How many hands to play at each level?

Hi guys.

I'm kind of curious about what to expect from the experience of playing many hands. I have now played about 25-30K hands since I started playing poker in February and I am beating the 2nl and on my way to step up to 4nl. This is on Party if that makes a difference.

In your experience, how many hands does it take to beat a level or to get to a certain level. Do you guys remember how many hands you had played before reaching a certain level, say 50nl. Does it take at least a million hands + a lot of practicing to reach 50nl or what do you guys think?

I know it will depend on a lot of other things apart from the number of hands you play, and it would be interesting to see how big a part the number of hands play. It will also be different from person to person I guess. Some might require to study more away from to the table where as others will benefit from playing. But there might be a rough estimate of some sort.

I'm just curious as to what to expect in return for my efforts

Cheers.

Like you said it depends on quite a few factors.

100K hands at each level is a number that gets thrown around a bit.

Think I played about 100K at 2nl, 100K at 5nl and about 150K at 10nl

micromachine said:

Like you said it depends on quite a few factors.

100K hands at each level is a number that gets thrown around a bit.

Think I played about 100K at 2nl, 100K at 5nl and about 150K at 10nl

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i think i would die of boredom before ever moving up from 2nl using your approach.

Move up as soon as possible, imo. That means as soon as you feel confortable at your level and you have enough bankroll to handle the next one.

Yeah but I was shit at cash games and I would have lost my bankroll if I had played higher limits at the time!

Lolling....

Move up when you can, period. Don't sit at a level just because you have only played x hands.

As far as I go, I played 2NL for 90k hands (made nearly 200BIs and could've well and truly moved up but had to withdraw) and moved up to 10NL (skipped 5nl) w $90, where I played 35k hands before moving to 25NL, then around 30k hands there before I aggressively moved to 50NL with ~17(?) buy ins

jchoop said:

Move up when you can, period. Don't sit at a level just because you have only played x hands.

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Totally agree.

100K is just my estimate of how long a beginner like OP might be at each level for.

There's no pat answer, not even a general formula. It depends on various possible factors, some of which can have different weights for different people and/or under different circumstances.

For example, even if you have ample BR for a certain level, it isn't a very good idea to play there unless and until you're comfortable having that much money on the table in front of you. I ran into this a couple of times while moving up. My approach was to desensitize myself by making the move gradually.

As for hand count guidelines, that's all they are - guidelines. For instance, if you're crushing a particular level, you can reasonably move up as soon as you accumulate enough BR (and you can take shots before that). But if you're barely breakeven, you may not be ready to move up even if you have the BR and many more hands than 100k.

Yeah, as others have already said, don't put artificial limits on when you should move up. I think I played less than 20k hands at 2nl before moving up. Just get to where you're reasonably confident in your game at the level you're at, are winning at a reasonable amount, and have a reasonable bankroll for the next level. If you move-up aggressively just be strict with yourself and move down if things go badly before you go busto. If your bankroll is easily replaceable you can even be somewhat flexible with that, too.

micromachine said:

Totally agree.

100K is just my estimate of how long a beginner like OP might be at each level for.

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i dunno this seems waaaaaay excessive to me. i mean hes at micros, total noob or superstar he should be able to be a winning player in a week or two

As I said I have played about 25-30K hands by now and I am winning 2nl by around 10bb/100 hands. Im just trying to figure out what to expect kind of thing.

I can play about 15K hands in a mont so I was trying to see what to aim for regarding moving from 4nl to 10nl. I guess anywhere between 20K and 100K hands should do which means between 1.5 mont to 7 months so that's fine It will take me a few months to build the BR for 10nl anyway.

Just move up if your bankroll management lets you, if you drop back constantly spend more time on the winning limits... there is no fixed rule for this

Grindabod said:

which means between 1.5 mont to 7 months so that's fine

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gross, i cant imagine playing a week of any less than 30k hands. staying at a level that long would be the death of me

which means between 1.5 mont to 7 months so that's fine

gross, i cant imagine playing a week of any less than 30k hands. staying at a level that long would be the death of me

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Hey jchoop, how many hands do you play per hour roughly?

jchoop said:

gross, i cant imagine playing a week of any less than 30k hands. staying at a level that long would be the death of me

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30K a week is loads! I don't even do 30K in a month.

