[CptnNemo]

While bonus whoring, I spent alot of time at the .50/$1 tables at party. I played extremely tight, and made money...slowly. It was however a extremely boring experience (I was playing between 3-6% of hands dealt to me). As my bankroll increased, I moved up to 2/4, 3/6 then 5/10. Playing 5/10 was beyond the reach of my bankroll, and I had the worst down swing of my life.

I then started whoring again at .50/1 and 1/2 on party (and other places)

What was interesting is that my stats mimiced my stats that had made me so much money on 2/4, but at .50/1 and 1/2 I was losing money, consistantly. People did not respect my raises (I guess $1 isn't alot of money to them). In addition, it was hard to simply call a hand and win if you didnt have the nuts. You'd have a medicore hand like JKo and call, there would be 9 others in the hand. If an A or K comes up, most like SOMEONE has that and another card on the table. It was an awful experience.

Long story short, I go back to 2/4 and have been playing consistantly good poker and winning consitantly since.

Here are the morals from the story:

1) Don't exceed your bankroll's capacity. If you're at .50/1 you need $300 br. 300bb is the rule (although I've done well at 2/4 with a BR of $500 without problem).

2) Play at a level you enjoy. I can't play .50/$1 any more, the players don't know what they are doing and I seem unable to make money.

3) A complete poker player can play at many levels well. If your br dictates you play .50/1, don't move up levels cause you arn't winning, or keep getting drawn out. Moving up because it's "easier to win" or "easier to predict others" at the upper levels doesn't make you good. Poker is like a video game, finish level one before you move on to two: level one gives you the skills needed for two.

Sorry for the long post...hope it's insightful!