When should I start taking shots at 2/5 NL?

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sumsush1711

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Been playing 1/3 NL at the casino for the past 9 months, and I feel like with all the hand analysis and studying I'm doing away from the table, my game is significantly improving after each session. I'm not able to play as much as I'd like to due to other commitments, but I want to change that in the near future. Here are some stats if it helps:

Total sessions played: 13
Total hours played: 78
Profit: $2146
Hourly: $27.36/hr

I started with a 7k bankroll, so I'm at $9146 now. I've been thinking of taking an occasional shot at 2/5 NL. Should I go for it, or wait until my bankroll is a bit higher? I feel pretty confident in my game. The only thing stopping me is that the 2/5 game has a max buyin of $1000 whereas the 1/3 game has a max buyin of $300. I was thinking of buying in for 600-700 for the 2/5 game if i decided to try it out. Would this affect my play significantly? Any advice is appreciated.
 
Aaron Soto

Aaron Soto

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PFFFTT!!! lol....dude...if you really think that 13 sessions (lol) or 78 hours of grinding the 1/3 game is enough to see if you are talented and skilled enough to play @ the 2/5 game you must be nuts! You haven't at all hit a patch of bad variance yet in the 1/3 game. And 27$ an hour isn't shit in a 1/3 300 buy in game. I would suggest not taking a shot at 2/5. You have only played 13 sessions in 9 months..that's not even considered a recreational player lol that is nothing. I play an 80/120 game with the blinds at 1/3 I've won $7,000 thinking i was God in one month after having 20-25 sessions. I've had other months where i have won $5,000 etc. Unfortunately you don't understand how volatile variance can be. In rough patches you can easily lose 2k or 3k in a month it happens easily no matter how good you play. If you jump into a 2/5 game with a 500 buy-in your literally throwing money away. It takes one bad beat to set off tilt mode and you can very easily go through a couple of thousand dollars in a 2/5 game. I have seen it before and it's a sad thing to watch someone lose that amount of money so fast. Stay at the 1/3 game you simply do not at have enough hours or time spent playing the 1/3 game to even give you an idea if your winning @ that stake or not. I broke even over a stretch of 350 hours on the 1/3 due to some days going on tilt or taking higher shots. If you can make 5 bb's over a course of about 10,000 hands i would say your pretty solid player. I'm not saying you can't beat the 1/3 game, the fact that your studying and putting in after hours to work on your game and reviewing your sessions is simply enough in itself to be able to beat the 1/3 game I would say. 2/5 is probably going to play the same maybe some better cats on there without a doubt. But regardless with 500-1000$ buy-ins i don't think 9k is worth risking. Take it nice and slow and stay on the 1/3 but you should try to put in more sessions then 1 a month.....I'm not saying you can't beat 2/5 studying in itself makes a world of a difference in poker. Discipline though is BY FAR the most important aspect of the game. Discipline in every part of your development though. Wait until you got 15k or something then say I'll risk 3k on this game and see what happens. GL
 

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Gohaku94

Gohaku94

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It might affect your play since you might think about it while playing, like you didn't had money for a full buy-in so you can't really lose.
If you can afford try to grow your bankroll outside of just playing poker, and move up when you have 20-30 full buy-ins for the next level.
If you just want to take shots at least do it with that in mind, it's just a shot, you might lose a full buy-in for 2/5 or win some money (i don't think it is worth it since you don't play that much so probably you won't end up with 100k in a month anyway, maybe just get to 10-11k which is not worth the risk).
 
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sumsush1711

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PFFFTT!!! lol....dude...if you really think that 13 sessions (lol) or 78 hours of grinding the 1/3 game is enough to see if you are talented and skilled enough to play @ the 2/5 game you must be nuts! You haven't at all hit a patch of bad variance yet in the 1/3 game. And 27$ an hour isn't shit in a 1/3 300 buy in game. I would suggest not taking a shot at 2/5. You have only played 13 sessions in 9 months..that's not even considered a recreational player lol that is nothing. I play an 80/120 game with the blinds at 1/3 I've won $7,000 thinking i was God in one month after having 20-25 sessions. I've had other months where i have won $5,000 etc. Unfortunately you don't understand how volatile variance can be. In rough patches you can easily lose 2k or 3k in a month it happens easily no matter how good you play. If you jump into a 2/5 game with a 500 buy-in your literally throwing money away. It takes one bad beat to set off tilt mode and you can very easily go through a couple of thousand dollars in a 2/5 game. I have seen it before and it's a sad thing to watch someone lose that amount of money so fast. Stay at the 1/3 game you simply do not at have enough hours or time spent playing the 1/3 game to even give you an idea if your winning @ that stake or not. I broke even over a stretch of 350 hours on the 1/3 due to some days going on tilt or taking higher shots. If you can make 5 bb's over a course of about 10,000 hands i would say your pretty solid player. I'm not saying you can't beat the 1/3 game, the fact that your studying and putting in after hours to work on your game and reviewing your sessions is simply enough in itself to be able to beat the 1/3 game I would say. 2/5 is probably going to play the same maybe some better cats on there without a doubt. But regardless with 500-1000$ buy-ins i don't think 9k is worth risking. Take it nice and slow and stay on the 1/3 but you should try to put in more sessions then 1 a month.....I'm not saying you can't beat 2/5 studying in itself makes a world of a difference in poker. Discipline though is BY FAR the most important aspect of the game. Discipline in every part of your development though. Wait until you got 15k or something then say I'll risk 3k on this game and see what happens. GL

I should have given some more context. I've been playing poker for over 5 years now but only recently I've started tracking my 1/3 sessions. I appreciate your advice though. Overall I feel that my game is better than the average 1/3 player and I'm good with taking bad beats/suckouts in the right manner, but you're definitely right that I don't have enough hours to justify moving up. I'll stick to 1/3 and continue that until my bankroll is 15-20k. Thanks for the charts as well! Gives me a good idea of what I can expect in the long run. Here are my sessions. The random 2/5 game was just a bad mistake from my part.
 

