Long story short: I've been playing in this homegame now almost 5 years....great group of guys, competitive and fun. We play a bastardized cash game (.25/.50 blinds, NLHE, $25 buy in with a one-time rebuy, 5-hours long from 7 pm-Midnight once a month). Always 7-8 players, one table. We decided a long time ago to keep it friendly, we'd limit the rebuys so nobody got too hurt, basically this was enacted for one guy that might have gotten his feelings hurt after losing too much and he and I rotated hosting.

We have a couple looser players that have been asking for unlimited rebuys, or at least more than just one. They wait all month and sometimes end up out by about 10 pm, even after a rebuy. I say these are adult men (aged 33-48 years old), the money is still small and not hurting anyone and they should be allowed to do so. 2 other founders of this game (I was one of 3), think it'll make for a level of unfriendliness and that we should protect these guys from themselves. One item: we keep a spreadsheet that gets dissiminated each month as we award a winner and trophy at year's end. So bigger losses might make for bigger embarassment.

We have a great balance of fun and competitiveness in this game because we are trying hard to play well for bragging rights on the spreadsheet and we laugh a lot and drink during the games. So....thoughts?

It's not cash game this way, it's exactly a one rebuy tournament that is not finished to the end. I'd find this absolutely unacceptable, the reasoning behind it is ludicrous, what does someone that the money hurts stop from quitting when they feel they need to? 25/50 with 25 buyin is ridiculous anyway. Like, it's supporting the fact it's a tournament with a steady blind structure. It's pointless really in my view. Don't know what else to say. No offense to anyone meant by any of the above, obv.

This isn't about the format. This format works for US. I understand this bastardized version of a cash game isn't for everyone. My question is about whether someone should be able to rebuy more than once in a fairly friendly home game.

Why not try raising the limit to 2 rebuys and see what happens?

If you're worried about people going busto too much, why not just play limit?

I agree with Bigdawg. Try 2 rebuys.

You have a good thing going, I wouldn't tinker with it too much. Although you don't say so, I get the sense that these guys simply want to play to midnight with the rest of the fellas. One extra rebuy might get 'em there, or close to it. They're getting to 10pm-ish with current structure, right...about 3 hrs.

While I see the ChristianT's point from theoretical standpoint...sounds like you have good chemistry overall, don't mess with it too much.

Ok then, yeah, I might've digressed a little. It's a bit about the format though, because in a regular cashgame there is naturally unlimited buy-ins. So the number of buy-ins is part of the format. My point being, definitely raise the number of possible rebuys if that is all you want to change. What if three people go broke in two hours? The game might break too, doesn't seem to be an issue so far, but that may come up. I don't see the trouble in doing a couple of trial evenings with 2 or 3 rebuys.

I have a 25/25 cent home game with a $50 max buy-in, and if we limited it to just one rebuy even with those deep stacks, there would be nights where one person had all the money in two hours.

I guess it just depends on your definition of "friendly" whether or not you limit rebuys to 1, 2, 3, or unlimited. If $25 matters to you guys that much, maybe you should try lowering the stakes to 10c/25c and allowing unlimited rebuys.

It's your game, so it's your decision. You said what you're doing works for you.

Are you asking if allowing more than one rebuy makes the game unfriendly? The answer to that is "no". But maybe it's "yes" for your crowd. I'm not really sure what you're asking here.

I tend not to play cash games that limit the number of times I'm allowed to rebuy.

I tend not to play cash games that track results and share them with the crowd. It seems to be working for you, perhaps because of the limited rebuys. If you allowed more rebuys, then people might not be as happy over the results. Still, I'd be surprised if you haven't lost players along the way who could see the harsh reality of results, and then get razzed for it. Nobody likes that.

Y'know....the more I think about it...the more I agree with Christian's original point. Either you're playing cash game NLHE or you're not. Bottom line...you have players who want to continue playing, and you're not letting them.

