Changing stakes - bigger spread

[BigBlue]

We have played our dealers choice games with a $0.25 - $1 spread.


I keep thinking about making it $0.10 - $1, to encourage more "creative" bets, among other reasons (more chips on the table).

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.


Does that make any sense?


Another motive... to determine chip sets for the future. I can do $0.10 with whites, reds, greens and blacks ($10), sticking with casino themed values.

If we stick with $0.25, my future set(s) will require greens, blacks and beyond to stick with a casino theme.

Finally, I was thinking about using reds (0.05), greens, blacks ($1) and beyond, again to get more chips on the table. I do NOT want to drop stakes down to $0.05, but using nickels and quarters could still play.


I've got a bunch of dice chips, plenty of whites and reds, some green, more black. Blues become useless, although we have used them in the past (white - quarter, red - dollar, blue -$5), I'd like to go more traditional.


I suspect I'll grab a set of China Clay in the (near?) future, and have bothered a few folks selling good (not premium) sets.

[dad604]

If the chips do are not denomed, what difference does it make?

I think your idea for dropping the lower betting limits to have more creative action sounds good.

[BigBlue]

I play with folks who can't remember the denoms... so I was hoping to base it on the casino...

I can't imagine them with a cali color or non-standard color set...

[BigBlue]

Well, the folks that don't normally have a problem, didn't skip a beat with the "new" denoms for the tourney.

When it got to cash... there was a lot of trouble remembering we were using dimes, not quarters.

I think a new set will be Red/nickel, Green/quarter, Black/dollar and perhaps a funky color for $5 and $20. Not much use in our regular games for $5 and $20, but we would use them for tourneys, and rebuys.


The spread did help things, but our dollar limit meant that everyone stuck around for every hand anyway

[jdunford]

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.

[BigBlue]

Strongly suggesting a $40 buy-in may be the way to go....


A proposed High Stakes game, $100 buy-in, with $0.30 - $0.60 blinds never materialized... had enough then folks bagged.


We draw from a pool of 20+ and find around 8 players each time. Usually 4 core guys and 4 misc players that can make it.


I might give a night of HORSE a shot... and see if I can use 5-25-100 chips (penny count). New post on the way