chips (typically one rack per player) and a single 20x high denom chip (typically one barrel per two players). So 5c and $1 chips, 25c and $5 chips, 50c and $10 chips, $1 and $20 chips, or $5 and $100 chips are all good combos for limit games.

But you can certainly spread a 50c/$1 limit game using quarters, $1s, and $5s..... especially if you are at first trying to gauge interest and feasibility for your group.

Another useful approach is to use two no-denomination chips for low and high values, which allows a single set to be used for a variety of games using different limit stakes.
 
What would an example break down look like in your opinion? I'm thinking you are along the lines of

300 - 25c
160 - $1
40 - $5

With this, you could make the $5 chips worth $10 for the rebuys and have a more effective bank.
 
If you have them, sure! I was thinking you didnt have enough 5's in case it gets deep.
 
What would an example break down look like in your opinion? I'm thinking you are along the lines of

300 - 25c
160 - $1
40 - $5
Last time I played a low stakes dealer's choice cash game (5c/10c no-limit/pot-limit plus 50c/$1 fixed limit) the bank (8 players) had 160x 5c, 200x 25c, 240x $1, and a rack of $5s. After 5 hours or so, all of the chips were in play except the $5s, which never hit the table. As I recall, it was a little tight on quarters, but otherwise played fine.
 

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