Cash Game Six-player Cash Game (1 Viewer)

[MCTennis]

I have roughly 5 or 6 players that are willing to start a small cash game... I have 650 Horseshoe Cincinnati chips... $1's - $500's... We have always played small NL Tournaments to this point so I am very unprepared and pretty unfamiliar with structuring cash games.

Would a $1/$2 limit game keep the "max" losses for the night around $200? I understand it may be difficult to cap or predict losses, I am just curious about proportional losses to the blind structure so to speak. We are planning to play for 90-120 minutes if that helps.

All this information are guesses and open to advice:
Initial buy-in: $100 (cap)
Blinds: $1/$2
*I figure we will allow players that are felted to reload to $100 to maybe help with the max losses.

If there is anything that seems way off, please feel free to throw out some suggestions... I would like to play .25/.50 or .50/$1.00 but I don't have the chips to do so without a purchase or some creativity (suggestions welcome).

 

[allforcharity]

All you need to know is how much money is going to be on the table at the end of the night assuming all your players buy-in and reload for the maximum amount, each. So, if you never have more than 6 players, and those 6 players would never risk more than $200 each on your biggest night, then you need a bank of $1200. 400 chips total , 200x $1 and 200x $5 gives $1200 exactly. You can switch 20 of those $5 chips to $20 chips which gives you an extra cushion of $300 bank for total of $1500.
Add a rack of 25cent fracs if you want to play 0.25/0.50 or 0.50/1. 500 chips total.

 

[Eloe2000]

You can use the $25 chips as $0.25 and do $40 buy-in .25/.25 game (you can get by without an actual $25 chip in that game with just 5 or 6 people) or you can do $100 buy-in $1/$1 games. Personally I don’t like to buy in for less than 100x big blind, but it all depends how your game plays.

 

[Jambine]

Would a $1/$2 limit game keep the "max" losses for the night around $200?

For structured limit you only need about 20 big bets to start ($40.00 for a 1/2 game)
Loosing $200 in a 1/2 limit game would be hard to do

 

[Eloe2000]

For what its worth, I would recommend starting at the lower end of what you think your players would be comfortable playing. Particuarly if you are trying to foster and grow a consistent game. Players might not be willing to speak up about the stakes being too large. They will just stop showing up. But if you start at the lower end you can determine pretty effectively by the game play if you can and should up the stakes.

edit: I missed the fact that you are looking to play limit cash.

 

[grebe]

For LIMIT play, you could do a 2/4 game easily and stay below $200 for hours. This is the game you are describing, blinds would be $1 and $2...but it is called 2/4 because the first two betting rounds are small ($2) and the second two rounds are big ($4).

As for your chip set, you ideally want a few hundred chips of all one denomination....in this game $1's....as this game works best that way. Use a bigger denom for rebuys and topping up. Do the best with what you got though.

Your time is on the EXTREME short side. a 2 hour poker session is very short.

 

[Beakertwang]

One option would be to play divided-by-10 stakes NLHE. For $40, everyone gets $400 worth of chips. You’re playing 1/2, but the actual stakes are .10/.20.

 

[grebe]

a lot of NLHE advice in here. OP specifically mentions this being a LIMIT game.

 

[Legend5555]

You can often play double or triple the blinds in a limit game to get the same win loss fluctuations of a no limit game. Of course this depends on players.

It would be fairly rare that a person burns through $200 in 2 hours even in a $4/$8 ($2/$4 blinds) limit game unless they are really bad.

If you are thinking about No Limit though. Then $200 can go pretty quick even in a .50/1 blinds game. I've had a player in my .25/.25 game go through $300 before.

All that said, if you are playing limit, then $2/$4 or $3/$6 sounds like the sweet spot you want.

 

[Taghkanic]

What is the breakdown of your 650 chips?

I like the idea of using the $25s as 0.25s. Then you could play 25c/50c or 50c/1.

Agreed with other posters that 90-120 minutes is very short. You could even play NLHE I would think and still only the loosest/least lucky player on a given night out of six should manage to lose $200 If the max buyin is $100 at the above stakes in that timeframe, unless your game plays very splashy. I guess six-handed does promote action, though.

 

[Taghkanic]

a lot of NLHE advice in here. OP specifically mentions this being a LIMIT game.

It wasn’t clear if he is wedded to limit no matter what, or only contemplating it as a device for limiting losses. My inclination would be to lower the stakes to suit players's bankrolls, rather than boxing oneself into a game type to keep the stakes higher.

But maybe this set of players prefers limit. Seems unusual, since tourney-centric players are less likely to be familiar with the rules and strategy of limit.

 

[Eriks]

Honestly, I would rather keep doing tournaments than playing 1/2 with 100bbs stopp loss. I think those are way too high blinds for a 200 budget

 

[Eriks]

Sorry, poor reading comprehention here. Didn’t see the fixed limit part

 

[MCTennis]

For LIMIT play, you could do a 2/4 game easily and stay below $200 for hours. This is the game you are describing, blinds would be $1 and $2...but it is called 2/4 because the first two betting rounds are small ($2) and the second two rounds are big ($4).

