Explanation of Buy-in
It matters little whether we are dealing with a buy-in to a tournament/sit-and-go or a cash game, the terminology is the same.
The difference is that tournament buy-ins are always fixed, whereas there is often some leeway in terms of buy-ins for cash games. Cash games often allow for a range of different buy-ins by specifying a minimum and maximum buy-in amount.
Most online games set the minimum buy-in at 40 big-blinds and the maximum buy-in at 100 big-blinds. Live casinos are typically known for allowing players to buy in “deep” joining the table with 200 big-blinds or more.
Example of Buy-in used in a sentence -> We ran really good in the cash games there and ended up winning 5 or 6 buy-ins.
How to Use Buy-in as Part of Your Poker Strategy
Most online cash game players buy in with 100bb because they have spent the majority of their time honing their play with 100bb effective stacks. Live players might buy in slightly deeper on average and be used to playing with stack depths closer to 200bb on average.
When determining whether a tournament buy-in is good value, it’s important to consider overlay when dealing with guaranteed tournaments.
See Also
Tournaments, Overlay, Cash Game, Effective Stacks, WSOP, Sit-and-go
