Cash Game What's the difference .25/.50 vs .50/.50? (1 Viewer)

[Naww_Mann]

I currently host .25/.50 cash games with friends who are beginners-ish so LOTS of limped pots, rarely anyone raising preflop (except me from time to time to spice it up), people getting in with garbage hands and sometimes hitting them. Also no one ever folds to bets/small raises if they have even bottom pair. I find it actually hard to play with a normal strategy when my friends don't exactly respond to bets/raises as they "should" if they knew how to play - though this does make it kinda fun sometimes.

And that's fine and all, we have loads of fun...but I want to know how can I change up the game in a way that would reduce this? Or force them to rethink about playing said garbage hands, etc...

Would raising the blinds to .50/.50 make any difference really? We buy in at $50 so that's why I kind of want to keep the big blind at .50 so that we're playing about 100bb.

My other option in game would be just to continue raising them preflop?

 

[fishsaybloop]

You get more chips ^^

 

[detroitdad]

Would raising the blinds to .50/.50 make any difference really

No.

 

[moechar]

Not much of a difference IMO. its just 25c difference in blind, standard 3x bet still stays the same ($1.50). Initial difference would be moving up to .50/1

 

[joeyshin]

A game action has a lot to do with starting stack. If you give a lot of fracs in the starting stack people play smaller pots. If you give more $1s then the game will play higher. If you give more $5s then the game will play much higher. The reason is, often people wont bother trying to make change with every bet so they play higher chips and makes the game play higher

 

[detroitdad]

Would raising the blinds to .50/.50 make any difference really? We buy in at $50 so that's why I kind of want to keep the big blind at .50 so that we're playing about 100bb.

I'm a fan of 200 BB's. We also play .25/.50, but max buy in is 100. Rebuys are 100, or half the deep stack. Are they playing a lot of limp poker because they are playing with scared money? skill set? ect...

 

[upNdown]

Would raising the blinds to .50/.50 make any difference really?

No. From what you've described, it sounds like they play the way they play because they're not poker players. The stakes probably have nothing to do with it.

 

[ArielVer18]

SB has more incentive to see a flop, but otherwise, there's no big difference between 25¢/50¢ and 50¢/50¢.

Raise bigger preflop. Try 5x and go higher or lower based on the reactions of your friends. The 2.125x, 2.25x, 2.5x, or 3x online standard raises doesn't make sense in live poker.

 

[Pgheddie]

And that's fine and all, we have loads of fun...but I want to know how can I change up the game in a way that would reduce this? Or force them to rethink about playing said garbage hands, etc...

Why I really don't like .25/.50. I get it RE the buy in, but if you want realistic poker, you have to have stakes that force people to fold the dirty diaper.

 

[Pgheddie]

Raise bigger preflop. Try 5x and go higher or lower based on the reactions of your friends. The 2.125x, 2.25x, 2.5x, or 3x online standard raises doesn't make sense in live poker.

This also, but if your players are going to adapt to that big a change in proflop betting anyway, I would just raise the stakes.

 

[Legend5555]

I currently host .25/.50 cash games with friends who are beginners-ish so LOTS of limped pots, rarely anyone raising preflop (except me from time to time to spice it up), people getting in with garbage hands and sometimes hitting them. Also no one ever folds to bets/small raises if they have even bottom pair. I find it actually hard to play with a normal strategy when my friends don't exactly respond to bets/raises as they "should" if they knew how to play - though this does make it kinda fun sometimes.

And that's fine and all, we have loads of fun...but I want to know how can I change up the game in a way that would reduce this? Or force them to rethink about playing said garbage hands, etc...

Would raising the blinds to .50/.50 make any difference really? We buy in at $50 so that's why I kind of want to keep the big blind at .50 so that we're playing about 100bb.

My other option in game would be just to continue raising them preflop?

Why do you want them to play better exactly?

I'd love to play in a game like this as often as I could.

 

[Pgheddie]

Why do you want them to play better exactly?

I'd love to play in a game like this as often as I could.

Ok, this is the best post of the week. No more entries.

 

[Coyote]

.50/.50 enables to do away with quarters and have just halves, instead, chip-wise.

Game-wise, I wonder if a marginal improvement could come from a single .50 blind, plus a .50 dealer ante.
Honestly wondering, so open for discussion.

At any rate, (to our OP) raise the hell pre-flop with solid hands from any position, and with speculative hands in position.

 

[grebe]

I currently host .25/.50 cash games with friends who are beginners-ish so LOTS of limped pots, rarely anyone raising preflop (except me from time to time to spice it up), people getting in with garbage hands and sometimes hitting them. Also no one ever folds to bets/small raises if they have even bottom pair. I find it actually hard to play with a normal strategy when my friends don't exactly respond to bets/raises as they "should" if they knew how to play - though this does make it kinda fun sometimes.

