Thinking About Doing Limit

[Jeff76]

I never play limit so I have no idea how many big bets people usually buy in for. I'm thinking of running a limit game this week (Stud or HE), though, so I'd like some advice. Basically, the players who are going to be at this game are REALLY bad and I fear if I run a NL game it might not be much fun since there's the potential for players to go busto real quickly. Already I plan on super micro stakes, but it's still no fun for a newbie to play in a game and lose his/her entire stack in a single hand.

If we were going to play .25/.50 HE, what would be a normal buy in amount per player? Would it be more for Stud (being as it's a higher variance game with an additional round of betting)? Also, given that I don't have enough chips in my set to give everyone enough big bets, I guess I have to give out all the .25 chips along with a bunch of $1 chips and then make change from each other as necessary. It seems like that would be frustrating, but I don't know what else I can do.

I might just buckle down and do NL HE (and they might demand it), but I'd at least like to have a plan for Stud or limit HE in case I feel like that will be better for the game.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Infi3ld Fly]

play .50/1.00 limit. blinds will be .25/.50 everyone should buy in for 20 big bets ($20) .25 and 1.00 chips are fine any more questions feel free to pm me gl

[dismalstudent99]

You could still play NLHE but use a "cap" (see the thread in this forum, "NL with a cap". Specifically note the later posts by the old hands.)

Basically, the idea is that if they buy in for, say, $30 (60 BB), then before each hand, every player separates the cap amount out of their stack (say $10). This $10 is the most they can bet/lose during the hand. If a player reaches the cap in the course of betting, he/she is treated as being all-in.

This way, the players will have a feel for the big bet part of the game game, but still limit their loses from a single shock.
Also, it's better to use a cap than to have them buy in short-- if someone's (short) stack gets wiped out, there's still a psychological barrier to reaching back into their wallets/purses to reload (unless they are budding poker junkies!).
Whereas if someone's $10 cap amount disappears, they'll have the remaining $20 of their stack immediately available for play.

Of course, you can modify the size of the cap.

I've decided to use a similar procedure when I try to introduce newbies to pot-limit Omaha, which decimates beginners faster than NLHE does.

On the other hand, I'm a big fan of Stud, so I'd try to get them to play it for the sake of playing it [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Of course, it's slow-paced compared to the flop games, which is the primary complaint against it, I think.

On the other hand, I think one of the best/funnest poker games to teach a beginner to play is A-5 Triple Draw. Its hand ranking system is intuitive and easy to learn, there's a lot of luck involved (good for beginners), there's a lot of bluffing opportunities (which beginners love to do), and there's the added bonus that it prepares them to play hi/lo games.
Once they get the A-5 lowball system down, they can play limit Omaha hi/lo, which your beginner friends would probably find fun. (Also Stud hi/lo is great, but slower paced).

I say teach them Hold'em last. This may be the only time they'll ever be willing to seriously try a non-Hold'em game....

Let us know how it goes.

-ds

[AndyInDetroit]

[ QUOTE ]
play .50/1.00 limit. blinds will be .25/.50 everyone should buy in for 20 big bets ($20) .25 and 1.00 chips are fine

[/ QUOTE ]

He said what I was going to say.

Also, if they do demand NL play, you're better off running a small buy-in tourney than trying to play NLHE at these micro levels. I've been there, I know.

[Jeff76]

We normally run tournies, but I'm trying to make this a weekly thing with more flexible hours since it'll be after work.

[hime]

50/1 limit works well for my home game - we use 10 cent chips for antes in the stud games and the bring is 20 cents if I remember correctly.

[Small Fry]

Limit is easy. As there are no all in's stack sizes are irrelevent so let them buy in for whatever they want. If you fear making change repeatedly set a minimum.

Until this coming game, all my cash games have been limit. $1/$2....blinds .50/1.00. Generally players have bought in for $40.

Another great thing about limit is you don't need different value chips. Make every chip worth whatever your small blind is. Colors don't matter. (Small blind is .25 make every chip worth a quarter. My small blind is .50 so all chips are fifty cents.)Most anyone can bet at one time is 4 chips so there is no need to have chips worth $1 or $2. Just becomes confusing trying to remember whats what. It actually makes it interesting if players start with different color chips to watch how the chips flow.

Also, let players put cash on the table and have that play. So a guy can pull out $60 and get $40 changed into chips but leave the other $20 sitting there in case he runs low.

Be prepared for players to lose a bunch. Here's a saying for you..."NL is death by guillotine. Limit is death by water torture". New players and low limits are a prescription for players calling to the end, big suck outs, and guys going broke when they fail repeatedly to make their gutshots.

Hope this helped

Good luck and have fun

Pat

[psandman]

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Also, let players put cash on the table and have that play. So a guy can pull out $60 and get $40 changed into chips but leave the other $20 sitting there in case he runs low.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you have enough chips you are better off changing cash to chips. Players generally player looser with chips then cash, big stacks of chips encourage action

[Small Fry]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Also, let players put cash on the table and have that play. So a guy can pull out $60 and get $40 changed into chips but leave the other $20 sitting there in case he runs low.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you have enough chips you are better off changing cash to chips. Players generally player looser with chips then cash, big stacks of chips encourage action

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed. But I think the first step is getting the money out of the wallet. Once it's on the table it's just a quick step to convert to chips. Plus we play once the money is on the table it stays. So if a players puts some cash on the table the only way it comes off is for them to leave.

[grebe]

I am amazed that you guys can even get a limit game going! Shoot, nobody I play with will go near a limit game, even though 9 out of 10 of them should never be allowed near a NL game (because they suck).

Anyways, on to the tidbit of advice: instead of having a smaller chip denom. for antes and having each individual post every time ("who didnt ante?" will be a theme), have the dealer post for everybody and round off to the nearest small chip...or have everybody post all antes for the round ahead of time (kept to the side). Example: 8 players at .10 antes, 3 .25 chips are posted by each player per rotation.

Good luck