advice needed for a player moving from .50/1 to 1/2 and struggling

[kiemo]

1.8 winrate doesnt seem all that great at .5/1, this usually is an indication of weak tight play, which will get him bleed to death at a good portion of the 1/2 tables (doubly so at any site other then paradise,party or pacific).

Also num tables playing is huge. 6 tabling comment leads more evidence to weak tight play. Have him drop to 2 when he is playing 1/2 and evaluate his aggression closer.

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yeah less tables is prolly a good idea.

i'm confused about the math...he went up 100, down 150, and is now down 250 total?

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He is down TO 250. That's what I think anyways. What site does he play? Does he understand table selection? I sujest playing less tables at a time but sticking to 1/2

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he's down 250 big bets ( 500 dollars ). he currently plays on betonbet ( pokerroom skin with rakeback ). he was playing on party for a while but quit in favor of rakeback on betonbet. he's also not playing with a PA hud or anything which i think is a mistake. in my opinion playing without a hud is always a mistake since one is so valuable at any limit.

also i was somewhat of the opinion that table selection was not terribly important at limits as low as .50/1 and 1/2. i'm sure that it is far less important than it is at 10/20 but i'd be interested to know if you all feel that it is very important at smaller stakes too.

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I just started limit. I was down 150 BB at one point (1/2 level). I started to focus on table selection and better pf play (mainly wasnt raising enough hands in the right positions) and am now up 50BB over all. I havn't had a losing session in a while. The 1/2 level isnt all that hard and there might just be one leak he has.

I think pokertracker really helps at any level and recommend he uses it.

[Adam22]

yeah he uses poker tracker but just to evaluate his play afterwards. i definetly wasn't a good player by any means when i was at 1/2 and so i'm kind of unsure of the advice i should give him since i didn't really begin to understand poker completely until i was at 3/6 for a while. even then i don't think my understanding became real complete until i was at 5/10 for a while. basically i'm kind of torn between telling him to just play at a level he's comfortable with and trying to encourage him to advance limits.

What are his goals? Is he moving up for any other reason than you nagging him? If he is comfortable at .5/1 and is making enough money at it to make it worth while for him he doesn't need to move up. Penis size and the limits you play at are rarely linked.

Table selection is important at every limit. There are tight tables and loose tables and finding the table that matches your play is always important.

Have you shown him Poker Ace in action to let him see what he is missing? I think if he saw it in action he would be more likely to get it.

[Adam22]

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What are his goals? Is he moving up for any other reason than you nagging him? If he is comfortable at .5/1 and is making enough money at it to make it worth while for him he doesn't need to move up. Penis size and the limits you play at are rarely linked.

Table selection is important at every limit. There are tight tables and loose tables and finding the table that matches your play is always important.

Have you shown him Poker Ace in action to let him see what he is missing? I think if he saw it in action he would be more likely to get it.

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i think his overall goal is just to be able to sustain himself from poker and move up through the limits and become better at poker. it's not a macho thing, moreso just a logical urge to play at a level that tests his skills, helps him improve and is increasingly profitable.

he's seen me using pokerace but i don't think he's aware of how valuable it is ( i don't think that i'm on top of how useful it is either, my use of it is pretty basic compared to what i could probably derive from peoples stats ).

also i don't think he puts any thought into table selection or relative position ( i don't see how you could really excercise much effective table selection without using a hud unless you had extensive notes going on ) which is probably a factor.

Table selection depends on the site you play on. Party shows number of players and average pot so I figure the higher the pot the looser the table and choose accordingly.

He wants to make a living playing on-line poker and doesn't understand position or table selection or how to maximize the available tools out there? It didn't really sound like .5/1 wasn't still testing his skills. One profitable month doesn't mean you are crushing a limit. Tell him to move up when he can sustain 2 BB/100 for 50k or 100k hands, if he doesn't have the patience for that don't lend him money when he goes broke moving up too fast or with too little bank roll.

First thing: Get him on this forum to interact with this advice instead of relaying messages.

Secondly: Well I just moved from .5/1 to 1/2 on Party Poker after ~10k hands of 2BB/100 (mostly without PT and a HUD). After getting a few thousand hands in at 1/2 and ~3BB/100 and PT/HUD I quickly jumped to 2/4. After initially having great success at 2/4 I fell back to even. So I'm back at 1/2 now and actually spending some time trying to analyze why my play yields what it does instead of just winning and moving up once I feel comftorable with the bankroll.

My point- Does he want to invest the time to figure out how to move up? Probably not if he's fine playing 100k hands at .50/1 and has you pushing him and figuring out his problems.

Should he move back to .50/1 to make back his money? Investing the 25 to get Pokerace HUD and keeping his style at 1/2 on party poker he should have no problem making his money back there. I've only played limit on Party Poker and I think anybody should be able to profit there with a little effort. Making $500 back will take him 28k hands at .5/1 at his rate. I bet he could make that back a lot more quickly at 1/2. Or even by getting a job at Wal-Mart. (They'll even pay for your lunch break lunch break now)