Introducing No Limit

[Lottery Larry]

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But this isn't a 'player can't afford to play' thread...

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oh, yes it is.... and if you don't get this settled soon (assuming you're running the game) your game risks breaking up.

I repeat what others have said- with no table stakes rule, it doesn't matter WHAT your blinds are- this is a big game.

My suggestion- "overs" buttons. Set the max buy-in, and the resulting blinds, based on what will work for all of the players in the game currently. Add a table stakes rule and decide what the max rebuy is: 1 1/2x the capped buy-in? 1/2 the biggest stack? Higher?.

Now, for the big playahs, they can each get an overs button. How this works: Once the hand is down to ONLY the players who have overs buttons, there is no cap AND no table stakes, if that is what they want.... but ONLY to complete the rest of this hand.

If anyone remains in the hand until the showdown, who isn't playing the overs, then there ARE no overs and table stakes applies. If they're that desperate to drive up the stakes, they can bribe out the non-overs players on each hand.

Until you get enough players to have two tables (thus, two different limits), that might work?

You'll probably have to make some rules, to avoid having someone take an overs button until they're ahead, then returning it to protect their profit...

[MikeTheGeek]

One of our problems is retaining players, we invite a new guy over and he loses $20-$40 (maybe he comes back once and loses again) and never returns. This has happened many times (one poor bastard left $100 of debt... ugly). The variety of oddball games combined with high stakes I think runs them off. So we have about 6-8 regulars which means only one game.

I'll suggest overs buttons tonight, but my guess is everyone will take one (lol). I really do fear someone raising me like $8000 though - definitely can't afford that, and one or two of them will have a wallet full.

Maybe it is time to up the stakes. Don't tell my wife.

Thanks for all the advice.

[pfapfap]

I'm not really sure what the main problem is. You have a regular group of enough people for a full and action-packed table, all of whom enjoy the stakes and games at play.

For a limit or small spread-limit game, I have no problem with playing whatever is in your pocket, but you can't mix in that kind of game with a PL or NL game, as those need to be table stakes. You can't switch back and forth.

If everybody is okay with higher stakes, it sounds like you're one of the people who is uncomfortable losing $40. Why do you want to force a group of people to change their game completely merely to suit your more limited bankroll? Perhaps you should either stick to the mixed spread limit game or not play NL or find a different game.

It's the oddball games that drive off people, not the stakes. Newcomers probably feel uncomfortable with a group of people who know each other playing games they don't know in a highly aggressive manner. But it's only a problem if people think it's a problem. If you have enough people for a regular game and everyone is having fun, I don't think that's a problem.

[blueodum]

What you could do is set a cap per hand for PL or NL - that is a player can lose a maximum of $100 or $200 or whatever on one hand.