I have $1000 bankroll saved up for 1/2 Live poker. Would it be stupid to break this down into 10 $100 buyins, or should I just go for 5 $200 buyins

I want to play this money as a serious player instead of just having fun with it, it'll take me a couple months to save another $1000.

Def buyin short. Ppl dontvadjust to stacks ever

It's really tough to play at $100 ... Even if you double up first hand you are only going to be even with most stacks. I'd buy in for $200 the first time. See how it feels. If you drop down to $600 or so, maybe buy in for $150.

Personally, I would always suggest buying in max. I think it makes a huge difference, and I would disagree that people don't notice. I certainly do, and others I have talked to certainly do. I think the problem you have is your bankroll is small for 1-2. If you do play, I would play extremely nitty, as there are often 2-3 buyin swings. I would feel better if you saved up another $1000. The key is not being worried about losing your stack while playing, and having it influence your play. Good luck rgeardless.

It depends on your skill level. The bigger the stacks to a point) the wider your opportunities (and potential mishaps). If you are a good deep stack player and can outplay most if not all the villians post flop absolutely buy in for the max. if you are middle road skill level as compared to the field 200 is a good amount. if you are not sure "and you know how to play short stacked" 100 is ok to begin with till you get the feel and/or grow your BR.
Just realize if you start with 100 you cannot set mine for a 10 bet profitably and SCs go out the window.
To play short stacked properly your understanding of the game, math and position should be stronger then medium stacked (imo)

hope this helps a bit

Hmm okay, 4 different opinions basically.

Buyin short $40-80- I am a great shortstack player. Lower risk, 15-25 BI, but lower reward.

Buyin medium $100-$150 - Can be awkward stack size, but will give me 8-10 BI instead of 5BI. Will restrict my game to TAG at first, splashing around is too much %, but players stack off to TAG's more than they should and TAG is an easier style to play.

Buyin Large: $200 - Maximize opponents mistakes, but maximize my own as well. Gives me 5 BI. All styles open, if confident in advantage/ BR this is the best choice.

I'm thinking I'll buyin for $100 at first to get a feel for the game and lower my risk when I'm new to 1/2 live (only been a few times), then if I feel more confident or get a feel for the players I'll raise it to $200.

^ I agree with this

Your BR being quite small for this level, go ahead and do what you do best to grind it up.

Won't matter half the time (hopefully more) anyhow, you'll be 2x/3x your buyin and in a situation where now you are playing with $200 in front but the table conditions are such that you will not want to leave (AKA - half of villains are total droolers) so you just continue playing deeper and gain experience there, etc.

So fine just buy in short, get it deep, don't leave a good table just because you have $200 there.

Why are we not betting the flop? Pot (130). When he checks you are narrowing his range to poket pairs and flopped sets? So it's like a way ahead way behind line i guess. Depending on how willing is to fold KK in that board checking might not be bad. The turn bet is okay. But you missed some value on the river. After you check the flop I think KK is gonna call at least half pot here. Maybe not though somewhere in the middle ~130 should get looked up by KK. Is that what he showed up with.

However if had AK, AQ, we missed gobs of value. He might have intended to check raise the flop but, if he is holding AK then the Qhearts is just an awful card for him so he checked called all the way down.

Somehow this got posted on the wrong thread.

Search the forum, this has been discussed a lot previously:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...amount-964460/

At an unfamiliar 1/2 table, I'd recommend buying in for 80bb i.e. $160. This should force you to play like a nit for a couple of hours while you get to know the table (you often wont be getting the odds to flat call an unknown player with speculative hands). It also means you can get all the money in by the river with TPTK or an over pair.

With a stack of 160 you can:

Raise to 12 with a big pair or big a big ace. Get called by two players.
Bet 22 on the flop into 36 and get 1 caller.
Bet 55 into 80 on the turn and get 1 caller.
Bet 100 allin into 190 on the river.

Once you get a good feel for the table you can decide whether you want to play deeper against these guys.

There is little difference between 75bb ($150) and 100bb ($200).

A deep stack would be 200bb+

If you're happy to play shove or fold preflop then I'd recommend $80. Deeper players hate to fold 99+/ATs+ to that stack size.

You might only play e.g. 1 hand per 2 hours.

Unless you're facing raises from 2 other players, you're probably not folding JJ+/AQs+ preflop. Even then, you're almost never folding QQ.

Don't ever fold KK/AA with only 40bb in a 1/2 live game.

Max buy to effectively play your hands and maximize value out of your monsters. Short buys are never EV... Save another thousand because there will be swings...

How is it tough, because you're short stack?

What kind of logical reasoning is this?

Only if you have no idea how to play short-stack.

Never say never.

If I'm sitting on 500bb wanting to play LAG against 6 other super deepstacks, the last thing I want is for there to be two guys with 50bb stacks at the table. Those guys have a massive edge against the rest of us.

Its okay to lurk and read a couple of books before you start posting definative advice.

This is incorrect

does not compute why so many ppl advising someone to full stack 5 buyins vs halfstack 10. half is amazingly more simple to play. find me a hand where it isn't.

sounds like a reasonable aproach
best of luck to you

Short stacking is fine. You won't learn how to play post flop poker, but for bankroll purposes, you can SS until you get a decent roll.

The casino I play at max buyin is 100bb, I didn't realize there were max buyins of greater than 100bb actually.

Thank you all for the discussion. I am going to read some threads here for the next few days to understand live holdem better. If anyone has any recommendations on threads regarding live poker PM me or post here and I'll look at the stickies. Thanks for the helpful responses.

David

You are absolutley right. If you like math, and are patient, with a 1k bankroll I STRONGLY STRONGLY advise you to buy in for 100$.

With 200$ you will face tough spots with overpair and TPTK hands.

I cant think of how many times people have been willing to pay off my AK 50BB deep on a K9632 board with K10-KQ. Not so much with 100bb.

You dont want to be playing scared money with 5BI. If variance is in a bad mood you will go broke a decent amount of the time even if you are good.
Sure you will be sacrificing max profit, but OP is on a limited role. He needs to protect it by minmizing BUSTO possbilities...
GL OP!!

buy in for the full $1000, double it up and go play 2/5

Ya...you done a fine job reading.

Buyin full, you have to realize game structure, you cant move down in stakes and you must protect your bankroll. If you buy in for a 100 you can easily lose. Buying in the full 200 gives you the ability to play nitty, then when you double up, you have more room postflop. Remember the more chips you have the harder it is to lose your stack.