Second time around, and wanting the opinion of others.

I began playin online back in Summer 2008. Deposited $50 and turned it into a little over $1,000 in 12 days. I made this money primarily playing on .50/$1 and $1/$2 tables. I then decided to increase my games to $2/$4 tables. I quickly began losing by BR. I ended up cashing out at about $550. I have not been playing since, until last Saturday. I deposted $80 and have now turned it into $250. Im wondering what most others do? If you're starting at say $1/$2 tables, and see a lot fo success, do you bump it up to 2/4, or do you stick to what you know has been working and remain at the smaller stakes?

For me, this time around, I think I'm going to stick to the 1/2 where i know i can be successful. What is the opinion of others?

BTW, this is my first post here. Hi!

there are at least two things to think about when moving up in levels
1. the players are probably going to be of a higher level of ability
2. are you going to play your usual sort of game without worrying about losing your roll

If your comfortable at your present level and making good good money at it but find you lose at the next level, drop back down again and keep reeling in the fish
Once you feel more accomplished try moving back up again

That's good advice. I think my issue at the bigger tables my first time around, is that i was not buying into the game with enough at the table, and therefore didnt play MY game, which is extremely tight and conservative. Not buying in for enough made me make a move when i normally would not. I'll stick to the smaller stakes i think until i build a much more substancial roll, and THEN move on to bigger stakes....while still playin MY game.

So you are playing 1/2 with a bankroll of $250.00 That is a recipe for disaster. That is only 1.25 100bb buys-ins. most people recommend you have at least 20 buyins for a level so to play 1/2 you would need $4,000.00 that is to help account for when the cards start running bad, as they inevitably will (variance).

With a $250.00 roll you should only be playing .05/.10 blinds.

I recommend you read some articles about good bankroll management otherwise you will lose again, and it doesn't have to be that you are a bad player swings will eat your bankroll alive.

I'm going to be super duper honest here - you're the kind of guy I can't wait to see at 100nl. You have your whole bankroll on the line practically and typically play horrible or scared. It's only a matter of time before you ship off your entire BR to me or some other regular.

There's something called BRM - bankroll management and the original concept (i believe) was coined by Chris "Jesus" Ferguson . Basically you play limits you are properly rolled for. Many of us have used a 20 buy-in minimum rule, and as we approach higher stakes that have better regs (100nl, 200nl) we increase it to 30 or even 40. You might be the best player at those stakes even, but it'll only take 2 or 3 bad beats and POOF you are screwed.

So it's time you either grinded up the microstakes (10nl/25nl) or deposit enough money in your bankroll (perhaps there's a lot of bills in your wallet and your online BR is different than your actual BR) to properly play at limits you enjoy.

Helpful information to the last two that have posted. I appreciate it. I honestly didn't realize those who had much larger BR's than me, were typically playing much lower stakes tables. Online is a much different mentality. I am treating it as I would the casino, as in playing the stakes I do there. $1/$2 NL is my game at the casinos. It felt only natural to play it online as well. Good logic and management you two are using, and many others im sure. I will drop down a few table stakes.

The regular players in the 1/2 online games have about $5000-$10000+++ online, that is the only way to win long term, to have a large bankroll to play with.

You should honestly deposit like $1000 and play $50nl with 20 buyins.

Thanks for the reply. I suppose I figured that most began by depositing a couple hundred, and then immediately jumping onto a table similar to their casino stakes.....as i did with 1/2. The negative to going down to much smaller stakes, is that you're not getting large amounts of money won for nut hands. Although, the positive is not losing large amounts for what you think may be the nuts. A lot of different aspects to think about. Clearly i need to drop down.

I agree with Steve 100BB is way to low for 1/2. Very sound advice from Steve and IM.

I concur. Don`t ever put more than 10 per cent of your bankroll at risk at any one time, and 5 is better.

Kudos to the OP. Usually when we write stuff like we do in threads we see like this that crop up we get a response of "well if you are a good player you don't get bad beats" or stuff like that.

Again, glad to know you see some wisdom in our words, trust us it comes from mutual experience. Best of luck to you at the tables, and if you are good you'll be crushing the microstakes and building up that BR to play 200nl in no time.

The BRM part has allready been mentioned but another aspect u should take into consideration is that the avrage 1/2$ live player is probably equal to a 0,05/0,10$ player online......

LOL. Bankroll management is for sure the way to go if youre trying to make a living of playing poker, no doubt about it, but if youre just having some fun like me...theres nothing like a good limitrush.

Back in the good old days on poker.com when you could go to a 5-10 nl with 200 dollars, double up, cash in and go to the same table with 200 dollars again(annoying I know), I once turned 20 dollars won in a freeroll into 12.000 dollars on the ultimate limitrush. I cashed out the 10.000 dollars, and a lost the last 2000 dollars since I was never really good enough to play 5-10 dollars.

I sometimes do a limitrush simply for the fun of it, and the thrill off course. For be Poker shouldnt always be approached in a mechanic and systematic fashion as it is my impression that a lot of you grindes outthere are doing.

I believe I would never be able to get my hands on 10.000 dollars by proper bankroll management, its not in my nature.

So go boy do some limitrushing. Ill back you up anyday.

