[EGO]

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what exactly does BUY-IN mean? is it the max buy-in for a capped no-limit game?

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Yes. A buy-in in NL is the max buy-in for a table.

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also when you guys say no-limit$200 or no-limit$500 what the hell does that mean? I know its used for internet games.

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NL200 means the max buy-in is $200. If you think you need 20 buy-ins to play NL200, you'll need $4000 in your bankroll.

Pzhon is very correct, though. Your bankroll requirements are exactly that. Your bankroll requirements. Before anyone decides how much they need to play at a certain limit/stakes, they should answer a few questions.

- Will I move down if I lose a bunch? (yes - smaller BR)
- Will I be withdrawing from my bankroll? (yes - bigger BR)
- Am I trying to move up to the next level? (yes - bigger BR)
- How good am I at this level? (one of the best - smaller BR)

Each of these questions (and quite a few others) affect how much you want to have in your bankroll.

Edit: I'm currently building a bankroll, and playing with the intent of moving up with around 200-300BB for the limit I'm playing. I don't withdraw (smaller bankroll), consider myself better than the majority of my competition (smaller bankroll), amy trying to move up in stakes (bigger BR), and can move down if I go on a long losing streak (smaller BR).

However, when I reach my target limit, I'm going to want a much larger bankroll than I'd need, because I might not be in the top 10% or so of the field, I'll be withdrawing regularly, I won't be actively attempting to move up in stakes, and moving down will really hurt. At this point, I'll probably want 1000+ big bets in my roll.

Determine your motives for playing, and you can use that information to derive your appropriate bankroll.