"The $6-12 route at best means building up to a grand or two, moving up, going bust, starting over, until maybe not going bust, at least for a while. A better way I think is to just borrow 5K to 10K or so and dive in. Prefer banks over people. The cost of borrowing would ideally be offset in poker earn by providing the mental benefit of cushion."


Both Tommy and Goat said something similar to this (at least in that they discouraged grinding your way up). Its probably best to listen to these guys. They have a lot of experience. But as somebody roughly in your shoes +3 years (good income, play for the challenge of it and a few dollars more) I think grinding your way up is very possible and fun. Those loose wild low limit games can be very profitable if you learn how to take advantage of them (just the implication in your post that you think it will be hard to build a 10-20 BR in those games means you have some basic things to learn). Along the way you won't have any choice but to learn how to manage yourself at the table and learn multiple games. If you get to the point of being comfortable in the local 20-40 in 1, 2, 3, or 4 years shouldn't really matter to you. You should be focused on getting the best poker knowledge and experience base you can achieve. Then the BR and the higher limit games will come.