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sumsush1711

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It might affect your play since you might think about it while playing, like you didn't had money for a full buy-in so you can't really lose.
If you can afford try to grow your bankroll outside of just playing poker, and move up when you have 20-30 full buy-ins for the next level.
If you just want to take shots at least do it with that in mind, it's just a shot, you might lose a full buy-in for 2/5 or win some money (i don't think it is worth it since you don't play that much so probably you won't end up with 100k in a month anyway, maybe just get to 10-11k which is not worth the risk).


Yup makes sense. I think waiting until my BR is bigger is probably the better option. I definitely plan on playing a lot more in the near future. Thanks for the advice!
 
S

sumsush1711

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PFFFTT!!! lol....dude...if you really think that 13 sessions (lol) or 78 hours of grinding the 1/3 game is enough to see if you are talented and skilled enough to play @ the 2/5 game you must be nuts! You haven't at all hit a patch of bad variance yet in the 1/3 game. And 27$ an hour isn't shit in a 1/3 300 buy in game. I would suggest not taking a shot at 2/5. You have only played 13 sessions in 9 months..that's not even considered a recreational player lol that is nothing. I play an 80/120 game with the blinds at 1/3 I've won $7,000 thinking i was God in one month after having 20-25 sessions. I've had other months where i have won $5,000 etc. Unfortunately you don't understand how volatile variance can be. In rough patches you can easily lose 2k or 3k in a month it happens easily no matter how good you play. If you jump into a 2/5 game with a 500 buy-in your literally throwing money away. It takes one bad beat to set off tilt mode and you can very easily go through a couple of thousand dollars in a 2/5 game. I have seen it before and it's a sad thing to watch someone lose that amount of money so fast. Stay at the 1/3 game you simply do not at have enough hours or time spent playing the 1/3 game to even give you an idea if your winning @ that stake or not. I broke even over a stretch of 350 hours on the 1/3 due to some days going on tilt or taking higher shots. If you can make 5 bb's over a course of about 10,000 hands i would say your pretty solid player. I'm not saying you can't beat the 1/3 game, the fact that your studying and putting in after hours to work on your game and reviewing your sessions is simply enough in itself to be able to beat the 1/3 game I would say. 2/5 is probably going to play the same maybe some better cats on there without a doubt. But regardless with 500-1000$ buy-ins i don't think 9k is worth risking. Take it nice and slow and stay on the 1/3 but you should try to put in more sessions then 1 a month.....I'm not saying you can't beat 2/5 studying in itself makes a world of a difference in poker. Discipline though is BY FAR the most important aspect of the game. Discipline in every part of your development though. Wait until you got 15k or something then say I'll risk 3k on this game and see what happens. GL

I should have given some more context. I've been playing poker for over 5 years now, but only recently I've started tracking my sessions. Overall, I feel that I'm better than the average 1/3 player, and I'm able to handle bad beats/suckouts pretty well, but I think you're right that I don't have enough hours to justify moving up and taking shots at 2/5. Thanks for the advice and I'll definitely stick to 1/3 for now and increase my bankroll to 15-20k before attempting 2/5. Thanks for the charts! Gives me a good idea of what I can expect in the long run. Here are my sessions. The 2/5 session was just a bad mistake from my part.
 

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godblessiraq

godblessiraq

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If you’re better than the average 1/3 player, you’re better than the average 2/5 player.since when do the $ amounts we play for dictate how good of a poker player we are? Does it take a better driver to drive a Lamborghini than it does to drive a Honda Civic? No it does not! Does having a a bigger kitchen make your recipes taste better? Think about it!
 
MemphisGrind

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Been playing 1/3 NL at the casino for the past 9 months, and I feel like with all the hand analysis and studying I'm doing away from the table, my game is significantly improving after each session. I'm not able to play as much as I'd like to due to other commitments, but I want to change that in the near future. Here are some stats if it helps:

Total sessions played: 13
Total hours played: 78
Profit: $2146
Hourly: $27.36/hr

I started with a 7k bankroll, so I'm at $9146 now. I've been thinking of taking an occasional shot at 2/5 NL. Should I go for it, or wait until my bankroll is a bit higher? I feel pretty confident in my game. The only thing stopping me is that the 2/5 game has a max buyin of $1000 whereas the 1/3 game has a max buyin of $300. I was thinking of buying in for 600-700 for the 2/5 game if i decided to try it out. Would this affect my play significantly? Any advice is appreciated.


Looks like this thread has some solid responses. Definitely don't take the shot early. I did and lost my roll and confidence. Took me a LONG time to build it back up again. Get some more play under your belt and be certain you are beating 1-3 It's easy to get fooled into thinking your upswing is winning for long term. Good luck on your poker journey.
 
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