Imagine this hypothetical:
- You're a 40 year old guy, you're single and live alone
- You work full-time and earn $1000 pw after taxes
- You spend $400 pw on rent, bills and food
- You pay $200 pw child support
- This leaves you with $400 pw "fun money" for the weekends
- Your hobbies include: drinking beer and playing poker cash games
- You're a decent poker player sober but you consider it "more fun" to play whilst drunk
- You consider higher stakes (like $5/$10) to be "more fun" than lower stakes (like $1/$2)
- You're not sure whether to "save up" 1k for a $5/$10 game or just play a cheap game like $1/$2 more frequently

What stakes should this hypothetical recreational player play?

Options are:
$1/$2 NL ($50-$100)
$1/$3 NL ($100-$300)
$2/$5 NL ($200-$500)
$5/$10 NL ($400-$1000)
$10/$20 NL ($1000-$3000)

My best answer is that the player should play none of those. He should find a home game. Way cheaper and infinitely more fun.

Well definitely don't play 2/5+ while drunk lol. I'd just play 1/2 or 1/3 because the skill hit from drinking will hurt less, you can profitably play a lot more hands which is fun, and your bankroll gives you way more play time. It sounds like game enjoyment is pretty important too and I think you'll be more likely to find less serious people at most lower stakes games. Your 5/10 buy-in estimates seem very low for most games. If you saved for 5/10 You could so easily end up only playing once a month, losing your roll in a couple hours, and getting no enjoyment

Definitely get ****faced and come dump to me in the 1/3 Kappa. But seriously 2x $200 buyins for 1/3 makes the most sense to me especially if you want to have a few drinks and just chill out. I thought you were going for a job as a dealer at crown tho?

Play pub poker. Yes, they're turbo mtts but they're more manageable buy ins, they often have chip chop cash games afterwards or Chinese, you can drink while you play them and you'll meet people to play 1/1 type home games with

Suppose that there are no "fun" home games in the area (only ones full of nits and cheaters) and suppose that pub poker is too cheap/boring and doesn't titilate the person in question (plus it's a tourney and tourneys suck).

No, this person isn't me, it's just a hypothetical.

Drinking significant amounts every weekend is going to be bad for his health so, as long as he's happy not playing every week, I think he should save up and play 2/5 occasionally. If he has a winning streak he can play every week so sometimes he'll play more regularly, his liver will suffer but then he'll get lucky, bust his "roll" and have to give the booze a break

Not a strategy question, really. You could try the winrates bankroll and finances thread, but I think this is more of a generic Casino and Cardroom discussion than a strategy discussion of any sort.