When to move up?

Since I've got PT I've played about 5K hands on 10NL with just under 11 bb/100 hands. Does someone know when it's about time to move to 25NL? I think my bankroll can handle it (about $1500 atm), but I'm wondering at how many hands at a certain profit it's a good idea to move to 25NL. Thanks in advance for your advise.

btw, I know just 5K hands is nowhere near enough

why are u still playing 10NL with 1500 dollars, lol. With that BR and that winrate at 10NL id say its an easy decision to move to 25NL.

Your BR is certainly enough for the move up and your win rate is impressive, albeit over a small sample. I would be looking at a least 25K hands for the win rate to be settling at a consistent rate. If your not comfortable with it try taking some shots and see how it feels.

$500 is enough for 25nlhe, you could jump straight to $50nlhe if you wanted and give it a shot. you're (over)rolled for both.

I know my br is good enough for 25 or 50NL, but whenever I take a shot at playing 25NL I always seem to be losing and not playing as comfortable as I am on 10NL (I'm guessing the comfort will come when I play some more on this level). So that's why I aksed for some guidelines about winrate and amount of hands before moving up.

well if u are not as comfortable at 25NL i definately would not go right to 50NL. You should feel pretty comfortable at the 25NL level with such a high BR. Just play your game and keep playing. You will eventually get used to it

ya just stick it out at 25nlhe for ~2k hands and see if your bb/100 goes up with comfort. if not, move down and take shots every so often. that's kind of a usual thing at least for me.

If you underconfident then play say 1 session in 3 on nl$25, move to 1 in 2 if you gaining confidence then move over totally. You have the roll to do it easily. There is little difference in the quality of players youll meet.

My interpretation is that bankroll "rules" are primarily to account for variance, so you've got that covered.

However, along with that is the element of not playing with scared money. In other words you've got to not be afraid of getting your entire stack in because your stack only represents a small portion of your bankroll. If I recall, FP made some useful comments to joose a long time back when joose was in the opposite situation; he felt confident at higher levels but didn't have the bankroll because he had withdrawn some.


In other words, guidelines are guidelines. If you're rolled, have a decent winrate, even have 10,000+ hands, but, you still don't feel confident + you're not winning when you take stabs, then unless you feel a need to move up + you're willing to keep absorbing losses, don't do it.

And, moving up or down does not have to be a line you cross never to return. Like others have suggested, find a ratio or pattern for trying the higher level once in a while.

Thank you for all the advise. I guess I'll make stabs at 25NL every now and then and see how it feels. And NineLions, I guess you're right, it's better to be winning and to enjoy playing on low then feeling uncomfortable on higher stakes. However, I would like to move up soon, because I feel like the the bulk of people playing on my current stake are hardly (if at all) taking poker serious (either that or they are just plain morons ).

sooo what is wrong with that?


seriously there is no reason to move up if you are beating and feeling comfortable at your current level. You should only move up if you honestly want to not because your bankroll dictates it.

Are you sure about the last piece? Decided to take a stab and already lost over 55 within the first 300 hands... Ok, did get QQ vs KK which cost me 25, but still...

300 hands is nothing, especially in NL wich is very volatile in terms of win/loses, and 55$ is nothing, it's only 2 BI. Stop looking at how much money you lose by session, distanciate yourself from the "OMG 55$ is a lot in the real world" aspect and look at your sesults in terms of big blinds and BI, it'll make the transition smoother.

you could be 0/5 flush draws filled with proper odds & would you assume you were playing worse or just hitting variance? play smart & strong and you'll do fine. trust me. there is almost 0 difference between 10nlhe and 25nlhe.

when i moved to 200nlhe at first i thought i was terrible & should move back down, but after looking over hands i noticed that in addition to variance in draws/etc i was also playing scared. now after changing my game up to more like i was at 100nlhe [comfort] i have been doing tons better.

Don't look at the results too much, assess whether you are still playing good poker. It's just an adjustment you need to make. Also the $ value of everything is now around double that of what you were playing before so the swings will seem massive, but they aren't. You're rolled for this and as most of the guys have said before, if you can beat 10NL there is a very good chance you'll beat 25.

If you still feel a little uncomfortbale, open up a couple of 25 tables and watch them. If you have a decent awareness of where your game is at you'll know if that game is beatable.

Also, it's very healthy to take shots at higher levels. You're challenging yourself as a player.

You should never have more than 10% of your total bankroll at a ring game at once. So what ever you buy in at make sure that is only 10% of your bankroll and you should be fine.

Good luck at your tables