The stakes

The stakes being considered for this blog will be the small and medium stakes no-limit games found at most casino's and poker rooms. The size of the blind determines whether the game is short-stacked or not. As a rule, consider yourself short-stacked in a no-limit game if you have less than two full buy-ins in front of you, have at lest have the chips of the chip leader, or are playing in a deep stack game with less than a hundred and fifty buy-ins.

The games you are likely to find:

$20  capped buy-in with a half dollar big blind.

$40 capped with a one dollar big blind.

$50 capped with a one dollar big blind.

$50-100 spread with a two dollar big blind.

$100 capped with a two or three dollar big blind.

$200 capped with a five dollar big blind.

$100-300 spread with a five dollar big blind.

$400 capped with a five or ten dollar big blind.

$200-500 spread with five dollar big blind.

$600 capped with a ten dollar big blind.

$500 no cap with a ten dollar big blind.

$800 capped with a ten or twenty dollar big blind.

$1000-2000 spread with a twenty dollar spread.

Any game with a bigger blind AND a bigger minimum buy-in is considered big by my standards.

You should never play a no limit session without at least three full buy-ins that you can comfortably put on the table.