Capped buy-in poker games play just like regular ring games, with the only difference being that there is a cap on the amount of money you can win or lose in a single hand. Capped games create a lot of action because the amount you can lose in the hand is limited and therefore players don’t fear ‘going-broke’ as much as they would in a more traditional deeper stacked game.
Typically in online poker, the cap is set at 30 big blinds, so if you’re playing $1/$2 No Limit Holdem, the maximum you can lose in a single pot is $60. Players are free to buy in for as much as they want, but as soon as they have put 30 big blinds into the pot, the betting action concludes and the remaining cards are dealt just as if they were all-in.
Difference in Strategy for Capped Poker Games
Stack size plays a key roll in determining the correct strategy in poker and some adjustments from normal 100 big blind play are required when playing capped games. The first thing to note is that calling raises with small pocket pairs in order to try and hit a set in heads up pots should be avoided. Your implied odds will be capped at 10/1 and you’re approximately 8/1 to hit a set, meaning that you have to win your opponents stack every time you hit for it to be profitable, and this doesn’t even factor in the times where your set doesn’t win at showdown.
The same goes for playing small suited connectors. You simply don’t flop a strong hand or a strong draw often enough to make calling raises with suited connectors profitable.
Your 3 betting strategy also needs to be altered in cap No Limit Holdem games. In a full stacked game you would typically see a raise to 3x the big blinds and a 3-bet to ~9-10 times the big blind. If your opponent goes all-in when you 3-bet you’re typically left with pot odds of about 2/1, meaning you need 33% equity vs. your opponent’s 4-betting range to call. Deciding what to do in these situations requires a very good understanding of your opponent and his pre-flop shoving ranges. If you’re playing an opponent who 4-bets very often, you can even consider making your 3-bet an all-in taking advantage of additional fold equity, stopping yourself being exploited by your opponent’s 4-betting tendencies, and putting him, rather than you to the difficult pre-flop decisions
In many ways, capped buy-in ring games play quite similarly to the latter stage of multi-table tournaments where the stacks become quite shallow and can be good practice for tournament players who want to simulate the latter stages of a tournament without having to play several hours to get there.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Capped Buyin Poker
One of the best things about playing capped games is that your risk in each hand is limited; meaning that you can enter more pots than you ordinarily would and even play more hands out of position than normal. There is a lot of action in capped games and lots of all-in situations which makes them fun games to be a part of. It’s also possible to have a big edge in these games if you study the math of short stacked poker and understand all-in ranges better than your opponents.
On the downside, because there are so many all-in situations, the variance in capped buy-in games can be cruel. You can feel like everything is against you when you get all-in for your 30 big blinds and lose 10 times in a row. In order to succeed in these games you need to be able to keep a cool head, and have a big enough bankroll to manage the swings that come with the frequent ‘all-in’ situations.
