Switching to Cash Games - Advice/Thoughts

Afternoon all,

In the past, I've dabbled in cash games but mainly played SNG's/Tourneys.

I want to start taking Cash games a bit more seriously and try to switch out from the SNGS/Tourneys. I've been looking over the site (research) and I wanted to make sure I had a couple things correct on bankroll Management before I got more involved.

Please bare with me and correct/advise where I may have misunderstood something.

I'm currently around $125 in my account. Not anything major but more than the $50 start I had about two months ago. I play more casual then serious but want to start getting my feet more wet so to speak.

With the research I did it looks like I need about 25-30 Buy-ins to get into a No limit game (With my Bankroll thats a 5NL game(.02/05)) I got confused on some of the stuff with Limit Hold'em. I wasn't sure what the ratio is or if I should bother with it? Maybe just to get some sort of knowledge base since it is a change of pace from what I am currently used to playing.

The next thought was about what I should buy into the table. From what I've read it's a good practice to buy in for the max and go from there? If I have a bad streak (losing ~5BI's) I should move down a level and work my way back up etc etc.

In the past I've dabbled with Rush Poker on FTP but that seems not to be very healthy for a good BRM strategy and I should stickto some 9H tables for a bit.

Last thing. I read/watch about how many Big Blinds I should be making per 100 hands. I've seen a couple of different numbers for this. What should I be seeing on average or is there even a good litmus test number for this?
(I seen 2-5BB/100)

I know some of this is basic stuff to most of you, I just wanted to make sure I understood it correctly.

Thanks for your time and patience.

If you are starting NL cash start at the lowest stakes and move up when you feel comfortable.

Start a 9 handed and move to 6 handed if you are winning.

Most people use PTBB/100 as the gauge which is 1PTBB=2 big blinds. Anything over 0 is good. It means you are not loosing money.

BRM - 20 buy ins should be the minimum you ever have, increase it as you move up, or increase it if you have tilt issues or increase it just because being a bankroll nit is a really good idea.

Buy in - 100bb, nothing else makes sense. Ok there's a slight argument for 20bb buy ins but that's a slippery sloap and requires a completely different style of play and a reduced winrate to go with it. Anything from 21-99bb is going to make it extremely difficult to win longterm, it reduces your winrate and gives you no advantage.

Winrate - Anything is good.

You need a copy of Cash Game Killer by the sounds of things... Give me a PM I'll point you in the direction... Would answer most of your questions about cash games.

Just keep in mind cash games and tournaments are an entirely different animal. And at those stakes, it goes doubly so. You get a lot of guys like me in there, who really don't care about $5 so they just goof around with ATC and end up putting some stupid bad beat on you.

Try to keep a 100 BB stack at all times, practice BRM that works for you, and use a HUD.

Yeah I understand that they are different beasts, and I figured its better to ask now then be frustrated later. I know it's a different mind set so
making sure I understand the text correctly so I can practice BRM correctly is all that more important at the beginning.

It seemed to me I got the basic theory of it, I wanted to make sure and then put in the practice time so I get comfortable with it. (you know typical noob stuff)

Bad beats are a fact of poker, I've given as much and gotten, we all have Point is being mentally tough enough to get around it and move on.

Thanks for the input all.