And that's fine and all, we have loads of fun...but I want to know how can I change up the game in a way that would reduce this? Or force them to rethink about playing said garbage hands, etc...

Would raising the blinds to .50/.50 make any difference really? We buy in at $50 so that's why I kind of want to keep the big blind at .50 so that we're playing about 100bb.

My other option in game would be just to continue raising them preflop?

Your job as host has nothing to do with getting players to play a certain way. If they are happy, why would you change it? If you are interested in getting better yourself, why would you want to change the way they play? If you are interested in making the most profit possible, why would you change the way they play?

To be honest, your game sounds fun, easy to beat and probably for a lot of big blinds. Enjoy it. Change the way YOU respond to their play, don't try to make them conform to the way you want them to play.

I agree with others, if you really want to change this game (don't do it), then change the max buy in. Going to .5/.5 blinds will be negligible, but worth doing if you want to get quarters off the table in exchange for 1/2 dollars only. Other than that, same game.

 

[detroitdad]

Your job as host has nothing to do with getting players to play a certain way. If they are happy, why would you change it? If you are interested in getting better yourself, why would you want to change the way they play? If you are interested in making the most profit possible, why would you change the way they play?

To be honest, your game sounds fun, easy to beat and probably for a lot of big blinds. Enjoy it. Change the way YOU respond to their play, don't try to make them conform to the way you want them to play.

I agree with others, if you really want to change this game (don't do it), then change the max buy in. Going to .5/.5 blinds will be negligible, but worth doing if you want to get quarters off the table in exchange for 1/2 dollars only. Other than that, same game.

Great response. I'm not used to seeing this from you

@Naww_Mann you could try playing limit poker?

 

[upNdown]

Why I really don't like .25/.50. I get it RE the buy in, but if you want realistic poker, you have to have stakes that force people to fold the dirty diaper.

With some players, yes. But I've seen plenty of guys, who, if you give them $10 at a $1/1 table, they'll flat 6 8 under the gun because it's suited. He may have a table full of those guys. And if you raise the stakes on those guys they'll just lose their money faster and probably lose interest.

 

[trigs]

I used to do $0.25-$0.50 and switched to $0.50-$0.50 and did not notice a difference at all.

 

[moose]

The difference in blinds is to force action but in an unraked home game, the big blind getting a walk should never be an issue.

Like @detroitdad and @trigs I always run .50/.50 $100 max. There is less change making and if you run PLO or other pot games, opening pot is an easy $2. It will play slightly bigger, but a deeper game with 200bb is a better game.

 

[Eloe2000]

Our standard weekly is $0.25/$0.25 ($40) and the general open is $1.50-$3. Occasionally we will get a limped family pot if we are short handed but it isn't very common. We should probably raise it up at some point I guess. Is the standard open on a small stakes friendly cash game really supposed to be just 3x?

 

[moechar]

Our standard weekly is $0.25/$0.25 ($40) and the general open is $1.50-$3. Occasionally we will get a limped family pot if we are short handed but it isn't very common. We should probably raise it up at some point I guess. Is the standard open on a small stakes friendly cash game really supposed to be just 3x?

We have people who open from $10-$17 in .25/.50, I don't think there is anything standard going on at these stakes LOL

 

[Naww_Mann]

Not much of a difference IMO. its just 25c difference in blind, standard 3x bet still stays the same ($1.50). Initial difference would be moving up to .50/1

Definitely looking to move it up to .50/1 soon and will probably stick with that long term.

In the very beginning everyone was scared of even .25/.50, they were thinking .05/.10 but I got them used to that pretty quick and it's been our blinds for quite some time now.

 

[Naww_Mann]

A game action has a lot to do with starting stack. If you give a lot of fracs in the starting stack people play smaller pots. If you give more $1s then the game will play higher. If you give more $5s then the game will play much higher. The reason is, often people wont bother trying to make change with every bet so they play higher chips and makes the game play higher

I figured this could be a factor as well, a big at that. I used to start them off with a barrel of .25s but quickly noticed they were overflowing our table.

Next game reducing it down to 12 x .25s to see how that works. I think without changing blinds, this is probably next best thing - plus makes it better for the table too to not have a ton of quarters floating around.

 

[buzzmonkey]

You can't force someone to improve and if you try you may scare them away from your game. The game needs to be fun. For some people that means improving their skills and strategy. For others it means downing a sixer and hanging out with their friends.

 

[Naww_Mann]

Your job as host has nothing to do with getting players to play a certain way. If they are happy, why would you change it? If you are interested in getting better yourself, why would you want to change the way they play? If you are interested in making the most profit possible, why would you change the way they play?

