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Originally Posted by BigBlue  I also think that folks blow through $20 in no time with $0.25 - $0.50 NL. Moving to $0.20-0.40 would allow for some more specific bets/raises. |
My group used to like to buy in for $20 at 25˘/50˘ NL, so I went along with it. As players got looser and more aggressive, average pot sizes were approaching $15-$20... so one night I decided to make it a 10˘/25˘ NL game with $20 max-buy-in hoping that this would make the betting more proportional. Unfortunately, the LAGs kept their standard pre-flop raise at $2-$4, and even if you waited until you had a high pp or AKs or some other premium hand, they'd still try to push you out of the hand, and would often out-flop you and take what was left of your $20 in a single hand. It didn't play like a 10˘/25˘ game when the players were used to 25˘/50˘.
After that, I encouraged players to buy in for $40 for 25˘/50˘ (by always buying in for $40 myself, regardless of what others wanted to do). Now $40 is pretty standard. The typical pre-flop raise is still $2-$5, but it means a little more when someone takes your whole stack (vs. $20), and allows you to get out of a hand and still have some chips left if you choose not to re-load immediately. The variance has gone up from the $20 buy in days: The LAGs can end up + or - $200 after an hour or two, while the tighter players aren't generally affected by variance quite as much. Everyone seems happy with the result.
