How Much Should You Buy in for in a No-Limit Game?

Distributed By Wise Hand Poker, Jul 2007

Most online poker rooms give you the option of buying into a new no-limit hold’em game for anywhere from 20 big blinds to 100 big blinds. If you play in brick-and-mortar casinos, you’ll encounter games with similar buy-in restrictions, but you’ll also encounter games in which you can buy-in for as much as you want.

Poker writers have traditionally advocated having as many chips on the table as possible if you’re better than your opponents. In fact, I’ve been one of those writers (check out my book, Killer Poker By The Numbers, for example). I’ve also been a poker writer with a reputation for preaching flexibility and the willingness to adapt to the perpetually changing poker climate, and staying true to that philosophy, my thoughts regarding buy-ins have evolved.

What’s Your Goal When Playing No-Limit Hold’em?

When playing no-limit hold’em, your goal is to optimize your hourly win rate. Fine, playing should also be fun, but it’s definitely more fun when you win. Winning is about making good decisions, and after table selection, your next choice is determining how much you should buy-in for.

Having as many chips as possible is never a bad idea if you’re a skilled player. However, when buying into a game, think less about your own skill and more about how your opponents play. As the years have passed, people have become better at playing deep-stacked no-limit hold’em.

Primarily, players have become stingier; it’s tougher to find players who’ll pay off large bets on the turn and the river with top pair and no kicker. By having less chips in front of you, it may become much easier for you to get value from your made hands on the turn since your opponents will no longer fear the prospect of facing a tricky decision on the river.

Experiment and See What Works Best

Of course, many valid arguments exist for preferring to be deeply stacked. In the end, your preferred buy-in will be situational. Ultimately, you need to experiment and see how your foes respond to you as a function of your stack-size.

Since you can’t take chips off the table, consider starting off shortly stacked. If the table is more profitable to play shortly stacked, then you’re set. If you think that you’ll make more by being deeply stacked, you always have the option of adding more chips. Whatever you do, always remember that you have a choice when deciding how many chips you have in front of you, so make it intelligently based on prior experience and information about your opponents.