Preliminary shot at moving up, results, comments?

[UATrewqaz]

Been playing tons of .5/1 PP and been stomping it pretty good last 6K hands (4.3 BB / 100). With all my winnings + bonuses I more than have the roll for 1/2 (would be about 525 BB for 1/2). So I figured I'd try a couple hundred hands up there and see what happens.

Only played about 150 hands, finished +3 BB, so no big whoop. A few things I noticed.

1. The size of hte pot DID influence me. My mind is so trained to calculating odds at .5/1 the pot size was throwing me off and makign me chase some slightly bad draws (I acutally hit on two which is why I finished up, my A2 sucked out bad on an AQ).

2. I played stronger starting hands more aggressive later in the hand, usually showing down an ace high and losing every time. I think subconsciously I felt that people at 1/2 are "better" and therefor more likely to throw away crap so I needed to push harder. I lost a tons of bets with AQo 3 times due to this, I raised preflop and isolated 1 person and bet into them the whole hand, and usually checked downt he showdown when the board was full of crap and they would show me typical .5/1 hands (middle/bottom pairs, etc).

At least now I have some things to focus on. Any other thoughts or things to look out for?

[SteveL91]

A few things that I'd keep an eye on are:

1) Stealers. Also try and get a read on who will open-raise light. Then, don't be shy about 3-betting them. Lately, I've been upping my aggression pre-flop and I've been finding good things tend to happen.

2) Blind play and blind defense. This goes hand-in-hand with #1, but you really need to be willing to get in there and mix it up. Now, I'm not saying you should defend crap like 72o or 65o or anything, but you should find a comfort zone; both HU and in pots with multiple players. If it's going to be HU, I'll defend just about anything, but I'm more selective if it's going to 3-4+ handed.

3) Tighten up in early position until you have a handle on the pre-flop aggression of the table. Some tables will let you get away with limping small pairs and suited A's and whatnot; other tables will punish you for these plays.

4) You need to be willing to try stealing. Again, find a comfort zone, both in terms of frequency and hands. If you've been caught the past few hands raising light from MP/LP, then tighten up; if you haven't done anything at all, give it a try and don't be scared if they defend.

That's all I can come up with right now. Hope this helps.

Steve