When you sit down in poker cash games you have the freedom to buy into the game for as much or as little as you feel like, as long as it is within the parameters set by the poker site or the card room you are playing in. Players usually have the choice of buying in for as little as 20 big blinds and as much as 250 big blinds but how much should you buy-in for?

If you are a winning player then ideally you should be looking to buy in for the maximum amount permitted by the table rules so that you are maximising your potential profits. By buying in for the full amount you will be able to use your entire arsenal of moves and plays to extract money from your opponents but if you buy in short your choices will be restricted.

That is not to say that buying in short should never be done, especially as a number of players make a good living from buying in short and basically playing a push or fold strategy. Whilst this particular short-stack strategy is not ideal and some online poker sites are altering their cash game table amounts to prevent these players from ruining the flow of a “normal” game, buying in for less than the maximum does have some merits.

For example, if you are taking a shot at higher stakes than you are used to playing then it is sometimes recommended to buy in for around half of the maximum so that you have more straight forward decisions to make, both post flop and preflop. Also, you could buy-in for a lesser amount if you feel you are being outclassed at the table. You can see this in action if you ever watch the popular poker TV show, High Stakes Poker, as none of the players takin part ever buy-in for the same amount as Phil Ivey or Tom Dwan, the best two players on the show.

So as a general rule and blanket statement you should always be looking to buy in for the maximum allowed and you should always ensure that you have the weakest player at the table covered in terms of chips in front of you. The only times you should buy in short is if you are playing a new poker variant, have moved up in stakes or are playing against players who are better than you.