Quote Originally Posted by MadMojoMonkey View Post
You should always sit down with the max buy in at whatever stakes you're playing. It is no good that your opponents have big stacks when your own stack is too small to win their stack. It is always +EV to have more chips in front of you.

Your idea that you might as well be playing higher stakes if you have a deeper stack is not a good analogy. The blinds determine the initial dead money in the pot, which sets the base-line of bet sizing to follow. Ultimately the blinds determine the final pot size.

YES, there are going to be more options as far as 4-betting and 5-betting PRE and b/r on multiple streets. This means you have more opportunities to make choices. You should relish these opportunities because your opponents have more chances to make mistakes against you.

Would you stop playing and switch tables if you won up to a 250bb stack? No, you would stay because now your implied odds hands have much greater value.

Finally, and with much respect, it sounds like you're playing scared money.
Not true. Some people aren't comfortable playing deepstack poker - it's a very different game. Taking the same lines you take with 100bb when you have 250bb effective in a 3 way pot is going to cause you to get absolutely owned. Given it's 5NL and OP is trying to learn and improve, unless he ONLY wants to play with 250bb he shouldn't be buying in with 250bb+. Your edge can feasibly decrease playing 250bb instead of 100bb if you don't adjust. Saying it is "always" +EV to have more chips in front of you is not true. Another example - if you're in a game where you don't have an edge, you want to play with as few bb as possible.