One of the debates that you know will probably never get settled - buy-ins. Is maximum, minimum or something in between the right amount of a buy-in? How do you go about figuring that out? Well, I guess you can never really have a real answer, since there are different kinds of styles for different kinds of players. I've written you introductions to different kind of stack plays in NL Texas Holdem, hopefully you'll be able to get something out this article.
What I like about maximum buy-ins, and why I always buy-in for the maximum amount, is you'll have more options to "play around" with your stack. More strategies to play against other players - more possibilities, all-in-all. You'll be able to adjust better since, again, there are more possibilities. Also, when you play against other players with full buy-ins, you'll be able to make more money in a single pot.
Among other stuff, it depends on what kind of a style you prefer to play. Loose-Aggressive playing style is usually suited for big stacks, while Tight-Aggressive style goes generally for "short stacks". With more money in front of you, there are possibilities for you to mix-up your strategy, doing all kinds of "stick & move" kind of moves. You can set-up your opponents in a lot of ways.
You'll have only one goal with minimum buy-ins... to double-up. It's about making other players to make theirselves pot-commited enough to get you all-in. This isn't as hard as it is with full stack, obviously, since you've got less money.
Personally, I always play with maximum amount of money, because it gives you a bunch of options for different kind of strategies. An important part of poker, value bet, is almost impossible to demonstrate with low stacks, whereas with max. stacks a lot of your money comes from doing that. You don't have to get opponents pot commited all the time... and actually, it's often better if you don't, since you can extract a lot more value and do more bluffing when they aren't commited to call.
I guess it also depends on what kind of a person you are - in other words, what kind of poker you prefer to play. If poker keeps you entertained - great! It is however correct to choose which style makes you more money, but on the other hand if you don't really like playing with full stacks and find playing min. buy-in much more entertaining, go for it since you'll have to enjoy poker... at least a bit.
The best way for you to determine the size of a buy-in is to try out different kind of poker. What kind of a playing style you prefer, what is the most profitable one... the most profitable plays can be made with a full buy-in, but then again, it's up to what's the most profitable buy-in for you, not generally.
On a related note, read this poker bankroll article.
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