I feel more comfortable with a 100bb stack. The game is 1-2, so a $300 starting stack is okay with me. Eight other players. Three with $500. Two with $1,000. One with $600. Maybe one $400. One with $100. I will play off that $300 stack, if it goes down below $225 I add $100 or however much needed to get to $300. I have a 2 buyin stop limit, $600. How do you guys approach unlimited buyin home games?

I hope this explains my question.

Depends on how well I play deep compared to the other players and what the usual open size is. If they make most of their mistakes pre, lower SPRs are better. If Vs continue to shovel money into the pot post flop with TPNK even 300BBs deep, I want to cover them.

How do they play post? How are you at navigating deep stack play? How healthy is your bankroll? How are you at handling the variance? If your answer to all of these questions is "better than the Vs," you should buy in to cover them. If not, buy in for what you're comfortable playing that can get you good SPRs.

That amount can vary depending on what SPRs you're targeting and how big pots play pre. What is the standard open size in this game?

I'm sure it depends on the game but in my experience the money past 100 BB is surprisingly unimportant. This is assuming we take the term BB to mean whatever the largest straddle is.

These days it seems to me generic losing live NL players play quite badly preflop but not thaaaat badly postflop... and a lot of their bad postflop consists of overfolding later streets to compensate for the fact that their starting ranges are too wide.

If I feel I have a skill advantage, I would want to match the biggest stack at the table.

They play bomb pots with a flat bet before the deal, action starts post flop. My main difficulty with stack sizes come in these hands. The betting starts to get 3X-5X larger and by the river a 100BB stack is already all in or too small to push anybody off the pot. It's easy to have TP/TK with a str8 and a flush draw combination, but no power to take it down or make the big stacks' call unattractive.

They are average TAGs, LAGs and NITs. Five out of nine will be better poker players than I am.

In that case, don't buy in deep just to show your manliness. Buy in where you're comfortable.

Play where you're comfortable. The deeper everyone else is around you, the more you need to play short stack poker. Even though you may be 100bb deep, if everyone else is 300+, you're going to have to pump or dump early in the hand. Find good spots, chip up, then start working on your deep stack game. Good luck!

Lots of good advice. Thanks!
I try to keep 100bb+ and play tight. I will open enough to get calls any position, then check/folding misses. Still, you guys see the problem better than me. I'm leaving money on the table by lack of understanding big stack play. I get stacked. If I'm in two of my buy-ins, I'm out. -$600.

I need to understand how to buy 1K and not get stacked because of bad play. Early in games is when I make big mistakes. Maybe, I could add $300 even if I'm already up just a little after an hour or so. Change it up?

Thanks Guys. I have followed a lot of this advice. I am now buying in 250bb. I have also changed up my play. If I have a spec hand, I don't even call a SS raise. The level of respect of my play has increased by the big stacks. I am still working with being more aggressive, but I don't stack off or call flops with less than nut draws in big pots. I watch my bets/calls more. With a smaller stack, I would take the wrong risks. I'm winning more, but it is more swingy. I don't sweat a 250bb loss, because I am starting to have more 500bb win nights. Even at 250bb buyins, there are 500bb and 750bb stacks that constantly add on.

I think it is a good game to be in, I just have to play my A$ game. When I have a big stack I won, I start pushing people around. Next I need to learn how to push them around with a 500bb stack I bought in with.

If you can push them around when you have a big stack you are not worse than five of the other players.

I tend to undervalue my talent when talking about the game.

Our cash games historically have promoted a similar starting stack with the ability to reload pretty much as needed/desired with an announcement.

I get it that it really doesn’t differentiate from just starting with more but we prefer to minimize people not being in positions to be additionally bullied just because of the size of the stacks.

How are things going this Summer?

One of the big hurdles in poker is recognizing that you tend to play differently with profit than you do with your own chips. You feel the 'run good' and want to chase it. While you 'do' want to take advantage of a winning image at the table you have to be aware of overextending your play and then getting trapped in a marginal EV spot.

Playing with 100bb is pretty 'easy' in a game type you are describing. As you've seen/learned it's when you have 3-500bb and those chips begin to mean something to you should you lose them all at once. The other Players are still playing 'cards' or purely gambling when you're trying to play good 'poker'.

Have fun, be social and play position .. sounds like you're trending up. GL

I play another game, but this is my best game of all. It is swingy, but my best wins are double my worse losses. It's the most fun game. I am working on eliminating distractions during hands. I have a big mouth and can get into the conversation flowing around the table. It takes all I have to play a hand, but when I recall a bad play a lot of the mistakes happen when I'm not actively playing the hand. It might be only 5 seconds distracting my attention into an ongoing conversation around the table. I will make a move then sometimes that wasn't where my thought process would have taken me. Maybe it's the next thing I was going to consider or just choosing one I already thought through. It's not like these will be huge mistakes, but more a trickle. Oh a leak!

Gotta close that leak without being anti-social.