Cash Game So let me get this right... (1 Viewer)

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Labrat

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I'm reading on several threads on here that .25/.25 cash games are requiring $2k-$3k chipsets with 200+ $5 chips.
Are these games that loose? Because the games I host have maybe 3-4 or even 5 rebuys per night.
I'm feeling really inadequate, here. lol

It seems to me if that's the bank that's required, maybe the blinds need to be raised, or am I missing something?
 
I played for some time in a $0.25/0.50 game where the bank frequently ran deep into 4 digits and occasionally, with a second table running, hit 5.

The game was basically a bunch of $1/2 and $2/5 players playing with quarters for some reason I never fully understood—perhaps just the joy of fracs, or the novelty of potting and repotting $1,000+ stacks to end up chopping $0.75.
 
So $50 (100xBB) is a sufficient buyin, but some games are deeper with a $100 (200xBB) buyin.

If there is a match the half stack option, there is lots of money on the table after only a few rebuys.

Still, you can run a pretty deep, 10-person, single table game at 25¢/50¢ stakes with

100 x $25
200 x $1
200 x $5
80 x $25
20 x $100
 
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It really depends on your players haha. Based on the banks people recommend relative to the stakes of the games, I'm assuming other games are either buying in much deeper or are very liberal with their rebuys.

Assuming your game has a $25 buy in and 9 players. For ever player to buy in 4 times is 36*$25=$900. As you've noted, most nights you only have 3~5 rebuys for a total of about $325. I'd say for games I've hosted, 1 rebuy per player is closer to the high end.

I agree it's odd to be playing a game with 25c chips that's got $3k on the table lol. But hey, who doesn't want to try some deepstack play without hitting 5 figures.
 
WedgeRock said:
A $25 buyin at 25¢/50¢ is pretty shallow, so I expect a lot of gamble and not much poker until the average stack is at 80-100xBB.
Click to expand...
OP referenced a .25/.25 game so I was just going off that. I agree a $25 .25/.50 game is too short/gambly.
 
springbox said:
OP referenced a .25/.25 game so I was just going off that. I agree a $25 .25/.50 game is too short/gambly.
Click to expand...
I’m assuming a $25-$50 buy-in.

I’ve seen people talk about the $5 chip being the workhorse and that just seems insane to me.

To me, if people are raising $5 on a .50 pot, it’s time to raise the blinds.
 
springbox said:
It really depends on your players haha. Based on the banks people recommend relative to the stakes of the games, I'm assuming other games are either buying in much deeper or are very liberal with their rebuys.

Assuming your game has a $25 buy in and 9 players. For ever player to buy in 4 times is 36*$25=$900. As you've noted, most nights you only have 3~5 rebuys for a total of about $325. I'd say for games I've hosted, 1 rebuy per player is closer to the high end.

I agree it's odd to be playing a game with 25c chips that's got $3k on the table lol. But hey, who doesn't want to try some deepstack play without hitting 5 figures.
Click to expand...
Agreed. If you have. 9 players, 36 rebuys seems like they’re all flipping coins all night, to me.

From my experience 3-4 rebuys seems to be the norm.
 
Jimulacrum said:
I played for some time in a $0.25/0.50 game where the bank frequently ran deep into 4 digits and occasionally, with a second table running, hit 5.

The game was basically a bunch of $1/2 and $2/5 players playing with quarters for some reason I never fully understood—perhaps just the joy of fracs, or the novelty of potting and repotting $1,000+ stacks to end up chopping $0.75.
Click to expand...
That’s crazy to me.
 
AlbinoDragon said:
The $5 as a workhorse is likely not in a $50 buy-in.

I play in @bergs mixed games and that is a $125 buy-in with the $5 getting used post-flop.

The buy-in really drives the action chips. As you say, nobody is raising $5 on a smaller pot.
Click to expand...
What are the blinds in those games?
 
Labrat said:
I’m assuming a $25-$50 buy-in.

I’ve seen people talk about the $5 chip being the workhorse and that just seems insane to me.

