BB/100 goals and moving up in limits

[Ritter]

I'm transitioning from all NL tourney play to re-learning hold 'em in small stakes ring games - currently 2/4.

I just started using poker tracker as well.

I expect that I will be at this level for quite some time, but am interested in monitoring my progress. At what BB/100 level one would consider moving up to 3/6 (or from 3/6 to 5/10 and so on).

What constitutes "crushing"?

My apologies if this has been addressed in previous posts, but searching through the archives gives me a headache...

[Lost Wages]

At what BB/100 level one would consider moving up to 3/6

As a general guide 1.5BB/100

What constitutes "crushing"?

>=3BB/100

Of course, you need to have an adequate bankroll as well. And, don't go thinking that you're a poker God after 10,000 hands or Sample Size Man will visit you in your sleep.

Lost Wages

[sthief09]

You should move from 2/4 to 3/6 if you have the bankroll and you feel ready. Your winrate can't tell you that. The games aren't that much different, and you'll probably want to move up before you play enough hands to accurately see your winrate.

[nepenthe]

You move up when you feel ready. Personally, I moved up from 2/4 while in the middle of something like a -100BB or less downswing because I felt ready, and I've been doing just fine. I say this because you can't really begin to gauge your winrate until you have at least a few tens of thousands of hands. 100K would be good. 50K would be serviceable. 30K would be a start. But in case you want to stay long enough to get an accurate approximation of your winrate, anything over 1BB/100 is serviceable. 2BB+/100 is good / very good. 3BB+/100 is supposed to be the gold standard. Anything over 4BB/100 is supposed to be unsustainable over the long term. Hope this helps.

[bdk3clash]

I hate BB/100 as a goal. It's just a measure of how you did, even over the longish term. The problem is that after enough hands to know what your win rate is, you're probably a better player than when you started, which would make your true winrate higher than your actual one. But you may have been running well or poorly, or had better or worse competition than average. Yadda yadda yadda.

BB/100 is an imprecise goal at best--I'd just concentrate on playing well, getting comfortable with the limits, building up a bankroll, etc.

On a personal note, I'd be playing the 15-30 right now if I felt comfortable playing at that level (I don't) and if I had a big enough bankroll (I don't.) I'm not waiting around until I'm crushing 2/4 for however many BB/100, though I am pretty close to finally making the jump to 3/6 soon. I just have an arbitrary Party balance I want to hit before I do so for psychological (as opposed to bankroll) reasons.

[JinX11]

I've purposefully avoided you on party $3/$6. Just think of all the $$$ you'd be making on $15/$30 with the regularity you flop quads, dude. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[InchoateHand]

Don't move up.
Transition in.
In my limited experience, as soon as your bankroll is adequate, just cycle in the occasional 3/6 game. In off peak hours, table selection matters more than at 2/4, but I have found plenty of tables where the level of play is entirely comparable, just the money changing hands is greater. If you choose wisely, the only other difference you might find is slightly more aggression. I haven't "moved" to 3/6 tables, but I play on them regularly in addition to 2/4, and even 1/2.

[Ritter]

Thanks to all for the feedback - all makes sense.

After about 6 years of playing as as a loser with delusions of winner-hood, I have decided to learn how to play poker.

I DO need to "prove" to myself that I'm beating 2/4 before I want to step up. Probably will evaluate around 50k hands and see how I feel.

I've finally had the "light-bulb" go off in my head that in poker, perhaps more so than any other game it truly "ain't whether you win or lose, but how you play the game".

That is to say, I have FINALLY made the connection in my brain that I can't take the results of a pot or a session as an indication of whether I played correctly or not.

Looking forward to the journey...

Ritter