double the stakes in my cash game?

[Taso]

Agree about raising the stakes, not something I'd like in the middle of a cash game...

I disagree about the minimum buy in though, I think that is important. These people have to put no risk forward when they buy in for say $5, while when you enter a pot you are at risk for $50. Not right in my opinion.

[Lottery Larry]

So the risk of losing $50 is bigger in your mind than the limit of winning $5?

[Lottery Larry]

[ QUOTE ]
This would make the winners feel like the losers are getting a new chance to catch their money. I would cash out and leave if this happened in a game I was involved in, especially if I was up big.

[/ QUOTE ]

So, your strategy is to play by session and leave each one a winner?

[grebe]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
This would make the winners feel like the losers are getting a new chance to catch their money. I would cash out and leave if this happened in a game I was involved in, especially if I was up big.

[/ QUOTE ]

So, your strategy is to play by session and leave each one a winner?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, I do to an extent. That isnt really what this statement was about though.

[headtrauma]

Start the game at normal stakes, a few hours in ask if they're interested in raising the blinds. If no one is opposed (no one, not just a majority)go ahead and go to .5/1. Otherwise, you can just find ways to make your .25/.50 game play bigger. I play semi regularly in a .25/.50 bar game that plays ridiculously big for the blind size (there's been over $1k in play 6-8 handed a couple times). Live straddles and small pot sweetener raises with your speculative hands (axs, suited connectors, small pp). With the standard LAGs in most home games the extra action should be contagious. Pre and post flop overbets are more likely to be called as well.

[TexRef]

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Live straddles and small pot sweetener raises with your speculative hands (axs, suited connectors, small pp).

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah -- a straddle is a great way to "raise the blinds" so to speak ... a couple of us started doing this and it caught on a bit. Try it out!

[ToeHold]

The other thing to consider is the blind-to-stack ratio. One of the games I play in, one of the guys usually wants to raise the stakes (all the way to .5/1... ooh) but fails to consider that players still buy-in for $20.

With everyone so short-stacked from the get-go, it allows the poor players to play... less poorly.

I explained this to him one time, away from the table, and his response told me what I needed to know about his understanding of the game. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Obfuscation]

I always find it interesting how games just naturally play bigger as the night goes on.

My home game is a .50 / 1.00 NL game with max buy-in of 100. It starts small with 3-4 dollar raises but by the end of the night it's playing more like a 1/2 game with preflop raises of 10-15 pretty common. Last night we probably had about ~2k on the table playing 8 handed.

[PITTM]

we play .05/.10 5 dollar buyin. we chose this because everyone busts and rebuys and the game plays WAYYYY bigger than it is. Last week we had 5 people left with stacks of like 40 dollars, 30, 25, 20. playing .05/.10. The preflop raises are like 2 dollars. its fun.

[Lottery Larry]

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Last night we probably had about ~2k on the table playing 8 handed

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And for our next topic, Professors Obfu and PITTM will discuss why the sky is blue...