Micro cash game rebuys (1 Viewer)

Joined
Jan 6, 2023
Messages
1,556
Reaction score
1,968
Location
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Hi guys. New here and working on my posts. Questions. Thinking of migrating from $20 home tourney with friends and family to a $20 micro cash game. Starting stack of 10 nickels, 18 quarters and 15 dollars. What should my rebuy perimeters be? I’d like to prevent players felting and not playing. And I don’t want the pot to get ridiculous. Should reloads be 20 or 40 and why? And should players be allowed to top off a stack of 15 with $5 back to 20 for example? What work for you? And why?
 
Set your min/max, and players are allowed to rebuy or add on at any time up to the max. It wouldn’t be crazy to raise the max as the night goes on, either double it, or half the big stack, or match the big stack. But whatever works best for your group.

My group plays 5¢/10¢, $5-20. Most buy in for $15 or $20. Late in the night, when stacks are big, we may raise the max to $40, and we remove the nickels and play .25/.25, but only if everyone still playing agrees.

Regarding starting stacks: I give the first four players 5¢ x 20, 25¢ x 20, and $1’s to complete their buy in. Later buy-ins get quarters and 1’s and make change at the table. Once the quarters are all on the table, rebuys are in 1’s and 5’s if necessary
 
Last edited:
Set your min/max, and players are allowed to rebuy or add on at any time up to the max. It wouldn’t be crazy to raise the max as the night goes on, either double it, or half the big stack, or match the big stack. But whatever works best for your group.

My group plays 5¢/10¢, $5-20. Most buy in for $15 or $20. Late in the night, when stacks are big, we may raise the max to $40, and we remove the nickels and play .25/.25, but only if everyone still playing agrees.

Regarding starting stacks: I give the first four players 5¢ x 20, 25¢ x 20, and $1’s to complete their buy in. Later buy-ins get quarters and 1’s and make change at the table. Once the quarters are all in the table, rebuys are in 1’s and 5’s if necessary
This is super helpful thanks so much. Should there be a cap of players at the table for cash games?
 
All game dependent. Min 5 max 20. Warn me about a rebuy or topoff before a hand, then after that hand I take your cash/venmo and hand chips out.

Starting stacks dont matter. Ill pitch you 5 $1s and 3 $5s and let you make change with the table.
 
This is super helpful thanks so much. Should there be a cap of players at the table for cash games?
I think 9 or 10 can get a little boring for a friendly game, but it can work, as long as your table is big enough. I’ve found 7 or 8 to be a nice happy medium. But usually, I’m just happy to play.

Also to keep in mind: some games with 5 or 6 cards dealt to each player, or double board games can only be played with 6 or 7. Ordinary Hold’em or Omaha is fine with up to 10.
 
Last edited:
I've never liked the idea of placing minimum or maximum amounts for cash game buy-ins. I usually sit down with 100BB, because thats my comfort point. I see players sit with way more and way less. I dont know if the poker rooms I have been to, have limits.
 
I've never liked the idea of placing minimum or maximum amounts for cash game buy-ins. I usually sit down with 100BB, because thats my comfort point. I see players sit with way more and way less. I dont know if the poker rooms I have been to, have limits.
A minimum makes more sense to me, as I really don't want someone buying in for 10bb over and over again. If someone wants to sit at a table with 10x the next biggest stack, it makes no difference. However, if everyone buys in for 500bb or more, then you may as well raise the stakes significantly.
 
Friends and family with a $20 buying able to top off to the 20 is good. If you extend the buy and later in the night or do you have the big stack you’re making the game more money focused.

By raising the buyin your encouraging people to be felted. 10 min 20 max

I would do .05/ $.10 and allow rebuys or top off with larger denoms, so ones or fives.
 
A minimum makes more sense to me, as I really don't want someone buying in for 10bb over and over again. If someone wants to sit at a table with 10x the next biggest stack, it makes no difference. However, if everyone buys in for 500bb or more, then you may as well raise the stakes significantly.
SHHHHHHHH

500bb is perfect
 
I rarely run into any re-buy issues at my game. Everyone buys in for $20 and usually re-buy for that much or less. I’ve never had anyone ask to re-buy for $40 but if everyone at the table was cool with it I wouldn’t mind. Or if the average stack was $40 and maybe the table was short handed then re-buys could match the stacks.

I think it could get messy with big re buys if people wanna play match the big stack. I’ve played in 1/2 home games where as soon as someone doubled up everyone just added another $300 to their stack. I was sitting there with $100 like ahhhh, what just happened.
 
Set your min/max, and players are allowed to rebuy or add on at any time up to the max. It wouldn’t be crazy to raise the max as the night goes on, either double it, or half the big stack, or match the big stack. But whatever works best for your group.

My group plays 5¢/10¢, $5-20. Most buy in for $15 or $20. Late in the night, when stacks are big, we may raise the max to $40, and we remove the nickels and play .25/.25, but only if everyone still playing agrees.

Regarding starting stacks: I give the first four players 5¢ x 20, 25¢ x 20, and $1’s to complete their buy in. Later buy-ins get quarters and 1’s and make change at the table. Once the quarters are all on the table, rebuys are in 1’s and 5’s if necessary
I think this is the best way to play cash games at home. I tried several times and it always works and the night becomes more interesting when we raise the limits
 
Set your min/max, and players are allowed to rebuy or add on at any time up to the max. It wouldn’t be crazy to raise the max as the night goes on, either double it, or half the big stack, or match the big stack. But whatever works best for your group.