As for your chip set, you ideally want a few hundred chips of all one denomination....in this game $1's....as this game works best that way. Use a bigger denom for rebuys and topping up. Do the best with what you got though.

Your time is on the EXTREME short side. a 2 hour poker session is very short.

It is definitely a short game. We don't have a ton of time to play but we are all getting back into the idea of getting together and playing again after a pretty long layoff. I just figured I would try to create an opportunity for everyone to get together and see if we can create something initially that everyone would be willing to prioritize and maybe make some more time for on the weekends.

 

[MCTennis]

It wasn’t clear if he is wedded to limit no matter what, or only contemplating it as a device for limiting losses. My inclination would be to lower the stakes to suit players's bankrolls, rather than boxing oneself into a game type to keep the stakes higher.

But maybe this set of players prefers limit. Seems unusual, since tourney-centric players are less likely to be familiar with the rules and strategy of limit.

You're right, we are definitely less familiar with the limit rules and strategy but when we started discussing trying to set a game up again this was one of the things we were interested in learning about. We aren't playing too seriously, nor too frivolously. We enjoy the game and learning about it.


As a side note, thank you to everyone for the advice so far. I am taking it all in for sure.

 

[CrazyEddie]

I have roughly 5 or 6 players that are willing to start a small cash game...

Would a $1/$2 limit game keep the "max" losses for the night around $200?

The three most common pieces of advice around here for starting up a cash game with players who are hesitant due to their potential losses (versus a fixed tournament buy-in) are:

• Play NL at smaller stakes
• Play NL with a per-hand capped bet
• Play limit

I mention this just so you don't think playing limit is your only option. That said, I encourage you to play limit! It's a different game than NL. Your players will have to adjust, but exposure to different types of games is, IMHO, a great thing! Be warned that at first they'll probably think it's boring, and possibly even lacking in skill. That's wrong, but they may not believe it until they get cleaned out by a skilled limit player. If they take to playing limit cash games, they'll be well-positioned to start playing mixed games like stud and lowball, many of which play best using fixed limit betting.

If you want to play smaller stakes NL but you don't have the chips for it, a common suggestion is to use a multiplier at buy-in and cash-out. $100 gets you $500 in chips, and then the reverse when cashing out. That would let you play $0.20/$0.40 NL using your $1 chips.

Good luck!

 

[MCTennis]

The three most common pieces of advice around here for starting up a cash game with players who are hesitant due to their potential losses (versus a fixed tournament buy-in) are:

• Play NL at smaller stakes
• Play NL with a per-hand capped bet
• Play limit

I mention this just so you don't think playing limit is your only option. That said, I encourage you to play limit! It's a different game than NL. Your players will have to adjust, but exposure to different types of games is, IMHO, a great thing! Be warned that at first they'll probably think it's boring, and possibly even lacking in skill. That's wrong, but they may not believe it until they get cleaned out by a skilled limit player. If they take to playing limit cash games, they'll be well-positioned to start playing mixed games like stud and lowball, many of which play best using fixed limit betting.

If you want to play smaller stakes NL but you don't have the chips for it, a common suggestion is to use a multiplier at buy-in and cash-out. $100 gets you $500 in chips, and then the reverse when cashing out. That would let you play $0.20/$0.40 NL using your $1 chips.

Good luck!

Great advice! I hadn’t thought about the multiplier at all. Thank you.

 

[CrazyEddie]

As for your chip set, you ideally want a few hundred chips of all one denomination....in this game $1's....as this game works best that way. Use a bigger denom for rebuys and topping up. Do the best with what you got though.

@grebe is right that fixed limit games are a lot of fun when you have lots of your lowest denom to bet with and use just a few higher denoms to hold value. But it's definitely not necessary to use a chip breakdown like that. You can use the same breakdown for limit and NL games and it will work just fine. You'll probably find yourself making change more often because all your bets will be small, but that's not really a problem; it's just a minor inconvenience, for some.

 

[Jambine]

Be warned that at first they'll probably think it's boring, and possibly even lacking in skill. That's wrong, but they may not believe it until they get cleaned out by a skilled limit player.

This also serves to educate noob's on the importance of pot odds and value betting

 

[JustinInMN]

Would a $1/$2 limit game keep the "max" losses for the night around $200? I understand it may be difficult to cap or predict losses, I am just curious about proportional losses to the blind structure so to speak. We are planning to play for 90-120 minutes if that helps.

Yeah I think a 1/2 limit game would fit fine in these parameters, a 2/4 limit game would as well.

Initial buy-in: $100 (cap)
Blinds: $1/$2
*I figure we will allow players that are felted to reload to $100 to maybe help with the max losses.

Now I am starting to wonder if you indeed meant a "no-limit" game and just used the word "limit" in place of "blinds" in your earlier post.

To define terms, in fixed limit hold'em, the bets are always the same structure. Bets and raises of the lower limit pre and post flop, and double that post turn and river.

If this is not the game you meant, you probably meant no-limit and I would change my answer say no-limit with 1-2 blinds is too high stake for a $200/player budget.

(You will note that I tend to use "/" when talking about betting limits in fixed limit games and "-" whenever I am talking about blinds.)

