What's your buy-in budget for playing poker cash games?

[Alan Mendelson]

I had this discussion the other day, and I'd like to get some other thoughts on it.

When you go to a casino to play a live poker cash game, how many "buy-ins" do you bring with you?

In other words, if you are going to play a $100 buy-in game, how many buy-ins of $100 do you have in case you bust out and want to keep playing?

To be honest, I never thought in terms of the "number of buy-ins." I only thought in terms of a daily poker budget.

But the "number of buy-ins" actually becomes crucial when the "buy in range" varies.

For example, at Commerce Casino and at Hollywood Park Casino, the $100 cash game has a buy-in that is fixed at $100. So, if you have a daily budget of $300 you have a "three buy-in budget."

However, if you play at the Bicycle Casino, the $100 cash game allows buy-ins of as much as $300. And, many players will buy-in for $300 so that they don't appear to be short stacked and weak. So if you want to play the $100 game at The Bike (The Bicycle) and if you want to have a "three buy-in bankroll" you could argue that you need $900.

Well, if I were to play at The Bike, with a three buy-in bankroll, I just wouldn't fit -- my daily poker bankroll isn't that big.

To be honest, if I can't be winning after two buy-ins, I really started to doubt whether or not I want to risk a third buy-in.

Yet, I see players every time I play that are prepared to lose three, four, five or more buy-ins before the cards "start to click" and they win. Then, I've seen players buy in for three, four or five times who never see the cards "click."

How do you approach the idea for a "buy-in bankroll"?

[bigfoot66]

Problem for me is that I am no good at live poker, but back when I played it would have been 2 or 3 buy ins. Also I was a limit player so there was less of an issue there.