Limit for me to play or stick to NL?

I'm a college student that decided to give online poker a try. I bought in for 20 bucks and turned that into 140 playing 25/50 cent NL. I know it's not much but I was happy with it. I cashed out my 120 and kept the 20, which I've turned into 220 now. Is it time for me to move up limits? I've been playing for seven years and read several books but I feel nervous about playing larger blinds, though I'd like to make more money, I invested a lot of time in making this small amount of money since I'm a relatively tight player.

Is tournaments the way to go? Limit? NL still?

Advice is definitely welcome.

[Yeti]

Personally I'd recommend you take that $220 over to the Party $25 NL cash games.

Preferably 6-max. Take it slow. Head over to the small stakes forum for advice.

I play on PStars. There is no way for me to transfer that to PartyPoker is there?

[gomberg]

no - you can't transfer that. Listen to Yeti's advice - use that whole $250 or whatever you have and keep it just for poker. Play the $25 max buy-in games until you get to $500 and move up. If you start losing, move lower. Until you reach the $200 max buy-in games - plan on keeping about 10 max buy-ins just for poker. When you move above $200 max buy-ins, you will probably want more buy-ins as the games get a little more aggressive and tricky.

If you don't listen to this advice, you are very likely to go broke unless you are excellent.

[ QUOTE ]
no - you can't transfer that. Listen to Yeti's advice - use that whole $250 or whatever you have and keep it just for poker. Play the $25 max buy-in games until you get to $500 and move up. If you start losing, move lower. Until you reach the $200 max buy-in games - plan on keeping about 10 max buy-ins just for poker. When you move above $200 max buy-ins, you will probably want more buy-ins as the games get a little more aggressive and tricky.

If you don't listen to this advice, you are very likely to go broke unless you are excellent.

[/ QUOTE ]

So what blinds or Sit n Gos should a person be playing with 215 dollars in their account on PStars?

[PokerCat69]

[ QUOTE ]

So what blinds or Sit n Gos should a person be playing with 215 dollars in their account on PStars?

[/ QUOTE ]
25NL 10SNG
or you could join the 200+15 tournament this Sunday :P

[chumsferd]

[ QUOTE ]
I bought in for 20 bucks and turned that into 140 playing 25/50 cent NL. I know it's not much but I was happy with it. I cashed out my 120 and kept the 20, which I've turned into 220 now. Is it time for me to move up limits?

[/ QUOTE ]

If the best NL cash game player in the world sat in that game with $20 and played their absolute 'A game' I'd expect them to go bust about 80% of the time. You've managed to survive it twice, well done.

If you want to carry on playing, I'd suggest keep all that $220 on there, and move down one limit, at least, and play until you have enough to buy in 15-20 times at the next limit up... If you move up now, even if you play great, you are taking a great risk with, what sounds like, a lot of money to you.

[ QUOTE ]
Is tournaments the way to go? Limit? NL still?

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds like you are doing well at NL, so I'd stick with it for a while if I were you.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I bought in for 20 bucks and turned that into 140 playing 25/50 cent NL. I know it's not much but I was happy with it. I cashed out my 120 and kept the 20, which I've turned into 220 now. Is it time for me to move up limits?

[/ QUOTE ]

If the best NL cash game player in the world sat in that game with $20 and played their absolute 'A game' I'd expect them to go bust about 80% of the time. You've managed to survive it twice, well done.

If you want to carry on playing, I'd suggest keep all that $220 on there, and move down one limit, at least, and play until you have enough to buy in 15-20 times at the next limit up... If you move up now, even if you play great, you are taking a great risk with, what sounds like, a lot of money to you.

[ QUOTE ]
Is tournaments the way to go? Limit? NL still?

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds like you are doing well at NL, so I'd stick with it for a while if I were you.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've played ABC poker to the upmost. I haven't bluffed more than semi-bluffs unless it's really clear the guys weak, so I'm kind of scared of the move up, though I think eventually I have to make it.

[chumsferd]

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I've played ABC poker to the upmost. I haven't bluffed more than semi-bluffs unless it's really clear the guys weak...

