[jimdmcevoy]

I am no expert, but from my experience it is best to have 10 full buy ins at your current limit. if 1 full buy in is 100 BB (big blinds) that means you nead 1000 BB at your current limit. The way I progress up the limits is if I have 10 full buy ins at my current limit and 2 full buy ins at the limit I want to go up to next, I'll take a shot. If I lose those 2 full buy ins at the higher limit, I'll drop down again. If I don't I keep playing to get 10 full buyins at that higher limit and then another 2 full buyins at the next limit. From personal experience this seems to work the best in terms of little risk climbing the ranks of limits.

One last thing, if you ever drop to 10 full buy ins at the next lowest limit, drop down to that limit.

Eventually you will be jumping up and down between two limits, the lower limit the one you can beat (as in you have positive EV when playing it) and the higher limit the one you cannot (as in you have negative EV in it). When you get to this point you have two choices, stick with the lower limit and play to make money, or, stick to the system at continually taking that shot at the higher limit in order to become a better player.