Moving up
 

Playing $.50-$1.00 and (overly) axnxious to move up. My question is what BB/hour, number of hands, and bankroll (and any other considerations) should I have before I can consider moving to $1-$2. Thanks.

Re: Moving up
 

Standard answer is to have 300 BBs fore the new level before moving up, $600 or so in your case.

I prefer the taking a shot and running good approach to moving up. If you are comfortably beating your current limit and have enough of a BR that you can afford to lose a buy-in or 2 at the higher limit then go ahead and play in that game. If you lose, then go back to your old limit and try again later. If you win however you can greatly accelerate your BR growth.

Re: Moving up
 

I was in a similar situation a while back. I waited until I hit the 300 BB mark and was glad that I did. I didn't have a problem with variance, but didn't want to buy back in. I think the 1/2 game on Party (my only site) is really similar to the .50/1 game though so if you are beating that consitantly you should not have a problem.

But it will defiantely not hurt to stay at .50/1, you KNOW you can win there.

Re: Moving up
 

But it will defiantely not hurt to stay at .50/1, you KNOW you can win there.

If someone can't figure out how to beat the .5/1 game on party after 2 sessions - maybe they should consider switching to this:

http://www.rpschamps.com

[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Re: Moving up
 

If you're feeling the urge, take a shot.

-Dimitri

Re: Moving up
 

I followed the 300BB limit thing and didn't have any problem from .5/1 to 1/2, in fact I had a better BB/100 at 1/2. I got killed my first shot at 2/4, though and the hardest part was the amounts I was losing. When I looked at it in terms of the BBs I was losing, it was nothing I hadn't done before at the lower levels, but the fact that everything was 4 times bigger made it more painful, and probably made me change my game from what had been working.

The "taking a stab" thing is fine and if you're winning at .50/1, you'll probably win at 1/2. With me it was more of wanting to be sure I understood the game at one level before trying another.

Re: Moving up
 

I built my bankroll initially by doing the original OIC challenge on here and have since done 'personal OIC's' when moving to other sites. Its a good way to test yourself at higher limits with a limited risk on your bankroll. However, the upside is that a good run can give your bankroll a significant boost.

There's a ton of posts on it from Nov/Dec 03 if you search the site but basically you start with $50 at 0.5/1 and move up to 1/2 when you reach $100. Similarly you go to 2/4 at $200, etc, etc. If you lose 25BB at any level you have to drop down to the previous limit and work your way back up again. The aim of the original OIC was to get to $2,000 (playing 20/40 by the end IIRC) in around 3 weeks. A couple of people managed it but many others had a great time trying!

The official OIC limits were very low, based on a bankroll of around 50BB for moving up (hence there's a good chance of a roller-coaster ride up and down limits) but I found it a fun challenge to do and you can always set your own limits for moving up and down if you think 50BB is inadequate.

Ultimately, you can stop when you're no longer comfortable at a particular limit and start again. However, you will only be risking $50 of your existing roll and will get a feel for how the higher limits compare.

There's a lot of short-term luck involved and the key discipline is to make sure you drop down when you're supposed to. As long as you do this then this is a good way to gain experience, bankroll, and add a bit of variety to your play.

Sheriff