When to move up...

[shermn27]

So I started out refusing to play online poker for fear that I lost too much info. by not being able to watch my opponets. Until one evening I thought I would give it a shot and put down $50 and decided I would play only .50/1.00 6-Max limit just to see how it would go. I have quickly made money on this investment (728 Hands at a rate of 33.5 BB/hour). This has made me a stronger advocate of online play but has also left me with another problem.

My limited success (b/c I know it has only been a little over 700 hands) has got me contemplating moving up in the limit game. How successful do you need to be at one limit to move up to the next? Should I just stay at .50/1.00 for a while longer or go ahead and move up to 1/2? Any advice is appreciated.

[callydrias]

Whenever you have the confidence and the bankroll, try moving up. 700 hands is nothing by which to gauge your success though. Take a look again after 15-20,000 hands and you'll start to see the smallest glimpse of your possible winrate.

Oh yeah, use the search function.

[_Kevin_]

With 700 hands you don't know if you are a winning player or not. You've clearly just been running REALLY good (you may also be playing very well but there is no way to know). You could lose everything over the next few hundred hands. I would shoot for about 10K hands before moving up. I really think you want to shoot for at least 5K even if you keep running really good. Just my $0.02 worth.

[deception5]

[ QUOTE ]
(728 Hands at a rate of 33.5 BB/hour)

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a phenomenal winrate and is impossible to sustain in the long run (unless you're playing 12+ tables at a time). Clearly you are running very well.

My recommendation would be to continue playing at that level to try and determine your base stats after at least 5k hands (and this is a little low - 10k would be better). You will learn a lot playing that many hands and will learn to deal with downswings, bad beats, etc. I would recommend taking a look at poker tracker to help you in the long run as well.

As far as moving up goes, the general rule is around 300BB for the level you are playing. So to have a confortable bankroll for .50/1.00 you should have around $300, for 1/2 around $600. Shorthanded can have bigger swings so some people recommend having higher bankrolls for these, but for low limit it's probably not really worth it.

[shermn27]

Thanks. I probably stick with where I am at for a while longer. BTW, you are right, I should have used the search button to find a post. I knew there had to be one already out there. Sorry.