But you're playing like 9 tables at once aren't you?

1k hands of NLHE per hour is really not that tough to achieve, so for someone who is essentially playing poker full time, 30k hands per week is a piece of cake, imo.

twoturntablez said:

Hey jchoop, how many hands do you play per hour roughly?

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Depends how many good games I can get at a given stake but like 1200 min.

micromachine said:

30K a week is loads! I don't even do 30K in a month.


But you're playing like 9 tables at once aren't you?

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Lol I did 30k in 22hrs last month nah like 15-21

BelgoSuisse said:

1k hands of NLHE per hour is really not that tough to achieve, so for someone who is essentially playing poker full time, 30k hands per week is a piece of cake, imo.

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^^

jchoop said:

nah like 15-21

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It's pretty cool that you get good results playing that many tables. You must be stacking them right?

I tried stacking 12 6max tables recently but found it hard to remember the details about all the hands I was involved in, like when I needed to make a river decision but couldn't remember what line the villain had taken on previous streets. Also found it hard to get a feel for table dynamics.

crocops said:

Just move up if your bankroll management lets you, if you drop back constantly spend more time on the winning limits... there is no fixed rule for this

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Yep.This is good advice!

it really depends on your learning ability and th equality of the hands. but you are right, it does take a lot of practice and some moey will go on the way

This answer is definitely BR driven more than any other factor. If you are regularly beating the current level at which you play and can afford to move up (using proper BR guidelines), do so!

micromachine said:

It's pretty cool that you get good results playing that many tables. You must be stacking them right?

I tried stacking 12 6max tables recently but found it hard to remember the details about all the hands I was involved in, like when I needed to make a river decision but couldn't remember what line the villain had taken on previous streets. Also found it hard to get a feel for table dynamics.

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meet my grindstation. yes my coffee table is a suitcase with a pinboard on it lmao

i tile tables, can get 12 on the left monitor with no overlap and 9 on the right monitor comfortably. i find stacking hard aswell, mostly because you dont get to see showdowns and therefore no notes

jchoop said:

meet my grindstation. yes my coffee table is a suitcase with a pinboard on it lmao

i tile tables, can get 12 on the left monitor with no overlap and 9 on the right monitor comfortably. i find stacking hard aswell, mostly because you dont get to see showdowns and therefore no notes

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So many comments...so little time.

First thing is BOOOO BLACK OPS (it's like Cod4 went to the bathroom and that game came out)

What processor do you run bc its seems like you have a ridiculous amount of stuff on your desktop.

Are those rolling papers hehe ;-)

and "if you don't chew Big Red the f*** you"

edit: its nice to see I'm not the only one who shuffles chips next to my mouse pad lol

ovitoo said:

So many comments...so little time.

First thing is BOOOO BLACK OPS (it's like Cod4 went to the bathroom and that game came out)

What processor do you run bc its seems like you have a ridiculous amount of stuff on your desktop.

Are those rolling papers hehe ;-)

and "if you don't chew Big Red the f*** you"

edit: its nice to see I'm not the only one who shuffles chips next to my mouse pad lol

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lolololol.

black ops is my hosuemates. i agree it sucks, i just went over my internet allowance at the end of last month so i couldnt play cards. dont have a tv so that was all i had to do haha. (offline :s zzzzzzzz)

my computer is a bossmachine. i built it, and funnily enough cant remember whats in there. dual core @ 3.00GHz

rolling papers are because i smoke rollies, i hate bud lmao makes me sick. i dont really get on the gear much at all anymore but used to be all about it lol

girlfriend is american an she lives here, her parents sent her a care package including a million packets of big red. shes out of the country atm (went to thailand so she could renew her visa as shes graduated now so her student visa is redundant lol) but she told me to open the package and tell her whats in there, so my big red now lol.

haha those pokerchips arent there for shuffling- not enough time while im massively multitabling. ever heard of the game battleshots? its battleships but your boats are made up of shot glasses. on the other side of this pinboard is a battleshots grid, the chips are used to mark where youve "shot" so u dont repick the same spot twice (diff colour for hit and miss).
best game get on it hahah