Definately, If you are having that kind of success at the lower tables I would keep playing them until I have built my bankroll substantially before I try to go up. I don't know what the norm is for that either 10% or 5% but I wouldn't want to do anything to damage what you have already accomplished. Gl

lol. limitrush. sounds like sth ive heard back in the days when i was playing final fantasy 7.

on a side note, u must've ran damn well to turn $50 into $1000, entering the .5/1 game with only 50 bbs. kudos.

I suppose there isnt a whole lot of reason not to listen. It's not as if Im horible at the game, I just know that there are plenty of people who have learned the hard things for me.

I experimented a bit last night with playin the lower tables, and it was definitely a grind. It easily took me about 3x the amount of time to make the same day's profit as I used to playin the 1/2. My losses werent as bad, of course, but it recquired MUCH more self discipline.

I used to look at it like a casino too. Go to a table with $100 and play 1/2. But when you play online, you're trying to build up the roll and not just give it away to everyone at the table sitting there with a lot of bullets behind them.

BRM is the key. I'm learning about it more now and slowly grinding.

GL on the felt.

imo i think u should stay at the 1/2 tables for a couple of months at least, because u don't have enough experience for online play it seems if you lost a lot of money when moving up stakes.

I would consider moving down in stakes quite a bit. If you even have one losing session you can lose it all.

Yea doing this probably 1/100 times you'll run good and run $50 up to $10000 or whatever in a short time but 99% of the time you'll go broke.

If you are decent you could play .1/.25 with $250. You could go broke with only 10 buys ins, but the play is bad so the risk isn't super great (certainly alot less than what you have been doing). But i wouldn't move to nl50 until close to $1k, nl100 until $2.5k-$3k and nl200 until probably $6k+. I've lost $500 at nl200 in like 30 mins before, so hopefully you can see why playing any limit with only a couple of buy ins is a disaster waiting to happen.

If you don't want to grind you probably either need to deposit more or just play live (and yea, the play at nl200 online is like a million times higher than 1/2 live).

You aren't the only one that does it by any means (love the dudes that sit in with like $174.27) but almost all go broke.

What you should do is read up on Bankroll Management. I believe the basic starting point is having a bankroll of $50. Start at a .5/.10 NL. The idea behind is to have at 30 times the blind. You can then move up a limit if you already made more than 30 times the blind of the next level.

I've always had a lot of success playin live, and so far so good online as well. I'm glad i started this thread, as i had no concept of bankroll management and the logic behind it. However, I do think there needs to be a certain fun factor taken into consideration when choosing a table. I'm not doing this to pay bills. I'd like some extra cash, and I just flat out enjoy it. Since starting this thread and getting the responses of others, i have dropped down to .25/.50, and have increased the original $80 i deposited to an even $400. I decided that playin tables smaller than .25/.50, just isnt fun for me. Playin such small blinds tends to make me play wreckless and develop bad habits. I call too often and raise too much. .25/.50 is perfect for now. Much better than the 1/2 i was playin.....for now.

You should play on Ultimate Bet, around 8PM EST. If a guy named c9h13no3 sits down on your left, you should definitely stay at the table until he leaves.

Because you're that good? Because I don't have as much experience playin online as you, it means I'm bad and an easy target for others?

I wondered how long it was going to be before I got a response like this from someone. You're the lucky winner. I'm sure your arrogance does you many favors on the tables. Goodluck nonetheless...

If you can't be disciplined with your bankroll, you obviously have discipline problems. And I want to play as many players as possible that have discipline problems. Fish make bankroll management mistakes, and my post above was my round about way of telling you that you're a fish for playing outside your roll. Other players may have said it nicer, but apparently you didn't get the point

I dont have discipline problems. I began this thread asking for help. Help in regards to what table sizes to play. I accepted the advice of others and have began following it. I have dropped to smaller stakes. I'm not a novice. I simply said that for me, personally, there needs to be a certain fun factor involved. Doesn't mean I'm going to be wreckless with my BR, or lose it without caring. I'm going to make as much money as possible while playin smart and havin fun. Find me on pokerstars if you'd like. I'll be playin .25/.50 for a while tonight.

i dont think there is that big of a difference in quality of players from 1/2 up to 10/20 online

Neither post was necessary. OP genuinely wants advice and seems willing to listen to it so why turn the thread into some silly little spat for no reason?

Ultimately if you play nl50 with $400 you run a risk of going broke. But if OP is comfortable losing the money then it is fine. I deposited on party poker a while ago and used pretty aggressive roll "management" coz playing 25nl (or even 50nl for an extended period) would put me to sleep after playing alot higher and wouldn't be worth it. I wasn't looking to build a roll, i was looking to get back playing where the stakes i was playing on stars, and i was completely ok with the fact that if i ran bad i would probably lose it. You juts have to realise that using your roll aggressively is risky but if you are ok risking that then that is your perogative. I don't actually think there is much wrong with using "bad bankroll management" if you aren't dealing with case money and are ok losing it if you can't take the lower limits seriously. Viewed in that light, using aggressive roll management to build your roll is really nothign more than taking a shot - you are using x # of buy ins to try to move up with the rest of your roll offline. Ultimately playing poker has to be at least in part about enjoyment.