[RustyBrooks]

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In any case, if I'm doing $.50/1.00 hi-lo stud whats a good buy in?


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There is no real benefit to playing a limit game short stacked because you can't apply any more pressure on your opponents than with a larger stack, for the most part. The advantage (?) of a small stack in no limit is that you can make someone decide preflop or on the flop whether they want to continue the hand with no more options to outplay you. With a small stack in limit you still have to get it all in which is going to take the co-operation of the other player, unless you have less than 1bb.

I won't play with less than the amount that I'd need to cap every street, so in a stud game that's 4bb for 5th 6th and 7th and 2bb for 3rd and 4th, a total of 16bb, so for .5/1 that's $16. It's an arbitrary rule but you just never know when someone's going to come along and make it worth your while. Biggest pot of my life (limit) was 50bb and I was glad that I had enough in front of me to keep raising.

If you're playing live, see what other people are buying in with. I like to blend in and not have 2-3x as much as everyone else. In live games people often buy in way way too low for some reason (the standard buyin for $4/$8 at a place I play sometimes seems to be $100 which is only 12bb. At that place I'll usually buy in for 160). Anyway I generally try to not do anything at the table that will point out that I'm paying attention, thinking about poker, etc, etc.

Online people usually just buy in for the default which is often way too low. On FTP the default is 10bb I think. I usually just double it and start with 20bb. I used to always buy in for 50bb but I soon realized there was no point, I can just rebuy if I get low and it makes me look weird to have 3x as much as anyone else when I sit down.