O
otter_29
Rising Star
Bronze Level
Hi all,
I'l start out by giving a bit of background. I started playing poker in 2008 when I was at university, I played with friends online and sometimes in the casino. I even played in a couple of decent sized live tournaments, no big cashes but I did ok. After graduating I travelled for a year and because of this I stopped playing. Fast forward to now. I recently started playing online off the back of stumbling upon a poker video on youtube, it gave me the bug again. I own 6 different poker books and am reading a lot of the articles on card player poker school. I really want to up level my game. This is where my problem is.
I have been playing the micro stakes on 888, mostly the $1 9 handed regular sng. I win or cash almost every time. I have seen a lot of things written about bankroll management that say that you shouldn't play above your bankroll. In this first week I have made an extra $20 on my $20 deposit. Including my bonus this puts me at around $50. To me that isn't enough money to move up to the $5 game. The problem is that I'm trying to implement the strategies that I am learning about betting and putting opponents on hands etc but the games are such crapshoots that it's almost impossible. I mostly just play ABC poker and win or I try stuff like betting people off hands,pre flop raising or semi/bluffing and it doesn't work because everything gets called all of the time. You can't isolate 1 player, you raise pre flop by around 6 times the bb and get 4 callers with completely random hands. I feel like it is holding back my ability to learn.
At the moment I don't really care too much about the money, I care about up levelling my game. I could quite happily deposit $100 (bringing me to ($150) and start playing in the $5 games where I imagine the poker is a bit tougher and less random.
Is this an acceptable thing to do? Or am I falling into some trap?
I know new players shouldn't try to move up too quickly but I'm not really new and I am beating the micros consistently. I can't tell if my frustration is justified or if I'm just being impatient.
I'l start out by giving a bit of background. I started playing poker in 2008 when I was at university, I played with friends online and sometimes in the casino. I even played in a couple of decent sized live tournaments, no big cashes but I did ok. After graduating I travelled for a year and because of this I stopped playing. Fast forward to now. I recently started playing online off the back of stumbling upon a poker video on youtube, it gave me the bug again. I own 6 different poker books and am reading a lot of the articles on card player poker school. I really want to up level my game. This is where my problem is.
I have been playing the micro stakes on 888, mostly the $1 9 handed regular sng. I win or cash almost every time. I have seen a lot of things written about bankroll management that say that you shouldn't play above your bankroll. In this first week I have made an extra $20 on my $20 deposit. Including my bonus this puts me at around $50. To me that isn't enough money to move up to the $5 game. The problem is that I'm trying to implement the strategies that I am learning about betting and putting opponents on hands etc but the games are such crapshoots that it's almost impossible. I mostly just play ABC poker and win or I try stuff like betting people off hands,pre flop raising or semi/bluffing and it doesn't work because everything gets called all of the time. You can't isolate 1 player, you raise pre flop by around 6 times the bb and get 4 callers with completely random hands. I feel like it is holding back my ability to learn.
At the moment I don't really care too much about the money, I care about up levelling my game. I could quite happily deposit $100 (bringing me to ($150) and start playing in the $5 games where I imagine the poker is a bit tougher and less random.
Is this an acceptable thing to do? Or am I falling into some trap?
I know new players shouldn't try to move up too quickly but I'm not really new and I am beating the micros consistently. I can't tell if my frustration is justified or if I'm just being impatient.
