Just curious how other players handle this. In the local casino I play at you can buy in for $300 maximum for the 1/2 NL game, which is the typical amount I buy in for.

But what about rebuying or topping off? Do you typically continue just to play your first buy in even if you get short stacked? Or do you top off say when you get down to $200, for another hundred in order to have the maximum amount of money on the table that you can?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!!

Typically I top up when I get down near 200, I don't want to be a nit rebuying all the time and slowing the game down. I'll rebuy more frequently if I want to have max effective against some bad player, but I'll still wait til below 250 to rebuy.

1. Buy in for max
2. have reload chips in pocket
3. Top off as stack and game conditions dictate.
4. Profit

^+1, keep pocket full of chips

For a 200 max 1-2 table... would you guys just buy in for max and keep chips in pocket to keep stack around 200? I feel 200 max 1-2 buy in is kinda shallow (compared to 300 buy in) so I assume staying at 200 is smartest move correct?

I'll always play the maximum, I usually Buy-in for the table max (so 300 in your case) and have extra in my pocket for easy top-ups.
If you're a winning player you're losing value by not having your stack at the maximum, now obviously I'm not topping up every hand, but for every $25 or so I lose I add a $25 chip.

Just curious, with having chips in your pocket to top up anytime you want, has anyone ever accused you of adding more to your stack when you're already over the max buy in amount? Do you announce you're adding more chips or just quietly add them? Just asking because I've only ever topped up by throwing cash to the dealer.

If its not clear if I have more when I had, if I have 1$ chips and some 25$ and its harder to easily count, I just announce to everyone, Im playing [MAX_BUYIN]. So its clear for everybody, dealer can deal the hand and meanwhile, I can count and put extra chips in my pocket.

If you are a reg, dealer will trust you, and will probably quick count with his eyes.

You can carry a man satchel to carry water bottle, snack, chips, money, earphones, keys, etc... otherwise my pockets were always full and I was scared of loosing chips all over the casino lol

GLHF

One time I had only greens in my pocket and wanted to top up a $180 stack so I took off 5 and stuck put on a green, then some OMC pitched a fit and accused me of ratholing. I was more of a reg than this guy and I told the dealer what happened and he said it was ok. It was a lesson in some way to not bring attention to myself and only add chips without taking some off. Still stupid to piss and moan about $5 though, what if I have all my money on the table and ordered a drink. Paying for food or something out of the stack was considered normal there.

Reminds me of a time a bartender bought be a jagerbomb which I never drink. I was tipsy already and now amped up and drunk and lost a 5k pot with a ****ty omaha draw and left in shame soon after. I slept like absolute trash that night. Then later in the week I remembered I had ordered something to eat and basically stiffed the waitress, who for some reason was left responsible. We were cool and she knew me so it was good I just asked her when I walked in the door next time if I did that because my memory was hazy on it and she said yes and I paid her back plus extra.

IMO keep a $20 in your wallet and don't do jagerbombs.

Buy in short ($200 at 1/3) and play for a bit. If I double up, keep stack between $300 and $500 by topping up with green chips from my pocket.

If I lose, buy in for $300.

Playing shorter reduces your variance. If you are good at it, it reduces your variance a lot because you have a higher edge % wise. So you are making smaller bets with a bigger edge, reducing variance on both fronts.

If you tilt, which you do, playing shorter after a loss can protect you. You have less money to blow off. But also being short makes it harder to justify overly ambitious plays.

If you are substantially better than the other players, you should have the highest hourly rate by always topping off. It's not a huge difference, unless there are extremely bad players playing deep.

Considering all of that, I am flexible but tend to buy in for 100bbs. Another factor there is it takes me a while to get focused.

I generally don't top up. I'd rather take a semi freeroll on getting some or all of my stack back when someone calls my shove with KJ.

Other times, I'll wait an orbit or 2 for tilt control and then top up.

If the game is great, i might always be near the max.

I play in a $400 cap 1/2 mostly, because it's usually the only game available. I buy-in full and put $200-$300 of green in my pocket. I usually top off $100 at a time. I guess every now and then I lose some value by not topping off habitually, but it works for me. Very rarely are there more than 2-3 other people at the table with over the table max anyways, so it's not that big of a deal to me. I just prefer to have chips in my pocket as opposed to having to buy chips from the dealer when I want to add on.

IMO keep a $20 in your wallet and don't do jagerbombs.[/QUOTE]

who says you can't find truth on the internet!
this is +++++++++EV

My room has a $300 max. I like to buy in initially for $100 while I feel the table out. Additionally, since my room is nit infested, I found that jamming a short stack a couple times doubles up or better rather quickly, then allows me to capitalize on a loser table image once I'm deeper. If I can't get anything going with the shorty in 2 or 3 orbits, I'll top off to max.

Also like to buy in a little short $200 on $300 max to get a feel for the table then if I'm already not above $250 after a few orbits, top off. Rebuys when they happen always $300.