My group plays 5¢/10¢, $5-20. Most buy in for $15 or $20. Late in the night, when stacks are big, we may raise the max to $40, and we remove the nickels and play .25/.25, but only if everyone still playing agrees.

Regarding starting stacks: I give the first four players 5¢ x 20, 25¢ x 20, and $1’s to complete their buy in. Later buy-ins get quarters and 1’s and make change at the table. Once the quarters are all on the table, rebuys are in 1’s and 5’s if necessary
Do you put a limit on the amount or just unlimited all night?
 
My game is .05/.10 with a $5 to $20 buy-in, and a top off to $20 anytime. People don't like too many big stacks at the table, so there's no match the stack. Compared to a $20 tourney I might suggest starting with $10 buy-ins because re-buys are an expected part of cash.
 
BTW, when is micro no longer micro? I just heard a local walked away with over $900 from a 0.10/0.20 game, and that was just her, who knows what the rest of the stacks were.
I don't believe it. The game must be full of horrible players for anyone to go +4500 BB. She had to win practically every chip on the table. Her 8 opponents must have got in for 700-800 BB each at that.
 
No limit on the night. I suppose you could if you wanted, but I've found that players set their own stop loss.
This is a learned behavior, I keep trying to get my players to see it this way but they never do. They lose their $5 or $10 and then are just done. I almost want to get felted just to rebuy to show them its possible!
I always say you should set the max buy in where most players will be comfortable going 2-3 buy-ins deep. I know this post is 9 months old, but to solve the original posters question, perhaps the best way to teach this behavior is to start the cash game at half of the tournament buy in.

Hi guys. New here and working on my posts. Questions. Thinking of migrating from $20 home tourney with friends and family to a $20 micro cash game. Starting stack of 10 nickels, 18 quarters and 15 dollars. What should my rebuy perimeters be? I’d like to prevent players felting and not playing. And I don’t want the pot to get ridiculous. Should reloads be 20 or 40 and why? And should players be allowed to top off a stack of 15 with $5 back to 20 for example? What work for you? And why?

So I would do 10 max with blinds either at 0.05-0.05 or 0.05-0.10. The stack construction is good, just adjust downward for $10 buy ins. I like 10/18/5 or 10/22/4. I even like just giving two barrels of quarters per player (or like 10/38/0) until you are out of quarters. (kind of like doing two barrels of twenty-fives for $1000 buy in for a 5-10 NL game) Then players can just get singles for rebuys.

But this would help learn the behavior that rebuys are normal in cash, and if they are comfortable going 20 in a tournament, they should be comfortable going 10 twice in a cash game at least.

As for rebuy rules, I allow players to always add on up to the max between hands provided they are buying at least 20BB in chips. (Which is my minimum buy in.) This prevents anyone that just wants to buy $1.50 every time the blinds go by in a 0.50-1 game. They would have to buy at least 20 and that 20 should not put them over the max.

I do allow one "short" buy in after a player is felted. Again using 0.50-1 as an example, if a player only has $12 in his wallet after getting felted, I'm not going to say no to one "short" buy. But if he loses that, he has to raise enough to meet the minimum to buy in again.
 
Last edited:
I've never liked the idea of placing minimum or maximum amounts for cash game buy-ins. I usually sit down with 100BB, because thats my comfort point. I see players sit with way more and way less. I dont know if the poker rooms I have been to, have limits.
especially limit poker where the stacks arent as big a deal
 
Dime (2 nickles) Quarter blinds always seemed logical to me. That way you can keep your supply of nickles to about a rack to a rack and a quarter.
 
I always say you should set the max buy in where most players will be comfortable going 2-3 buy-ins deep.
That makes sense. I keep it low stakes for that reason but there's that difference in thought: poker to them is, you put your money in and leave when you have no more chips, there seems to be an associated shame about rebuying and having to put more money in. I started with the stakes between $5 and $20, then dropped to $10. Very similar results, no rebuys even though I know they're comfortable losing several buyins (lol, less than the cost of a meal).
 
That makes sense. I keep it low stakes for that reason but there's that difference in thought: poker to them is, you put your money in and leave when you have no more chips, there seems to be an associated shame about rebuying and having to put more money in. I started with the stakes between $5 and $20, then dropped to $10. Very similar results, no rebuys even though I know they're comfortable losing several buyins (lol, less than the cost of a meal).
Or maybe start doing top offs. Any time between hands, you can top up your stack (which players should be doing anyway) up to the max. If enough of these are done, those that need to rebuy won’t seem as obvious.
 
I always encourage adding on.

I preach that you don’t have to SPEND it…. It just protects you when your get thinned out, and another triples up…. Otherwise big stack starts controlling your action with a bet sizing.

If you add on, big stack has no flex power, and he has to mind his lip on his bets :ROFL: :ROFLMAO: Why? Because you have the power to felt that ass the moment he steps in it. Keeping your teeth and having a strong bite is crucial in cash games.

An armed society is a polite society. That applies to poker as well ;)
 
This is a learned behavior, I keep trying to get my players to see it this way but they never do. They lose their $5 or $10 and then are just done. I almost want to get felted just to rebuy to show them its possible!
Show them respawning and winning money back is a thing :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:

Then they will have a light bulb moment, and the next thing you know your table has $5K on it…

LFG!
 

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