Should I play higher stakes?

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String_dogg

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Hi there.
I'm pretty new to poker, probably played for around 2 months on and off. I started last week seriously playing for around 5 hours sessions (as much as I can per day basically) and I was rewarded with alot of success. I originally put in 10 dollars and through playing mico-stakes (1-2 cent blinds) I ended up with 30 dollars. Although I enjoyed playing, it seemed I put in alot of effort to earn a small amount of money. After this, I assumed I would keep building my bankroll through mico-stakes until my bankroll was big enough to move up stakes, but I began to become very impatient as It was taking forever to make any money. I ended up losing around 15 dollars and I was really pissed off. I just ended up going all in, or going too far with weak hands - just out of frustration that it was taking so long! Winning 80 cents feels like nothing to me (even through 80 cents is quite alot in micro-stakes). So doubling my stack in 10 minutes just feels like nothing, I wanted more!


So I decided to move up stakes to (5-10 cents) and I suddenly gained my money back and more, but It still feels too slow! Today I played for an hour and made 5 dollars (great) but then when someone was raising against me (I had KQs) I thought it was the ideal point to double up, so I gone all in and lost to AK unsuited -he won on the high-card ace. Looking back at it, I know going all in-preflop with KQs is not the best decision, actually going all in on AK unsuited isnt the best decision either! But emocionally I just needed to do it. After 20 minutes of no action and small pots, I just jumped at the chance of winning. I just get angry easily and lose my patience when I feel things arent going anywhere.

Should I move up stakes? I'm about half way through reading a poker book and these smaller stakes are driving me mad! Would It be stupid to put in $100 and take a shot at higher stakes? I'm thinking $0.10-$0.25 or $0.25-$0.50 at first. Or should I just battle through the lower stakes until my bankroll starts moving forward consistency? I just find earning 5 dollars in 1-2 hours of playing totally exhausting! But is moving up going to give me more issues? Thanks in advance :)
 
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jefrock21

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A lot depends on how comfortable you are playing up. I know when I streteched my bankroll out I overanalyzed a lot. Playing levels you are comfortable with make it easier. Some times you have people drop to lower levels to blow steam off and be crazy, but there are sometimes people doing the same thing at the next level up.

If you are bankroll can take it, and you don't change your play much because of the amount you are playing experiment here and there. If you aren't liking the amount you are making at lower limits try multi tabling.
 
Dorugremon

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Should I move up stakes?

Absolutely! I play Carbon almost every night. Please buy-in at my table. :D

In all seriousness, I'm seeing onehelluvalot of badthink in this post.

"I'm pretty new to poker, probably played for around 2 months on and off. I started last week seriously playing for around 5 hours sessions (as much as I can per day basically) and I was rewarded with alot of success".

On and off for two months and a week of serious Poker isn't anywhere near close enough to consider yourself as anything more than a rec-fish in training. Your "reward" has a name; Variance. So far, it's working in your favor, but that can -- and will -- change for the worst. Many times over your Poker career; runbad will happen and it will last far longer than you'd like to see. These are the times that really try a player's soul. You're gonna have to play through it while making sure you're not contributing to your misfortune.

" I originally put in 10 dollars and through playing mico-stakes (1-2 cent blinds) I ended up with 30 dollars. Although I enjoyed playing, it seemed I put in alot of effort to earn a small amount of money".

This is badthink. You never think of it in terms of money. You didn't win $30: You won 1500 big blinds. That's how you think of it regardless of whether the BB is two cents or $200.

"After this, I assumed I would keep building my bankroll through mico-stakes until my bankroll was big enough to move up stakes, but I began to become very impatient as It was taking forever to make any money. I ended up losing around 15 dollars and I was really pissed off. I just ended up going all in, or going too far with weak hands - just out of frustration that it was taking so long! Winning 80 cents feels like nothing to me (even through 80 cents is quite alot in micro-stakes). So doubling my stack in 10 minutes just feels like nothing, I wanted more!"

Tilt control: learn it, use it. Again, 80 cents is 40BB -- a substantial win by any standards. What the hell else were you expecting? 90% of all poker hands are pure crap. You'll be seeing them often. There is Not Thing One you can do about that: it's just the nature of the game. Are you using that down time to observe your opponents? Are you watching the showdowns to see what kinds of hands they're willing to take to the river? Are you watching to figure out what they raise, 3!, 4! or jam pre? Watching to see what they open limp and over limp with? What they'll call open raises with? Figure out who the regs are and taking notes on their play? There's no excuse for being bored while running card dead. There's still work to do even if you're not playing pots.

"Looking back at it, I know going all in-preflop with KQs is not the best decision, actually going all in on AK unsuited isnt the best decision either! But emocionally I just needed to do it. After 20 minutes of no action and small pots, I just jumped at the chance of winning. I just get angry easily and lose my patience when I feel things arent going anywhere".

Unless the opponent with the Big Slick knew you were tilting and figured you'd do what you just did here. Then it was a good decision. Are you giving off tells? So you complain about bad cards in chat? Get that tilt under control!
 
terryk

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TY,,,my best laugh of the day:D Good luck,kid;)
 
Emi

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Remember, patience is the best virtue, all of us want to win millions in one hour. All the players you play against, they will fight for their money
 
R

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Ignore all the people mocking you in this thread, those that envy you will always insult you to deny that you are better than they were they were new.

You may well have a more natural faster learning curve than most pros at poker but do not be confused that this means you will stay accelerated.

People who are early-risers in poker have good math brains and good emotional toughness by nature. What they lack is psychological intuition and the ability to abuse fear as well as to allow themselves to actually feel terror and call anyway.