I constantly strive to think of varying subtle ways to ensure that folks don't win or lose too much in my own little limit game...but cutting them off from more chips isn't one of them.

In past NLHE home games (or actually..."ship games"...I'm in the Navy)...I seemed to solve this problem by reducing blind and stack sizes...folks still got their freak on by going all-in and whatnot, but I did successfully reduce the absolute top and bottom limits of their overall wins and losses. Pretty much oblivious to them. And I know I did so because I tracked not only my own buy-ins and finishes, but every player's in the game throughout the entire 6-month deployment.

That said...I did this by reducing our blinds from .50/1 to .25/.50...OP is already at .25/.50, so I'm not sure you drop below that without the chip values getting awkward. OTOH...if you're already that low, is going to unlimited rebuys *really* going to threaten anyone's rent money? Really?

As other posters say

1: Drop the spreadsheet idea, it will cause more harm then good. No one wants to see how much they lose

2: For the rebuys, change it to allow unlimited rebuys but....
Add a rule that its cash only, no credit from the bank. This way, each player can decide how much money to bring to gamble with

For a game that is basically working (except for those it is not, I guess), I would only make small adjustments. The 2 rebuy suggestion is a small change. If that works, try 3. If it doesn't, go back to 1. Maybe you'll get up to 4 or 5.

I agree with "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". If it's been working well for 5 years, keep it up. If people are dissatisfied, look for change.

That's why we can't really answer the question asked.

But...I just did.

Dump the spreadsheet.

Allow unlimited re-buys.

Keep drinking.

People can do what they want. If you're interested in controlling the damage for them, make it superdeep by making the blinds superlow.

"I'm sorry, did someone hear a noise?"

looking around in confusion.....

Few thoughts:

You didn't ask for this - but I offer it up anyway --- 86 the Spreadsheet.

2nd - Your playing NLHE with a buyin of 50BBs - which is a pretty shallow stack imo. So your format maybe working against you to a certain extent. We play with .25/.25 blinds. It may seem trival simply shrinking that one blind - but I've essentially just double everyone's stack.

I'm of the notion that you aren't accomplishing this:

Limiting your rebuys won't prevent coolers or bad beats that will happen in any game.

Some said suggested switching to limit to eliminate people going broke. Sorry but that is somewhat LOL - I've seen it go quicker in several cases.....

Whatever you do - it certainly isn't cast in stone, so try something new out - if it works, great it works - if it doesn't --- find something that does.

It doesn't have to be a "Me or them" mentality

Sarge

didnt get to 2nd page of this so apologies if its been brought up.

Would it be a problem to have someone else (like one of the guys in favor of unlim rebuys) host on a different weekend?

Maybe you change your structure to a tournament with escalating blinds and a rebuy. He hosts a small stakes cash game, some of your people will be there, some will not. But some people will come to his game eventually and they can have their fun, and maybe some new players will show up to yours and you can continue with whatever structure you guys like.

No one is going to get hurt with unlimited rebuys, so long as you stick with your $25 cap.

TEST TEST

Is this thing on?

TEST

its a friendly game, and billed as such. which means keeping the friends together seems to be the most important part. if so, thats fine. so, the answer seems simple: if opening up more rebuys will cause you to lose more players than you keep, dont do it.

Trying to protect others from themselves almost never works.

I would not limit the number of times an adult can decide they want to rebuy. The limits you mention would seem to prevent any adult from any serious damage to themselves.

I would definitely dump the spreadsheet. No good can come of it.

But, if they get rid of the spreadsheet, how are they gonna know who gets the trophy?

Being more serious, I agree with the posters who said there is no need to mess with what's working. If the format and structure work for you then keep it. It sounds like the only thing that may not be working is number of rebuys, so just try increasing those. No need to make it a free for all if you think feelings are going to get hurt, but all it takes is two coolers and someone is out of the game. Perhaps up to 2-3 and go from there.

Allow more rebuys, if it's only once a month and not large-scale money to begin with, this shouldn't really be a problem for anyone.