To me, if people are raising $5 on a .50 pot, it’s time to raise the blinds.
Click to expand...
Yeah, 10x opens are a good sign the blinds are too low.

The obsession with $5s is it's own thing. I don't think a chip that's 10~20% of a buy in should be the primary betting chip.
 
I run 1/1 with $200 max BI and $400 max BI if you're down $400 or more or after 4 hours play.

Bank usually ends up somewhere between $6,500 - $8,000 at end of play with usually 7 - 11 unique players per night. Max 10 handed, usually 7-8 handed. So this means the average BI per players is about $805 (7250/9Players)

Opens generally start at around $5/6 and progress to $20/25 by the end of the night as the stacks get deeper. We call this degen hour.

For SS I try to go 20 x $1 and 36 x $5 at the start. I give out two racks of $1, four racks of $5, one rack of $20 for rebuys and then two barrels of $100 for rebuys when that runs out. Have 10 x $500 plaques if I need to reclaim some chips have never needed to put more than three in play.

I think the minimum number of chips I could get away with would be:

100 $1 = $100
200 $5 = $1,000
200 $20 = $4,000
40 $100 = $4,000
= $9,100

But I'd really like more value storage to be safe.

On the other hand I have played 0.25/0.50 games with $50 Max BI where only one player was in for 3 bullets after 8 hours, so ymmv
 
springbox said:
Yeah, 10x opens are a good sign the blinds are too low.
Click to expand...
Meh. To each their own. My first group of poker buddies in our .25/.50 game we see $2-3 opens pretty regularly. Some of the PCF games around here an open is $5-7. It really just depends on the group and how much gambol they have in them. Sometimes it’s fun to buy in for 200BB only to have the open make it a 35BB stack. And tbh, I can see going back to a .25/.50 with small opens being boring after exposure to the PCFrs. I now understand why they might buyin for 1000BB in an uncapped .25/.50 game when others are buying in for 200BB.
 
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Labrat said:
From my experience 3-4 rebuys seems to be the norm.
Click to expand...

Sounds about right on the rebuys per person.

I host a 7 to 8 player game once a month. We play .25/.50, but with a $100 max buy in. Our table rebuys are usually in the 7-12 range. The fewest amount of rebuys I have ever had was 5. The most were 17 (it was one of those kind of nights, one player was in for 7 buy ins).

We also play triple draw, SOHE, Scarney, Gods Game, 3-2-1, Big O, blah blah blah

I have suggested raising the stakes. My guys like how the game is ran. I am nothing if not a team player.

100 x .25
200 x 1
200-300 x 5
80 x 25
20 x 100

This breakdown covers any and all stakes that my group may want to play.

Of course I think you need 4-8 sets with this breakdown.
 
Labrat said:
I’m assuming a $25-$50 buy-in.

I’ve seen people talk about the $5 chip being the workhorse and that just seems insane to me.

To me, if people are raising $5 on a .50 pot, it’s time to raise the blinds.
Click to expand...

I’d consider the $5 the workhorse chip in 1/2, 1/3 and many 2/5 games. Not in a 25¢/25¢ game.

But I think one of the tacit ideas here is that most games escalate in stakes over time.

So, unless you are confident that you will always be able to find more $5 chips of the same type, once you do bump up stakes, some people want to build a more expandable set up front.

When I built my dream custom set recently, I not only overbought for most denominations, I also included denominations that I do not expect to use right away.

Right now I’m hosting mainly 2/5, but there may be nights where I bumped down to 1/3 or up to 5/10.

And when in 30 years I hit the nursing home, or if I want to teach my neice and nephew poker, my undenominated solid chips will let me host microstakes games…

But to be fair I only arrived at the point where I was willing to make that investment after many years of hosting with smaller and more basic chipsets.
 
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It depends on your players. There are splashy 0.25/0.25 games where $1 and $5 are workhorses, then there are more reserved limpy games where you may want more fracs and $1. As long as you have enough bank to cover all the money on the table on your biggest night.

It doesn't hurt to have some extra higher denoms available as your game grows or you want to cover slightly higher stakes. But you don't have to go wild with 6 racks of each denom.
 

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