[AlanBostick]

First, read this and let it sink in: Hooray for you! You have developed into a winning player, and that's no small accomplishment. You deserve to feel proud of it. What's more, you adopted a very sound bankroll management policy and stuck to it, and have been rewarded with an enviable bankroll. You have been wise where many players, even solid winners otherwise like yourself, have been foolish.

Secondly, you don't have to move up if you don't really want to. If you find yourself comfortable playing at $0.50-$1 and uncomfortable playing at $1-$2, then by all means continue playing at $0.50-$1. There is no law that says that winning poker players must move up in playing limits.

Next, you've won yourself quite a bankroll there, much more than you need to play at $1-$2, or even $3-$6. Maybe it would do you some good to take some money out of your account. You can take $1000 out with essentially no impact on risk of ruin at the limits you've been playing or express interest in playing. It would be reasonable to take $2000 or even $5000 or more out, especially if you were satisfied to play at your current level.

One way to look at it is that you've taken $12 of someone else's money and ran it up almost a thousand-fold. That's an incredible accomplishment. Suppose you took just $1000 out, and then through the worst possible luck you lost all the rest. You would still then have $1000 (or the things that $1000 could buy) that you wouldn't have if you hadn't played.

Go ahead, and take money out of your accounts. Buy yourself a new computer, a home entertainment system, fine clothes, fine food, a trip to Puerto Vallarta, a couple of Berkshire Hathaway 'B' shares, first and last month's rent on a new apartment, that used Mercedes you've been eyeing, ... or whatever you want. You deserve to taste the fruit of your success.

All of this has nothing to do with your specific question, about why you can't move up.

To answer that question involves a fair amount of self examination on your part. What was it actually like when you took shots at higher games? Does playing at $1-$2 involve crossing some line that you hadn't crossed before? How is it different to try to play $1-$2 than it was to start playing $0.50-$1 when you had been playing $0.25-$0.50?

Why do you play poker at all? How do you feel about the idea of winning or earning significant money from the game? How do you feel about the idea of losing significant money?

In the end, nobody but you can answer the question of why you aren't moving up. Other people can help you (e.g. a psychologist, therapist, or other counselor), but the real work has to be done by you yourself. And finding the answer might result in your being able to move up ... or it might result in coming to terms with and simply accepting that answer.