When to move up, when you don't play enough hands for good feedback??

[adam61]

I've played a good bit of poker. About 400,000 Limit hands at .5/1 1/2 2/4 and 3/6, some live hands, 3000 or so SNGs at 10 20 and 50. About 60 or so NL MTTs. And various other things. I've never lost my whole bankroll, cashed out prolly about 6-7k so far. However, most of this was before I took an 8 month break. I've come off that break about 6 weeks ago and I'm running into an issue. I don't really play enough hands to get good feedback, to decide to move up. Since returning I've played about 15,000 hands at 2/4 making about 550BB for a rate around 3.82BB/100 hands. I know this probably isn't sustainable I'm just stating a fact. Anyway my goal was to work my original $1000 in seed money up to $5000 at 2/4 then take out my $1000 and leave me with about $4000 in my bankroll.

I'm getting close to that goal, but I just don't know how I should manage my moves to other limits. I'm pretty conservative, bankroll=poker life, if I lose it I'm out. But I know you don't need more than $4,000 to play 3/6. I only play 8-10k hands a month, this is partly from being busy and partly so I don't burn myself out. But my old rule of thumb before I quit was to do 40-50k hands real quick, and decide to switch. Now that's a 6 month proposition and seems rather silly. I'm to the point where I want to develop a month-to-month schedule of bankroll growth and taking money out (prolly 50/50 split) and need a plan for moving between limits. THANKS!

[Harv72b]

Most people recommend having a bankroll of 300 BBs for whatever level you're playing. Playing 3/6 & assuming decent play, you can easily get away with $1500, probably less. This is especially true given your relatively light schedule. When I was playing primarily 3/6 & just a few hands/month more than you, I kept a bankroll of $2500 & allowed myself to take shots at 5/10 once that grew above $3k each month.

Other than that, it's really just about skill level. You've played 3/6 before so you know pretty much what to expect. If you feel that you've shaken the rust out of your game enough to keep winning at 3/6, then I don't see why you shouldn't go back up. Set a stop loss if you must, but it shouldn't be necessary barring a very bad run to start out.

Some may disagree, but the number of hands you play at a level doesn't really matter in knowing when to move up. Some people can breeze through a level with 5k hands or less & be ready for the next one. Others can play 500k & still not be good enough to hack it at the next rung. All that really matters is skill level & bankroll, and from what you've said it appears you have enough of both already.

As far as growing you bankroll while cashing out, that's entirely up to you & your goals. If you're happy just grinding out 3/6 for the foreseeable future, then just cash out 100% of your profits every month over your base bankroll. If you'd like to move up further, then a set split amount like you mentioned will work well. If you want to keep plugging away in SnGs & MTTs on the side, you can set aside $X/month for tournament play, or just build an amount of money for that purpose.