Pushing late, is it more effective at higher limits?

PP $11 tourneys are what I play currently. I have about 1500 in my account. I have had upwards of 6k in there, but had to cash it out a few months back as I had some monetary issues to deal with. That left me with about 400 left in my account. I have worked that back up to 1500 playing $11s, 2 or 3 at a time.

A few months back I found this forum. I always played tight early and loosened up late, however I did not employ some of the pushing theories that I have found on this site. Lately I have started to play this way, pushing hands like j/10 suited when on the button, less than 10x with 4 or 5 left and no callers in front, etc.

Lately however, I have found that I get looked up more often than not when doing this by hands like pp 22-66, Ax where x is 7 or lower, K7-kj, Q9, J/10 (seems to be a favorite calling hand), etc. Usually I am behind in these hands going in and either don't improve, or improve and they catch up anyhow. I do feel vindicated though when I push with Q9 and get looked up by the guy with Q/10 and suck out on him.

What I'm wondering is if this type of strategy is better used in the higher limits, where people aren't so blindly loose with their calling requirements? Or, should I stay put and just keep doing this and eventually things will turn around in my favor?

I had hoped to get up to 2k before going back to the $22s but lately I've been stuck at the $1500 level and confidence is a bit shaken.

Two unrelated thoughts:

1) There seems to be a lot of clamor recently about looser calling ranges (there have been posts about this ranging from the $11s to the $109s). If looser calling ranges are bad for those doing the pushing, then maybe the loose callers are doing something right and the pushers ought to adjust. If the looser calling ranges are good for those doing the pushing, then why the complaining? It is my belief that there are optimum pushing ranges which opponents cannot effectively counter by either loosening or tightening their calling ranges -- if they err on either side, the pusher can exploit the error.

2) $1500 ought to be more than enough to move to the $22s.

They call you just as much (if not more) at the $22s.

you just need to adjust for their calling range, you still want to be pushing alot of hands but if their calling with 30% of their hands then you need to calm down a bit. Id strongly consider buying sng power tools to get a better idea of how to adjust to these loose calls.

and yes they do tighten up a bit in the higher buy ins... you shouldnt be calling too many all in raises on the bubble. The better players understand that the time to show your agressiveness is in your raising not in your calling.

[tewall]

There are mathematical situations where it doesn't matter with what range of hands your opponents will call with. You can work these out and see what hands are good to push with. Look at the FAQ for suggestions on tools to use.

I try to have two ranges in mind, a tight one and a loose one. That is, I want to have an idea what hands are good to push with against tight callers (often any two) and against loose callers. If my hand is good enough to push assuming loose callers, that's a no-brainer. If it's not good enough to push against a tight range, that's also a no-brainer. When it's in between then it's trickier, and I'll take into account the relative stack sizes, how many are left to act, how many are playing etc.

I don't believe moving up will help you with the loose calling range problem, primarily because as you move up more players will also be pushing. That is, you have a big edge if you understand pushbot because you will pushing many more hands than your opponents, taking advange of +EV situations your opponents let by. As you move up, more players will also be pushing, so you lose a lot of that edge, which will more than make up for the little bit you gain by their not calling with as wide a range of hands.