To be honest, your game sounds fun, easy to beat and probably for a lot of big blinds. Enjoy it. Change the way YOU respond to their play, don't try to make them conform to the way you want them to play.

I agree with others, if you really want to change this game (don't do it), then change the max buy in. Going to .5/.5 blinds will be negligible, but worth doing if you want to get quarters off the table in exchange for 1/2 dollars only. Other than that, same game.

Appreciate your response - and you're right, if we're having fun the way it is I shouldn't be changing anything.

But we're all in agreement that we want to improve our game so every night we host I explain (or teach) some common/basic strategies to help them understand what the standard play would be if faced a raise, re-raise, all ins etc... And how to read an opponent's hand based on their actions - to the best I know of.

So I'm just acknowledging that and thought adjusting the stakes would make them think about limping in, calling raises with subpar hands etc...as there's more on the line if you lose (albeit a few dollars)

Otherwise it's a fun night and I usually win a lot a good amount of the time, but sometimes also lose because I never expect them to have certain hands.

Most likely what will help is reducing the amount of .25s each player starts with and eventually making our way to .50/1 as that would give some financial incentive to reconsider worse hands

 

[trigs]

I second the notion of playing deeper (like 200BBs) instead of upping the blinds. There's a lot more strategy and skill needed to play deeper stacks, so if you want your group to learn together I'd suggest that instead.

 

[Naww_Mann]

You can't force someone to improve and if you try you may scare them away from your game. The game needs to be fun. For some people that means improving their skills and strategy. For others it means downing a sixer and hanging out with their friends.

No of course I wouldn't force anything, but we all said we wanted to learn to play better so I do my best to explain why some of their plays may not have made the most sense etc.... But we all love it (some more than others) when someone wins unexpectedly

 

[Naww_Mann]

I second the notion of playing deeper (like 200BBs) instead of upping the blinds. There's a lot more strategy and skill needed to play deeper stacks, so if you want your group to learn together I'd suggest that instead.

A few of us are willing to go 200bb, I may run a few games with those folks like that but most people probably cap at $50-60.

They don't really understand yet in terms of big blinds, just the dollar value they're putting on the line.

But it's possible in the future, I did work them up from $25 buy in to $50, at .25/.50

 

[CrazyEddie]

I want to know how can I change up the game in a way that would reduce this? Or force them to rethink about playing said garbage hands, etc...

I don't think you can.

Would raising the blinds to .50/.50 make any difference really?

They'll keep playing the same way but will lose money faster.

 

[CrazyEddie]

Maybe try lowering the blinds, so that the game plays deeper without costing any more money. Play .25/.25 with the same $50 buy-in so that it's still a 200bb game. Make a point of showing that the blinds aren't really much money, so if they want to actually win anything worthwhile then they need to be raising - and that they should raise their good hands. When they start seeing that calling wins them $10 pots and raising wins them $100 pots they'll eventually get the point.

Maybe introduce them to games like PLO; everyone gets good hands (look, two pair! look, a flush! look, a boat!) so everyone can get excited about what a great hand they have and maybe they'll start betting and raising and then get excited about how big the pots are and how awesome it is to beat someone else's full house with a better full house! Instead of gambling passively (everyone limps so it's just a luckfest) they can get excited by gambling actively (everyone raises so it's just a luckfest). Then when you play NLHE they'll have gotten used to the idea of raising to build the pot when they have a hand with some potential.

For an easier transition, instead of PLO try Pineapple or Crazy Pineapple or maybe Thermonuclear Armageddon Pineapple or maybe Three-Hand Hold'em. They're easy games to grasp (it's just like hold'em except you get extra cards, and now and then you throw some of them away) and quick to play but still have that "holy cow look how awesome my hand is" excitement factor.

Anyway. Just an idea. Maybe it would help, maybe not.

 

[CrazyEddie]

Our standard weekly is $0.25/$0.25 ($40) and the general open is $1.50-$3. Occasionally we will get a limped family pot if we are short handed but it isn't very common. We should probably raise it up at some point I guess. Is the standard open on a small stakes friendly cash game really supposed to be just 3x?

The size of the typical openings in your game determine what the actual stakes are. If people routinely open for 10x bb then the blinds are just for show. Which is fine, if everyone's on the same page and is happy with the way the game plays. But a group that opens for 10x isn't thinking about how to efficiently capture the value of the blinds, they're thinking about how much money they want to play with, and so changing the size of the blinds probably won't change the size of their bets. You could probably double the blinds and still see $1.50-$3 openings. Whether there's any reason to do so is different matter.