Dilemma, 0.50/1.00 or 1.00/2.00

[Marc Desjardins]

Hi everybody,

I'm at a crossroad in my poker career. I moved up to 1$/2$ a few months ago, in february, I have now 8700 hands and I have a BB/100 of 1.05. I've been on a downswing lately but I never got really higher than 1.5-2.

Before I moved up, I had about 20k hands at 0.50/1.00 with a BB/100 of 3.01. But this include my first few thousand hands where I had no idea how to play.

Since I couldn't shake out the downswing at 1/2, I decided to go back to 0.50/1.00 to gain back some confidence. I played 2600 hands in the last few days with a BB/100 of 3.83.

Now here's my dilemma, I need to work hard at 1/2 to keep a BB/100 of 1.00, table selection is hard and downswing really hurts. On the other hand, I think I could sustain a BB/100 of 3-4 pretty easely at 0.50/1.00, table selection is much easier and I could probably play 8 tables at this level (I play 4 tables now).

So, I make more money at the lower level and putting in 20-30 hours a week of 8 tabling, I could probably make a modest living out of that.

So, do you guys think I should keep trying at 1/2, do you think I get get my winrate higher than 1.5-2.0, it needs to be at least that for me to make more at this level than at 0.50/1.00. But maybe 1 BB/100 is fine if I can keep this up and continue moving on to 2/4 or 3/6 where then, even at 1 BB/100 I would make more than with a 4 BB/100 at 0.50/1.00

I'm sure a lot of you guys went thru this, any feedback will be appreciated.

Thanks a lot!

[moot]

If you're properly bankrolled you could try a jump to 2/4. I played .5/1 for the longest time because I kept jumping up to 1/2 and was always having poor results. So then I just bypassed it and I've found the 2/4 games to be pretty good.

[Marc Desjardins]

[ QUOTE ]
If you're properly bankrolled you could try a jump to 2/4. I played .5/1 for the longest time because I kept jumping up to 1/2 and was always having poor results. So then I just bypassed it and I've found the 2/4 games to be pretty good.

[/ QUOTE ]

tried 2/4, I lost 70BB in 500 hands, I also tried 1/2 6-max, won a lot at first, but variance is really hard on me, after about 7k hands, I'm down about 5BB, I think that's the end of that too...

now I'm giving NL a try too, I'm making 35 BB/100 at NL 5 /images/graemlins/smile.gif But I'm down 150BB at NL 10, so I might not be ready for that yet /images/graemlins/smile.gif

but thanks for the feedback...

[bottomset]

I think if you can't beat 1/2 odds are you won't beat 2/4 ... I don't really understand the logic of jumping to a limit where the aver player is better and more tricky, the 1/2 full game isn't exactly great but its not very tough, the play is tight compared to .5/1 standards but still relatively loose

I'm a big fan of 1/2 6max but its more swingy than either 1/2 full or .5/1 so if you want lowstress play, stick to .5/1

[JDErickson]

Its actually very important that you progress through all the levels. You will learn something new to prepare you for higher levels at each stop.

I do not suggest you jump sraight to 2/4, you will miss out on a lot of good things you learn at 1/2.

Just make sure you have at least 300 BB for a shot at 1/2. When you do give 1/2 a reasonable shot. Don't quit after 1 o 2 days.

1/2 is easily beateable. It just takes a different skill set. Most of the better .50/1.00 players have moved up so you will face tougher competition.

I also do not suggest playing NL while still learning limit. They are 2 totally seperate animals and its easy to learn bad habits from 1 that lead to disaster at the other.

Jim

[blackaces13]

[ QUOTE ]
I think if you can't beat 1/2 odds are you won't beat 2/4

[/ QUOTE ]

While I agree that if you can't beat the 1/2 for a good amount you should not move to 2/4 I have to say that from my limited experince in each I have found the 2/4 at PP to be beatable for a higher rate than 1/2. That's just my opinion though.

[jaxUp]

If you want to become a better poker player, and you feel you've mastered .5/1, move to 1/2 and learn how to beat it. Then try 1/2 6max and do the same.

However, if you want to win more money without putting much effort into improving your game, then just stay at .5/1.

Either one is a perfectly legitimate option...it just depends what you want to get out (and put in) to it.

Also, 8700 hand is really nothing at all to judge your winrate...and I don't think 20k hands is even that much.

[MrEngenic]

1/2 is quite different from 0.5/1. You have to play in a different manner and start using more advanced concepts. 0.5/1 is so easy it is sometimes difficult to find out what your leaks are, you win consistenty anyway.
If you want to move up and make the big bucks at 2/4, 3/6 and beyond you have to get away from 0.5/1 as soon as possible as it a very different game.
One thing that SSH doesn't mention is blind steal and blind defence. You should steal at least 30 % of the time, and try to get it all the way to 45 %! Against a steal from SB you have to call with hands like 56s. Stealing is key at 1/2 where at 0.5/1 it didn't matter at all.