I wonder what's the optimal size to buy in while still fixing leaks. I'm trying to find an amount that allows somewhat speculative calls preflop (e.g. set-mining, suited connectors) but will minimize my errors with TPTK type hands. So a balance between the two.

I experimented with 75bb and that seemed to work well.

Thoughts?

50bb works well, shalesy did/does it with success apparently, means you can't b/f the turn and puts you in some pretty high variance spot with top pair type hands, also awkward for 3betting pre.

just stick with 100 since all the basic strat is based around it, certain lines you can't take with bigger/smaller stacks since you're planning the hand differently etc

You can't fix the leaks with any less than 100bb so if anything move down stakes

Well my goal is to make the most money in live or mid stakes games, sure I can 8-table NL25 on Stars with somewhat competent opponents 100+bb deep for learning purposes and make a small profit while I'm at it.

But, say at a given table no fish has more than 80bb, why should I buy in full? My money is not coming from regs 200bb deep. I don't mind continuing with 160bb btw, so it's really just the initial buy in amount I'm thinking about.

Originally Posted by WotaWaster

That's a different argument.
However you may find even against regs who are better than you you have an ever lower EV when 75bb deep than when 100bb deep. I have tried this before at Nl2k games. I see 2 fish with $1000ish stacks and the rest of the tabel is solid regs with $2k+ so I buy in with $1k.

However when a guy opens UTG, I cant really profitably call with say 77, and definitely cant play a hand like 45s even in a multiway pot. I have half the implied odds to play hands so end up playing tighter and as a result get into less pots with the fish. Even your cbets are less likely to work since people dont fear you, theyre not folding hands like 99/TT as an overpair where you may be able to get them in a tough spot if you carried the threat of 3 barrells to fire.

If you want to totally nit it up and wait for AK/TT+ and check-fold AK unimproved I guess its good to have 50bb but that is unlikely to prove profitable anyway.

thanks wota, good points.

dave pwned the thread