[/ QUOTE ]

That's fine, straightforward play is probably best at those kind of limits... but that doesn't really matter to the point I was trying to make. It doesn't matter how good you are, if you play under-bankrolled you are risking going bust. You have 4.5 buy-ins for the limits you are playing. Really you need 15-20 to be safe. Large swings are not unusual in NLHE, in fact they should be expected.

I just ran a quick search of the small stakes NL forum, here are a few posts from the last couple of months about people having large downswings:

10 buy in downswing (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=2888694&page=&view=&sb=5& o=&vc=1)

Worst downswing for 100NL playing multi-tables (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=2361376&page=&view=&sb=5& o=&vc=1)

How long have you ran bad? Around 15,000 hands and counting for me (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=2568212&page=&view=&s b=5&o=&vc=1)

Anything like this would wipe you out. There are a number of people posting in those threads who believe they are winning players, at the limits you are playing, who have had runs of bad cards that have cost them much more than your entire bankroll.

[ QUOTE ]
so I'm kind of scared of the move up, though I think eventually I have to make it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't play for stakes you aren't comfortable with. Especially if you are under-bankrolled! Step down a limit, build a bankroll, and don't turn into this guy (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=2706062&page=&view=&sb=5& o=&vc=1).

Edit: Fixed the URLs

I just entered a $1 Tourney at PStars and got 3rd for $160, so I'm up to $375 now. Is a move to .50/1 out of the question? I have about $200 in cash backup if need be off of live games.

[Snoopy76]

You should have 5x max buy-in on a site plus 5x max buy-in back up. That's a good general rule. This should be multiplied by the total number of tables you play.

You should wait till you have $500 to play .50-1.

Forgot to mention to the poster that talked about 80% of the player's going bust...I was down to 2.75 and pushed with QQ and was called by AK and KQ. I tripled off of that and then in two hands hit the nut flush against a set, which then has started my winning ways. So I was on the verge of losing it all. Thankfully I'm sitting comfortable with my 375 right now.

I may play a few small cash games to try and get entries for $10, $5, and $3 MTT and if that's going well I'll try one $20 to see how that level is.

[lehighguy]

$25NL is the best game you can be playing. And its very easy to beat. When you have $500 in you account move to $50NL, it is equally easy.

Stick with NL if you don't like variance. NL has the lowest variance contrary to what you might think. It has to do with the fact that your moves have more +EV in NL. If you really want to understand why you have to study "The Theory of Poker". I never read the book, but as someone with a very strong stat backround I could grasp it from explanation.

Limit has more variance. And anything other then 6max won't teach you anything about poker at those limits. At least with NL I think you learn more.

Tournaments are the most complex form of poker possible. I play $600NL very profitably, but I'm still struggling to maximize my ROI at $50 SnGs. This despite the fact I spend much more time studying tournaments these days. They also have the highest variance BY FAR. You need thousands of dollars to play tournaments correctly, even small tournaments. $1000 swings happen like constantly to me.

So in conclusion stick with NL.

[ QUOTE ]
$25NL is the best game you can be playing. And its very easy to beat. When you have $500 in you account move to $50NL, it is equally easy.

Stick with NL if you don't like variance. NL has the lowest variance contrary to what you might think. It has to do with the fact that your moves have more +EV in NL. If you really want to understand why you have to study "The Theory of Poker". I never read the book, but as someone with a very strong stat backround I could grasp it from explanation.

Limit has more variance. And anything other then 6max won't teach you anything about poker at those limits. At least with NL I think you learn more.

Tournaments are the most complex form of poker possible. I play $600NL very profitably, but I'm still struggling to maximize my ROI at $50 SnGs. This despite the fact I spend much more time studying tournaments these days. They also have the highest variance BY FAR. You need thousands of dollars to play tournaments correctly, even small tournaments. $1000 swings happen like constantly to me.

So in conclusion stick with NL.

[/ QUOTE ]

With $375 in my account what types of tournaments should I be playing?

[lehighguy]

Short Answer: Don't play tournaments, they are too advanced for a beginner.

Long Answer: $10 SnGs. No multi-table tournaments. No five dollar tournaments. You absolutely have to read the SnG faq in the 1-table tournament forum.