[jeffnc]

You're right, it matters. Apparently a lot less than you think, but it does matter. Maybe it's worth 25 cents or so per session?

Keep in mind that if you're going to be that nitty (and I'm kinda nitty like that too), then first of all you should be topping off to your max buy in all the time anyway. So if you buy in for $200, then anytime you go below $200, whether it's because you lost a pot or to pay for food, then you should be reloading to $200. Going below $200 due to playing poker happens a lot more than buying food.

Now even if you're below $200, you still might have everyone covered. If you're above $200, you might have everyone covered. So the odds of getting all in, AND being outchipped, AND winning, are pretty low in any given time period.

Anyway, yeah, obviously you should be paying for food from you pocket. In limit it doesn't matter. Having said that, some people drop below the minimum stack size in limit too. Technically, you never know when you might make it to the river with the nuts in a casino where they allow uncapped river raising, against some maniac who just doesn't know when to quit. Not really clear what your stack size should be in limit. It would seem kinda weird to buy in for $1,000 for a $3/6 game just because a maniac has that many chips.