As you go up you will be at tables where everyone, even if they are naturally worse than you at math, is equal to you in understanding card statistics due to practise. Your only edge comes from watching intently on their timer (slower turns mean nerves for some, for others it means deep thought so the totally opposite interpretation of them raising after a long timer-down) and comprehending what betting MEANS TO THE INDIVIDUAL. Loose callers are still to be feared when raising, loose betters are still to be feared when reraising or calling. Reads on players matter more than card math the further up you go because card math is a given, you need to understand the stats of hands as minimum requirement.

Once you master psychological analysis and stop being so tough emotionally (in lower stakes you need to be emotionless and robotic whereas further up you need to actually allow yourself to take leaps of faith at times if your reads lead you to be fairly sure you have an edge despite the math not supporting it).
 
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TeUnit

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Think you should play the micros until you have beat them with significance and have the roll to support moving up.
 
IPlay

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Ignore all the people mocking you in this thread, those that envy you will always insult you to deny that you are better than they were they were new.

You may well have a more natural faster learning curve than most pros at poker but do not be confused that this means you will stay accelerated.

People who are early-risers in poker have good math brains and good emotional toughness by nature. What they lack is psychological intuition and the ability to abuse fear as well as to allow themselves to actually feel terror and call anyway.

As you go up you will be at tables where everyone, even if they are naturally worse than you at math, is equal to you in understanding card statistics due to practise. Your only edge comes from watching intently on their timer (slower turns mean nerves for some, for others it means deep thought so the totally opposite interpretation of them raising after a long timer-down) and comprehending what betting MEANS TO THE INDIVIDUAL. Loose callers are still to be feared when raising, loose betters are still to be feared when reraising or calling. Reads on players matter more than card math the further up you go because card math is a given, you need to understand the stats of hands as minimum requirement.

Once you master psychological analysis and stop being so tough emotionally (in lower stakes you need to be emotionless and robotic whereas further up you need to actually allow yourself to take leaps of faith at times if your reads lead you to be fairly sure you have an edge despite the math not supporting it).

This is the type of advice that will take anyone to the highest stakes in the online poker world. Sorry for doubting OP and his natural abilities that allowed him to beat 2NL in 2 months. I was just so blinded by the envy, it overcame me. I hope you and the OP will accept my sincere apology.
 
R

Rational Madman

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This is the type of advice that will take anyone to the highest stakes in the online poker world. Sorry for doubting OP and his natural abilities that allowed him to beat 2NL in 2 months. I was just so blinded by the envy, it overcame me. I hope you and the OP will accept my sincere apology.
Your signature already shows your personality is one that denies it has any flaws so the fact you react with sarcasm instead of head-on telling me why I am giving false advice makes me think even less of you.

Even if you learn from a loss, you still lost.
 
IPlay

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Your signature already shows your personality is one that denies it has any flaws so the fact you react with sarcasm instead of head-on telling me why I am giving false advice makes me think even less of you.

Even if you learn from a loss, you still lost.

I've seen your type plenty and what I have learned over the years is that talking logically with your type is a lost cause.
 
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Rational Madman

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I've seen your type plenty and what I have learned over the years is that talking logically with your type is a lost cause.
Because that's the only way where we destroy you, talking illogically is the best way to avoid us attacking.
 
Keith_MM

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Because that's the only way where we destroy you, talking illogically is the best way to avoid us attacking.

JUst post some of your results graphs to show that you know what you are talking about .
 
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RobertJShaw

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I recommend just playing microstakes. You haven't played 5K hands or 10k hands to get a sample to see if you are a winning player. You probably haven't experienced variance yet. Try not to get ahead of yourself and just concentrate on improving and picking the right spots - playing your A game.
 
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RobertJShaw

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Don't ruin your love for the game or your learning curve by jumping ahead. It is easily done and the lure is there, you just have to be disciplined. It is great that you are on a forum and asking these questions - shows that you want to learn/study and improve. Good luck!
 
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If you want to play big do it. But cautiously :) Never invest more than u can afford to lose.

And if anything happens have a plan b. Try to be flexible

I wish you win big :) Good luck my friend
 
Keith_MM

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I genuinely don't know where you get graphs from. I play ps
download a trial of holdem manager or pokertracker and email stars to request all of your hand histories played. then import them fromthe email they send you and then the software will give you your results graph.
 
R

Rational Madman

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You can doubt me all you want, I made some slip ups early on and that's no one's business but mine. I don't want to share my entire hand history with the world.
 
vinnie

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You don't need to release your whole hand histories. Just the graph of hands over a significant sample. It would contain very little that anyone could use against you.

I have attached an example. It's less than 10k hands, so not a great sample size, but you can see how little it gives away. LOL
 

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R

Rational Madman

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I have literally nothing to prove to anyone here. I will prove it later on if I feel like recording.
 
vinnie

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I have literally nothing to prove to anyone here. I will prove it later on if I feel like recording.

Dude, don't worry. I've read all your advice. You have proven all you need to prove to me. I can probably draw your graph.

I imagine it is something like this but with more hands and steeper.
cash%20graph%2022.png
 
Aces2w1n

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Problem with what OP has said in his post.

What he says inbetween the lines is. I am impatient with my progress and want to move upwards. Hey ive fallen in this trap before.

But the fact is if he's crushing like he said he can naturally move up pretty quick without too much concern. But the realism of bad beats slumps the progress but the hard truth is its part of the game and the hardness.

We can't purely just move up the stakes to defy the inevitable but i'm sure OP reaction will be even worse when he falls into bigger bad beats that cost $200 rather than $5 or $10.

Can you imagine a 5buy-in downswing at $100 buyins that can happen often? Can you gain $100 or $200 for a week day and in 1 hour lose it all? How will you go on then? Move up stakes?

Just can't hide from the game and yourself.

Best advice is just be true to yourself.
 
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