So if indeed you meant no limit betting, my suggestion would be 1-1 blinds with a $100 cap, that way everyone can do two buy ins on a 200 budget. That's still kinda tight, but maybe okay if the game is only going two hours. If you had chips you could use as 50c (or 25c as suggested above), you could do something like 50c-50c (or 25c-50c) blinds with 60 max buy in and everyone would have 3 buy ins available. I really like to pick stakes where I am sure most players will bet willing to put in 2-3 buy ins if needed.

Anyway, please clear this question up for us if you can.

Thanks,

 

[JustinInMN]

It wasn’t clear if he is wedded to limit no matter what, or only contemplating it as a device for limiting losses. My inclination would be to lower the stakes to suit players's bankrolls, rather than boxing oneself into a game type to keep the stakes higher.

I think there's a chance the OP misused the word "limit" instead of "blinds" when meaning he wanted a no-limit game with 1-2 blinds.

 

[JustinInMN]

It would be fairly rare that a person burns through $200 in 2 hours even in a $4/$8 ($2/$4 blinds) limit game unless they are really bad.

Heh, about 10 years ago, I lost $300 at 8/16 limit in two hands before my chips arrived .

 

[Beakertwang]

If I wanted to limit max loss to $100, I’d play .10/.20 or .25/.25 no-limit or pot-limit. If playing fixed-limit, it would be 1/2 would be max, preferably .50/1.

 

[Legend5555]

Heh, about 10 years ago, I lost $300 at 8/16 limit in two hands before my chips arrived .

It happens. But a pretty rare occurrence from my experience. And I've played plenty of 4/8.

 

[JustinInMN]

It happens. But a pretty rare occurrence from my experience. And I've played plenty of 4/8.

It was two huge coolers, but obviously a memorable moment from my exploits .

 

[TheBigTater]

Standard buy-in for limit is usually 25BB (big bets). So for a 2/4 limit game I would buy-in for $100. You could limit everyone to 2 buy-in that would keep the stop loss at $200.

 

[moose]

I have roughly 5 or 6 players that are willing to start a small cash game... I have 650 Horseshoe Cincinnati chips... $1's - $500's... We have always played small NL Tournaments to this point so I am very unprepared and pretty unfamiliar with structuring cash games.

Would a $1/$2 limit game keep the "max" losses for the night around $200? I understand it may be difficult to cap or predict losses, I am just curious about proportional losses to the blind structure so to speak. We are planning to play for 90-120 minutes if that helps.

All this information are guesses and open to advice:
Initial buy-in: $100 (cap)
Blinds: $1/$2
*I figure we will allow players that are felted to reload to $100 to maybe help with the max losses.

If there is anything that seems way off, please feel free to throw out some suggestions... I would like to play .25/.50 or .50/$1.00 but I don't have the chips to do so without a purchase or some creativity (suggestions welcome).

For $1/2 limit you would need blinds of .50/1 or 1/1.

If you are using $1/2 blinds, the betting limits are $2 preflop/flop and $4 turn/river. This would be $2/4 limit.

In a limit structure there is no point in limiting the buyins because $100 would be more than it would be possible to bet in a single hand.

 

[MyLastChip]

So I’m in almost the same situation. My friends and I play pretty loose back In the day and am trying to revive their poker spirit and am wanting to have a regular poker night.

Quick, may sound silly question, so if I’m getting this right a $1/$2 game the blinds would below $1 and the $1/$2 refers to the betting. And if what I have read so far preflop and post flop betting (1st and 2nd round) is $1. And turn and river is (3rd and 4th/final round) is $2....... sooo how does the betting commence? Is my question. Everyone can only bet the $1 $2 depending on the round? Can only raise $1/$2? Can each person raise only 1/2 dollars? Can you re raise and it goes around again?

 

[Legend5555]

So I’m in almost the same situation. My friends and I play pretty loose back In the day and am trying to revive their poker spirit and am wanting to have a regular poker night.

Quick, may sound silly question, so if I’m getting this right a $1/$2 game the blinds would below $1 and the $1/$2 refers to the betting. And if what I have read so far preflop and post flop betting (1st and 2nd round) is $1. And turn and river is (3rd and 4th/final round) is $2....... sooo how does the betting commence? Is my question. Everyone can only bet the $1 $2 depending on the round? Can only raise $1/$2? Can each person raise only 1/2 dollars? Can you re raise and it goes around again?

In limit the betting pre and in flop are in $1 increments, typically capped at 4 or 5 bets. So pre the first raise would be to $2, a reraise would be to $3, etc. But would stop at $4 or $5.

Same on turn and river except bets would be $2 then $4 then $6 etc.

 

[MyLastChip]

In limit the betting pre and in flop are in $1 increments, typically capped at 4 or 5 bets. So pre the first raise would be to $2, a reraise would be to $3, etc. But would stop at $4 or $5.

Same on turn and river except bets would be $2 then $4 then $6 etc.

So the bets/raises are capped. So for example you have 5 players let’s say we cap at 5 bets..... first to act bets $1 and everyone raises $1. That round of betting would be maxed at $25? And the “2$” round would be $50? That can add up quick with a $25 buy in.