If you are, on average, better at making those big-money decisions correctly than your opponents are, then you’re going to be able to make a lot more money playing a big stack than a small one.

Conversely, a big stack is better suited to profiting via a long series of small pots, or by patiently waiting for one of those rare chances to get all of your money into a very large pot when you are a heavy favorite to win it. A short stack is more conducive to that strategy. Then you’re probably looking to “hit and run” - that is, hoping to double up with one big hand, and then walk away. Suppose you’re just playing for an hour or less until you’ll be going to dinner or a show.

Factor #2: Your Time Available to PlayĪnother factor is how much time you have to play. Respected authorities disagree on exactly what fraction that would be, but I think it’s safe to say that nobody would recommend having more than 10% of your bankroll on the table at any point. You should also not put at risk more than a small fraction of your bankroll. You should never put a single dollar on the table that you can’t afford to lose. Given those definitions, should you buy in big or small? As with everything in poker, it all depends. Alternatively, you could think of “small” (or “short”) as 50 big blinds or less, and “big” (or “deep”) as 100 big blinds or more. “Small” will mean at or near the minimum, or an amount that is less than most other players have in front of them. By “big” I mean at or near the maximum, or, in uncapped games, enough to have more chips in play than most of the other players. Let’s further simplify the decision down to buying in “big” versus “small,” rather than talking specific dollar amounts. In fixed-limit games, your stack size has much less influence on the strategy of your play. To simplify matters, let’s first specify that we’re talking about no-limit or pot-limit structures, which are often lumped together as “big bet” games. Most casinos give you a range, with a minimum and a maximum, though some games are “uncapped,” with no maximum buy-in.

One of the first decisions you have to make when joining a cash poker game is how much money to put into play.

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