Progression Up The Levels

[Ryan11]

I am wondering what everyone thinks about how one should move up in stakes from the micro (0.25/0.5) to the mid stakes (30/60). I am mainly intrigued by online poker as the limits in a B&M are different IMO.

Are there any levels where you think it is beneficial to move over to 6 max to gain some of the skills needed to be successful at the higher limits?

For me personally, I found it beneficial to play some 2/4 6 max before moving up to 3/6 full, and doing the same with 3/6 6 max before moving up to 5/10 full.

Currently I am playing 10/20 full and will be trying to move up to 15/30 in the coming months. Do you think it would benefit me to make a stopover at the 10/20 6 max before making this leap?

Also how important do you think it is to stop at each limit on your way up? Do you think skipping a level is ok (like going from 10/20 to 20/40) or is it important to move up stopping at each level, making sure you are a successful player before moving on?

Just interested in your experiences, and what you guys found beneficial for you when making the transitions from low/micro limits to the middle and upper stakes online.

[jba]

I think it really depends on the limits an how difficult they are. I pretty much skipped 1/2 full because I became overbankrolled at .5/1 and took some lucky shots at 2/4 full.

I call 5/10 6max home for right now (i basically went .5/1 -> 2/4 -> 1/2 6max -> 3/6 -> 5/10 -> 5/10 6max), but I play the 10/20 6max occasionally. I would strongly urge you to not go directly to 10/20 6max if your SH experience is limited to 3/6 and below (i think if you posed this in HUSH they would overwhelmingly agree with me -- 10/20 6max is a tough bear and 5/10 is good prep for that). If you asked about skipping 1/2 after crushing .5/1, I would definitely say go for it, so I'm not against skipping in principle. I don't think you should skip 5/10 6max even if you beat 3/6 6max for 4bb/100 over 100k hands.

The other thing is your "psychological bankroll". If this is one of the biggest limits you've played you are going to be quite taken aback by the $$$ swings in that game.

i went the whole road,
started at .5/1,1/2,2/4,3/6, decided to take a 2 month break and cashed out all, stupid of course /images/graemlins/crazy.gif.
back to 1/2,2/4,3/6,5/10,10/20,15/30 this is where i am at
right now. Studying along the way. What i see as i move up
in levels is that its becoming more aggresive, so i think
it would be good to play 10/20 6 max for a while,just to adjust to that, you get to play more marginal hands and have to make tougher decisions. i agree with jba to play 5/10 6 max first. If u can beat those games (5/10 6 max and 10/20 6 max) you can move up till at least 20/40.
succes!

[mdeck]

I went .5/1 -> 1/2 -> 1/2 SH -> 2/4 -> 3/6 SH -> 5/10 SH -> 10/20 SH.

I'm currently playing the 10/20 as a regular game, but am taking various shots at the shorthanded 20/40 and 15/30 full games that pop up. After playing so much SH full ring has become kind of boring, to be honest /images/graemlins/frown.gif

[spamuell]

If you want to get better, play 6-max. I thought I wasn't bad at poker but it has improved my game immensely and I realise I used to suck hard (I still do stupid stuff though).