Embarking on my no limit journey

[McStinky]

Hi all. This is my first post on 2+2. I'm looking for some advice from the high stakes no limit folks, and I'm hoping that my questions may generate some interesting discussion.

I started playing no limit hold 'em about 2 years ago and have done well playing mostly for fun. I have decided that now is the time to get serious. I am currently playing 2-4 6-max on PokerStars. The games are usually full of donkeys, and I feel like I am beating the game pretty good. My plan is to gradually move up to Party 3-6 6-max and then Party 5-10 6-max. I am avoiding full ring games because I like to play just one at a time, and I don't have the patience for full ring when I play online. However, I am wondering if it is a mistake not to try the full ring games first at the higher stakes. I know that 6-max requires more skill, and I am concerned that I will miss out on some important lessons by jumping right into it (and maybe I wouldn't get enough training for full ring live games). What do you think?

My second question is about math and no limit hold 'em. I have a fairly deep knowledge of game theory from my studies in grad school. I am getting better at analyzing no limit situations, which usually involve finding the right course of action given a distribution over hands that your opponents may hold. However, most of this analysis doesn't use game theory to derive an appropriate mixed strategy. Most of what I have read just says that you need to "mix up" your play. It would be nice to have a principled way of determining the probabilities to use for doing the mixing. Do any of you expert players use game theory in your hand analysis? I know Chris Ferguson is supposed to have done a lot of this, but he hasn't written much about it.