Advice for move from Paradise .10/.20 to .25/.50

[numeri]

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Also don't play more passively because you don't want to risk more money - I know this was where I went wrong moving from .05/.10 to .10/.20, it can be a hard adjustment but you'll get used to it!

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This is a great point. I had minor downswings moving into each level. It could just be variance and coincidence, but I think it had to do with the emotional adjustment of bigger pots. It sounds silly, but going from $0.40 big pots at 0.02/0.04 to $1 big pots at 0.05/0.10 can be a big adjustment!

[Grail]

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I agree with all of that. Nobody has any clue what they're doing until you get to 1/2. You probably don't even need the full 300 BB since they're so bad & passive. $100 should be fine.

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I used to agree with that bankroll advice, but recent events have opened my eyes.

Before last week I had about 20k hands in my PT database. I was winning at over 5bb/100 with a recent 3k hands upswing at around 11bb/100. This is all .5-1 at Party.

I own this game.

Or so I thought.

Then I hit one of those downswings you read about. Over nearly 10k hands I was just down, down, down. At the end I was down about 220BB.

It has turned around recently and I’ve made up well over half of that. I’m still way up overall, and never was never really even close to ruin. But if this had happened when I had 200BB total BR I would have been in serious trouble.

BR guidelines are there for a reason. You can move up with 10BB if your lucky. It’s all about how much you are willing to risk ruin.

[Grail]

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I had minor downswings moving into each level. It could just be variance and coincidence, but I think it had to do with the emotional adjustment of bigger pots. It sounds silly, but going from $0.40 big pots at 0.02/0.04 to $1 big pots at 0.05/0.10 can be a big adjustment!

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I think it helps to think of the pot in number of Big Bets, not total $.

So at any level a 10BB pot is a 10BB pot. It’s a pretty hard concept to force you mind to accept, but it will help you in the long run.

[McGahee]

Point taken - it's not a bad thing to be too careful with your 'roll, but I do think a distinction should be made between these nano-limits and Party .5/1. I have had big downswings on Party myself. Paradise .25/.5 is even softer and more passive, as hard as that may be to believe; although I suppose it's possible that I just ran good all the way thru that limit.

[numeri]

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I had minor downswings moving into each level. It could just be variance and coincidence, but I think it had to do with the emotional adjustment of bigger pots. It sounds silly, but going from $0.40 big pots at 0.02/0.04 to $1 big pots at 0.05/0.10 can be a big adjustment!

[/ QUOTE ]

I think it helps to think of the pot in number of Big Bets, not total $.

So at any level a 10BB pot is a 10BB pot. It’s a pretty hard concept to force you mind to accept, but it will help you in the long run.

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That's exactly what I do now. When I started, I was just nervous to be playing with real money. Now it's no big deal, but it can be an adjustment for a player new to poker and moving up levels. (It may seem that I'm new to poker, but I started at the 0.01/0.02 game at UB!)

[deception5]

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I have had big downswings on Party myself.

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Ditto.

I do think it's ok to take a shot at a higher limit and if things work out you can stay there. When I was at Pacific, the .10/.20 level was removed when I was playing at that level. I had around 250BB for the next level so I tried it and things worked out for me. If I had gone down to 200BB I would have moved down.

[deception5]

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When I started, I was just nervous to be playing with real money.

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Hehe - funny I'd forgotten how nervous I was the first time I sat down at a .05/.10 table and went down $1.

[Grail]

As long as your willing to commit to droping down if you lose 30-40% of your roll then 'taking a shot' and the next limit with even a 150BB roll is perfectly safe.

Just don't let it shake your confidence when you have to drop down. Doesn't always mean your a bad player, but it's always a good time to take a closer look at your game.

-G

[jubeirm]

Thank you all! Your replies have been very helpful. I definitly heard bells going off during the discussion about increased pot $ value vs. pot BB counts. The $s definitly make me nervous, but I will try to keep in mind that after conversion to BB the .10/.20 and .25/.50 are both roughly the same game. The same thing happened to me betwen .02/.04, .05/.10, and .10/.20 limits. Seems it always takes me a bit of time to adjust pyschologically to a new game.

See ya'll at tables.

[Hellmouth]

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For bonus clearinging, .5-1 hits the minimum rake at least 2/3 of the time. Smart play will make good profits and bonuses will come faster. Just make sure the roll can handle it.

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Yes, I cleared Granny on Paradise. I still play there and just made the jump to .5/$1. The pots at .$25/$.50 clear rake roughly 1/3 of the time. Thats about 3000 hands to clear the 1000 raked hands or $100.

But I did notice a difference in the .5/$1 game. For me it is good. However, while I was clearing the bonus I dont think I could have handled the swings. I deposited $200 to clear $100. The swings at worst on 25/50 were 100BB or ~$50 and this only happened once or twice to me. At .50/1 they are bigger money wise. I think that this would have shaken my confidance if I had had a smaller bankroll. I also know that I needed to play a lot of .25/.50 hands because I was not ready for .5/1. If you are not sure I would definately not move beyond .25/.50 until you are ready.

Greg