How long did it take you to move up through the limits?

Just interested to know how long it took people to move up through the ranks of the nano / micro limits? (and how many hours / week were you playing on average?)

I plan on "doing my time" on the following limit games:
0.02/0.04
0.05/0.10
0.25/0.50
0.50/1.00
1.00/2.00
2.00/4.00

I will build up a 300BB BR before stepping to the next limit.

I can only afford to play approx 10 hrs per week- other commitment as well as poker I'm afraid. I do have a few other hours per week for studying / reading books, etc.

Any idea what time spans I am looking at?

Many thanks,
Ian

I have no idea how long this will take you. It depends alot on skill and how well you adjust to the different limits.

I have just recently started playing limit but I had a nice BR already so I started with 0,50/1,00 so I cant really answer your question.

Well, I might be able to give you a rough idea. I deposited my first $50 a little less than 2 months ago. I probably only play about 6 hours a week or so at the .05/.10 tables. I've just about doubled my bankroll and plan on giving .10/.20 a shot once I get to $110. (My bankroll is not replaceable, so I'm ultra-conservative w/ the BB's I want to have.)

My winrate hovers close to 9BB/100, so I've been able to win pretty steadily....hope this gives you some idea.

[POKhER]

Well if you logged 300 hands a day, And lets say you average 1bb/100 well 300BB*100 = 30 000, 100 days.

If you do 2bb/100 then 50 days, But if you play more than 300 a day it'll be faster.

i reckon 1 - 2 months is a good time to stay at each limit, Just make sure you study SSH, post a BIT(DOnt surf pointlessly, read SSH instead) and grind you'll be up to 1/2 within 6-8months?

Although if you use your bonuses to get you from stake to stake it'll be faster.

My moving up speed is much slower than my BR has grown. I mean i've got 1600(Thats 400BB for 2/4) and im only play .50/1 6max currently lol.

Although when i buy my laptop it'll drop(Althoguh i've got 1.5k of bonuses to clear so meh)

[hobbsmann]

honestly, it sounds like you are being too conservative with regards to moving up through the nano limits. Given how bad your competition is your winrates should be fairly large and as a result your observed large scale swings will be less. It be benifical for your development as a player to take 50bb 'shots' at the next level when you reach 250-300bb or so for the current next level. This should allow to keep a solid roll for your current game, but also help move your game along.

Thanks TarHeel100- just the sort of reply I was after.

Cheers,
Ian

I'm admittedly very conservative w/ regards to moving up. I'm just not in any rush. I'm having fun playing at these super low limits just crushing the guppies. I'm never going to be a professional, this is just a hobby for me. .25/.50 will be there a year from now, just like it will be there 2 months from now, so I'm not worried about it.

[beaster]

I've followed that exact path and just now started play at 2/4. My experience was this:

0.02/0.04: Play money table. I gave up on this crap shoot after a thousand hands or so.

0.05/0.10: The first "real money" table I played. I played for about 5k hands after which I had a winrate over 5 BB/100. Moving up...

0.10/0.20: Started off tremendously then bottomed out to zero. It was here that I found the competition to stiffen up a bit. It was at this point I picked up Lee Jones' excellent "Winning Low Limit Hold'em". Came back after a couple of months off and crushed it to the tune of 8 BB/100. I think I spent about 10k hands here.

0.25/0.50: Jones' teachings are still serving me well. I only spent 4k hands here.

0.50/1: Winrate slowed down a bit here at first. This is where I picked up Small Stakes Holdem. Winrate takes off. After 5k hands at 7 BB/100, I waste no time in moving to

1/2: Thus begins my serious poker education. After 10k hands I'd accumulated 300BB. I was about to move up but figured that now that I am playing for decent stakes I better be sure I know what I'm doing. I went on a gutwrenching break-even streak for the next 25k hands. I had a couple of 100BB swings, and one 150BB swing. I wasn't used to that at all. I played through it though, re-reading my poker books and starting to respond to hand posts at 2+2. I finished the level at 45k hands at a winrate considerably less than I was used to. But I had confidence. That is what is key.

2/4: First thousand hands in. So far it plays just like 1/2, maybe a bit looser. Could be the sites I'm on. Most of the bonuswhores plant themselves at 1/2 and turn into tight nits.

So that's been my experience. Now some high-level advice: continue playing a level until you feel confident to move up. If you're feeling lost you should continue to study and read the micro forum. If you feel confident after 5k hands, fine, move up. I now know that's a statistically miniscule sample size, so be aware you might take some lumps later on. I certainly did at 1/2.

Also, be willing to adjust your goals. You mentioned 300BB before moving up. Of course you should have 300BB of the next level, but continue to play some at your current level once you reach that magic 300BB mark. Do this to ensure that you can 'keep it going'.

There, that's my conservative advice. Early on though, I moved up sooner than I should have, but I've been able to grind through my lessons and advance my poker game.

It depends on how much bonuses you are chasing. I figured that playing 0.5/1 with bonus was better than 0.02/0.04 with no bonus. FWIW I read winning low limit holdem by Lee Jones before I started playing.

At 0.5/1-2/4 you gain so much from bonuses that you will probably be able to take shots at 3/6 VERY quick if you got the balls.

[Herg]

Hobbs makes a very good point that you should consider. The 300BB rule is based on something like 3 standard deviations from your true winrate. I'm not sure if that's exactly right, but it's something to that effect. Anyway, what that means is if you're playing the really low limits where your winrate is very high, you won't need as much of a roll to sustain downswings.

If you have read SSH and even apply half of it, you will demolish the terrible players in those games. I started with $20 at 0.05/0.10 and moved up more by feel than when my roll hit a certain level. I'm positive I was running very well when I started playing, but I played about 500 hands at 0.05/0.10 with a 27BB/100 winrate before deciding I was hurting my growth by playing those games. The next few thousand hands at various higher ultra-microlimits were not as great but were still over 10BB/100.

I moved up with the knowledge that I could move back down at any time. In a year's time playing about 300-500 hands per week, I now have a roll of over $2000 and am playing at 0.50/1. As you can see, that is way more than 300BB at that level, but I don't feel comfortable moving up just yet. I have played a few thousand hands at 1/2 at about 1.5BB/100 and a few hundred hands at 2/4 where I got crushed.

Moral of the story... The 300BB rule is only a guideline, and is probably too conservative for ultra-microlimits. Once you play a while you will get a feel for the game. If you've done your homework (SSH, 2+2 posts, etc) you will be playing much better than your opponents, so trust your instincts.