[bluffedby27offsuit]

hey guys - the last card game i ran was great. we played .25/.50 NL hold em and everyone had a great time. however, the only take away that i had was that for people who didnt have plans to rebuy (min buyin was $25) the pots could get pricey very quickly and they could bust out in a short amount of time.

to try and counteract this, as well as give everyone as good as chance as everyone else to stick around was to do a limit game instead of NL. raising the buyin wouldnt help - i think less people would show.

for those of you that have run a multitude of home games, which works better for you - NL or Limit?

i have another game coming up later this month and i would for anyone to get discouraged about coming again because they were knocked out quickly due to the size of the pots vs. the buyin.

[TheMightyJim2k]

playing limit will slowdown the bustouts, and I prefer limit because I think the game is much much more interesting when you play shorthanded. But a lot of players don't like limit so you should run it by your crew before instituting it.

You can also consider lowering the blinds which will slow down the pace of the game. If a lot of players are buying in for the minimum they were playing relative short stacks for the game, and it's not surprising they busted pretty quickly. Try playing with .10/.20 or .10/.25 blinds and keep the $25 minimum buy-in. That will make the game play smaller with smaller pots and people should last a lot longer without busting.

if you are going to play limit you probably want to make it a .25/.50 game if you want it to play small, but you could play a .5/1 game for a long time with a $25 minimum buy-in.

[hachkc]

I like them all and each style (NL/PL versus limit) has its own advantages.

A couple of things to try:

1. lower stakes relative to buyin (as TMJ2K mentioned)

2. play a capped NL game (30-50bb). If you are not familar with a cap, basically in no hand can the total amounts bet per player across all streets be more than XXbb. If you are playing .25/.50 NL with a 50bb cap, the most you can lose on any hand is $25. Some folks hate this, some folks like it, I've never had an issue with it and its just designed to minimize variance.

3. play limit though this is more than just changing the amt of money wager, its a much more different game IMO so folks may not like it.

[MeridianFC]

Spread limit.

Set an outside big bet for any hand. It's worked very well for my game for years. It plays a bit like controlled NL. The swings aren't quite as bad but you can still win (or lose) lots of cash.

I do .25/.50 blinds, $1 min. turn for flop games with a $5 big bet on any hand any turn. You don't have to be a math genius to figure out how much money can get in the middle of the table during one hand. That said because the outer limit on bets it doesn't have your stack at risk on every hand (well for the most part).

[yeltzen]

NL is more fun for a home game since you can play a lot of different ways. In limit, you pretty much have to play one style if you want to win. If most people are buying in for $25, then a .50 big blind is way too much. Drop it to .10/.25 or even .10/.20.

[luckychick]

Originally Posted by MeridianFC

Spread limit.

We do a spread limit as a compromise. Works very well, IMO and gets my vote for probably most suiting your purposes, from the sounds of things.

There have been some other really good suggestions though, and a capped NL seems like it might work. And, as others have pointed out, $25 isn't that much for 0.5/1 NL.

Good luck!

[dad604]

Whether limit or NL would be whatever your group chooses. Both are fine games. Our game is a limit game because that is what everyone preferrs. For a limit game there is no need to specify a max buyin, there should be a min buyin tho. If you were playing .25/.50 NL, you can go up to .50/1.00 or 1/2 limit game.

[guinness]

You can try Pot Limit for holdem as well. Pots can still get big, but not as big, and people can't usually go all-in preflop if that occurred alot in your game.

[EmptyPocs]

If your group is new to the game, NL can be a problem. Too many bustouts and no rebuys will make the night short.
Limit would ge the way to go and help you learn the game.
Although limit is quite different than NL it will help you learn and IMHO you will eventually adapt better to a NL cash game. IMHO (again) players who 1st play NL then go to limit do not adapt as well.
You might want to try a couple $5 or $10 sit and go NL tournaments then run the $25 buy in limit cash game afterwords to wind the night down.
Best of both worlds.

[bluffedby27offsuit]

thanks for all the insight. ill have to chat with the majority of the players and see what works.

switching to limit was just a way to minimize the size of each pot, therefore keeping the pots smaller (hopefully). the only issue i see with pot limit is the need to keep running tabs on the pot and reminding people every time they ask. i could see that getting on some nerves.

lowering the blinds/spread limit is what i think i will run by folks before the time comes. ive got a couple weeks anyways.