Moving through the Limits

[highfidelity]

I know a lot of you on this forum probably play in the higher limits, but i was just curious if anyone started in some of the low limits and advanced through them? i started on 7 Stud and 7 Stud 8/B games at the .25/.50 limit at pokerstars and have moved up to 1/2 over the past couple months. has anyone else done this and kept moving up? i was just curious at what limits the competition started to make the shift to skilled/harder to achieve a large BB/100 hands? i'm trying to figure out what limit i'm going to shoot for to find the best table for my money.

just as a sidenote, i lurked on this forum for a long time before posting and everything i've read on here has been invaluable to my learning and progress. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Andy B]

In 1995, I fell in with a group that played with a straight $.50 limit. We mostly played high-low stud with a declare and Omaha/8. Late last year, I was playing regularly in a $40/80 home game. So I've moved up in limits some (and back down a few times--mostly due to a somewhat erratic employment history), but I can't really tell you about BB/hr or anything, because I don't really keep track.

[jon_1van]

I started at the .50/1.00 tables on Party.

I have bounced around through levels quite a bit. I move up at the earliest possible moment. But it stings hard when I lose right after I move up. But when you move up and then go on a nice run...nothing can compare to that.

[BeerMoney]

I have built my bankroll by slowly building my way up. I never played much .5/1 party because that game is just wild. I built my broll playing low limit hold em and STT's. The satisfaction of grinding it out from the bottom is fantastic.

Like Jon said, taking your shot and running into bad cards is miserable. You can feel like you're out classed, but often it will just be a bad run of cards.

[nate1729]

Yeah, I've roughly moved up from .5-1 to 5-10/10-20ish over the last year. Don't you dare wait until you have 300BBs at the lowest limits; your edge is (well, should be) way too big for that. The players get marginally better on Party, and considerably better at Stars, when you hit about 5-10.

Best dollars-per-hour value is probably achieved by multitabling 3-6 on Party, or the higher limits there when the games are good.

Good luck if you take a shot, and be sure to post your interesting hands.

--Nate

[CarlosChadha]

Hi highfidelity,

I think the biggest factor that most people neglect to talk about when moving up is what your goals are. If you want to make as much money as possible in the short term, I wouldn't really advise moving up until you have a very large (300-500BB) bankroll for the new limit because learning to beat that game will cost you both money and a lot of time that you could be making money at the lower limit.

If your goals are to improve as fast as possible without ever going broke, you should be constantly bouncing between the highest limit where you are a consistent winner with a relatively large bankroll (at least 200BB), and the next highest limit where you either are not a consitent winner or just don't have a right bankroll. To make this work you most be willing to continually get beat for small amounts at the higher limit and have the discipline to return to the lower limit with your bankroll still big enough to survive the swings of the lower limit. Eventually you will become a winner at the higher limit, be able to play there regularly, and then take a shot at the next limit. Using this method I have gone from playing .25/.50 limit online to being a regular winner in the pokerstars and Atlantic City 30/60 games in 20 months (averaging 2 hours of online play every day).

Regards,
Carlos

[Andy B]

Maybe I'm not the guy to be giving bankroll advice, but if you're trying to make as much money as possible, I think you're better off playing at the highest limit you can stand, and that adhering to the 300 BB guideline is going to unnecessarily impede your progress. That 300 BB guideline assumes that going broke is unacceptable, and that you have no way to replenish your bankroll. The vast majority of the posters on the stud forum (and on the other forums, for that matter) don't fit this bill. And a lot of them are playing micro-limits. If you're playing $1/2 on-line or whatever and you dust off your bankroll, how hard is it going to be to come up with another $50-100 to get back in action? For most, I would guess not very. When I first moved up to $6/12 and $8/16, it wasn't because I had built a bankroll, but because I had a job where I could comfortably peel $300 off of my bi-weekly paycheck to go play. Having a working wife helped, although not as much as it should have....

[jon_1van]

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Having a working wife helped, although not as much as it should have....

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Andy, you need a sugar momma

[BeerMoney]

Andy, one thing you have to realize is that some of us aren't confident in our abilities. When we play on-line we are able to track our results with 100% accuracy. I wouldn't just one day decide I'm gonna be a 10/20 player. Before I start playing 10/20, I'm gonna be certain that I can beat the 5/10. For that, my benchmark is going to be 200-300 BB's. From there, I'm gonna take shots. I'm gonna find really good 10/20 tables. If I lose, no biggie, just go back and play some more 5/10. I'm not gonna spend my whole bankroll finding out that I can't beat 10/20.

[jon_1van]

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I'm not gonna spend my whole bankroll finding out that I can't beat 10/20

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I have pretty much done this...but not getting into 10/20

When I first tried 5/10 I started trying to play with only 1k. Then I lost a whole freaking lot. I dropped to the .50/1.00 tables. And slowly got back to about 1k. Then I tried 5/10 again. I got my roll up to 2.5k. Then I tried 10/20. Did bad......so why not make it all up at 20/40???.

I have to rebuild again. But only from 800 this time.


P.S. Awesome program 2 weeks away