Where to (re) Start

I've been playing NL2 since I made my first small deposit on Stars and have not been excercising any kind of BRM and have won and lost a little, just basically learning the game. Now I want to deposit and play with proper bankroll management. My question is where would you recoomend that I start. I read in a lot of places that you should look to play NL10 and deposit $250 giving you 25 buyins. Is that sound or should I grind my way up to 10NL and beyond from the lower ranks? I just worry that if I play around in 2NL for too long I may pick up bad habits, I'm far from crushing the 2NL level so is this what I should master first?

A number of very good Bankroll Management threads here. I would suggest you read a few of them. BRM is a very good area to focus on if you are serious about making money online. Good luck to you.

Thanks Kenzie. I understand BRM and that wasn't really what my question was aiming at - it was more a case of whether it's advisble to deposit more and bump myself up the levels or grind it up and cut myteeth at NL2 and NL5?

Some general numbers you'll commonly see include bankrolls around 1000 BB's and up for tight players and 2000 BB's and up for loose players. So if you are playing 1/2 NL you want at least $1000 to $2000 in the bank. I'll chime in with my own thoughts too and include start small and work your way up. You can win playing tight at .05/.10 $10 buyin NL ($200+ in your account) and move up or down from there depending on how you do.

Those figures seem quite aggressive...but to put this back on track I don't want this to be a BRM discussion.

I'm a tighty and yes probably hitting the low end of reasonable numbers there.

-Raymond

I've been playing more SNG's than cash this year. I do better at the SNG's and got over not gettng the iron man rewards anymore. Playing for rewards is dumb. Play to win and let the rewards come as a bonus from good play. Anyway, I had originally started with a 40 buyin limit for SNG's. I wouldn't play until I had 40 buyins. Thought it seemed like a lot at the start bit it seems low now. I put a stricter limit on myself and can't start mixing in the next level up until I have 50 buyins. I'm currently have 150 buyins that I'm playing most of my games at.

If you can afford to deposit $250, playing 10nl will be a lot more interesting pokerwise than playing 2nl. It's also obviously harder, so you may be good enough to beat 2nl but not 10nl. Impossible to know until you try it.

One thing to consider is whether you can play without thinking at the monetary value of your chips at the level you chose. you must be 100% fine with getting your stack in the middle on a coin flip if you think you're slightly ahead.

If you have a reasonable idea of what you're doing, and if you're willing to practice solid brm, and if the money isn't a problem... (hmmm, I'll stop w the "if"s )

Skip 2nl and 5nl and go straight to 10nl w a $250 deposit. Drop down to 5nl if you fall below $200, and grind at 5nl until you have $250 again.

Edit: Belgo beat me to it, so now my post is simply agreeing w him...

Whats worked for me:

1) Once you can play 10000 hands a month and have a winning month or two in a row at 2nl, 5nl, 10nl, 25 nl, your ready to move up to the next stakes. That, to me , tells me im ready to move up to the next stakes, even if I didnt necessarily play up to the recommended amount of buyins for the higher stakes.

2) Man there are TONS of lessons to learn in the micro stakes, not just in terms of poker stuff but emotional/mental management concentration, day to day variance in your mood, your regular life ups and downs, youl lose money because your heads not in it sometimes, better you learn your lesson for 10$ instead fo 100$..... So its useless to rush to the higher stakes.

3) As long as you play and LEARN you wont pick up bad habits.

Post tough hands for discussions on the forum. I do that often. And I often post similar types of dumb move type hands but the people here are very good about giving you positive feedback so dont let your ego get in the way of posting hands where you did something stupid or you played scared.

Pick up and digest a good book on nl

Play hands of course

Basically play and learn to strive to improve at the same time. It will make the game profitable and interesting for you.

Yeah this is one of my mental sticking points. Im trying to disassociate this from my decision making but im still falling prey to it at 25nl.

Hey you, ya you dummy, (talking to me 6 months ago)

I cashed out my Full Tilt two weeks ago and am starting over with my tickets and FTP buyins. I {edit: had a good run} (lots of bonuses and stuff in there) in the first 1/2 of the year and eventually I started to implode. I cashed out to help pay last months credit card and am starting over now my tickets and $2 SNG's. Anyways, I knew it and did it anyway, don't get crazy with the cash game and trying to win the Iron Man medals every day and month to month. The cash in your account growing month to month is more valuable than rewards points.

Discipline, discipline, discipline !!!