true grinder....any advice???

[shamhawks 0]

First off...don't want this post to seem like i'm bragging, but to see what players did to get to the next level.I've had a really nice rush since November taking my account from $50 to $7500 currently while at the same time taking $1500 out.I feel my game is pretty solid now and have the bankroll to play some bigger games, but yet i still grind away.The games i currently play the most of are $25 nl... .50/$1 limit in cash games...and anything under a $20 buy-in in mtt'sI have played some $100 nl and up to $2/$4 limit, but still don't have the guts to play extended sessions.Should I just continue to do what i'm doing as it seems to be working and the timing will just come and I will play bigger games or should i try and force it. Even though my current bankroll is at $7500, I still get upset when i have a losing session of $10 :roll: guess I'm just afraid of changing what has been working and if I go up in levels and have a bad run, my 3 months of good work can be gone quick.Be nice to hear how players got their nerve to go up in play..

[DDiabolical 0]

I know exactly how you feel, I now have a bankroll to be proud of but the mindset of someone with $100 in their account.Diving into $100nl was a big thing for me as just a month or two before that was my entire bankroll, I settled at $50nl for a long time and once I became very comfortable at that level and it became my "home" I'd take shots at juicy $100nl tables when they came around, eventually $100nl wasn't so scary and gradually started spending more of my time there.In summary, just grind away at the level you're currently at until you feel very comfortable with it, then you can slowly work in a higher limit 10% of the time, then as you get more used to it you can keep spending more time there, while still playing your current level for a more certain profit that can help dull any losses at the higher limit.

[nell789 0]

I think it depends on the person. Some people have a strong drive to be the best player they can be, and that involves playing against stronger competition, hence the higher limits. Others just like to gamble, so they move up in limits, usually without the proper roll, to increase the amount they're gambling. Still others (like you I think) enjoy playing, but only when winning, and only when the risk of losing is as low as possible, so they tend to stay in the lower limits.I guess you just need to accept that there are going to be swings, and that you can't win every single time. Then just move up slowly. Try some $50 NL and some $1/2 LHE once or twice a week, and then gradually play more and more of it untill those are your regular games. Then keep moving up as you get comfortable.

[shamhawks 0]

thanks, It seems for the most part, I go up in levels when i have a bad beat get knocked out of a tourney. I hate this mindset. I don't get a true guage for my play, when i go up based on my emotions at the time.last week, i got knocked out late in a tourney, and without thinking i jumped on the $100 nl, played very aggressive (not my game for the most part) and won $400 in about an hour...This is not a true guage on my play, as i was just mad at getting knocked out of tourney.I just need to work some higher limits in when my emotions are in check :-) I know waht i should be doing, but it's alwasy nice to hear from other people and their experience

[nell789 0]

I know exactly how you feel, I now have a bankroll to be proud of but the mindset of someone with $100 in their account.Diving into $100nl was a big thing for me as just a month or two before that was my entire bankroll, I settled at $50nl for a long time and once I became very comfortable at that level and it became my "home" I'd take shots at juicy $100nl tables when they came around, eventually $100nl wasn't so scary and gradually started spending more of my time there.In summary, just grind away at the level you're currently at until you feel very comfortable with it, then you can slowly work in a higher limit 10% of the time, then as you get more used to it you can keep spending more time there, while still playing your current level for a more certain profit that can help dull any losses at the higher limit.

Shit man, you burn me with your sig every time.

[mbreon 0]

Play at limits you are comfortable at. If you are not comfortable with losing $100 in a single session, then don't play at limits where that is easily possible. The worst thing you can do is play with scared money.I would play at the limits you are comfortable at, and once every few sessions, move up a little in limits (maybe 1 out of every 4 or 5 times you play) to get a feel for the next level up. Integrate it slowly. Good luck.

[Abbaddabba 0]

Im in a similar position, and i know of quite a few others who are too.Some people can't wait to move up fast enough - and will do it before they even have enough money for a single buy in. And there're people like us.And it's funny that, on account of the fact that we play poker, we're called gamblers. Given my disposable income attributable to poker winnings over the past year, i have a bankroll of 3500 big bets for the limit i play. I play 2/4. It's pretty absurd. Risk of ruin tapers off into tiny, tiny figures at around 500 big bets; nevermind 1000 big bets, nevermind 3500 big bets. My attempt at a solution is to set points where i force myself to move up. Ie: after 20k hands at 2/4 in my PT history, i have told my friends to give me shit if i dont move up to 3/6. Im almost there. And I'll likely do the same at 3/6... move up after 20k hands. I pissed away a lot of time playing .50/1 through 2/4 over the past year with a bankroll much larger than is necessary, before i had pokertracker. Those days are gone. I want 10/20 to be my regular game by the years end. And my year end goal for "the poker moneys" is $50,000.

[dmb41 0]

$7,500 playing .50/1 limit and 50NL? That is insane? How many tables do you play at a time? How many BB per hour do you average?

[stealfromblind 0]

the only way to fix this problem is to study day and night until you can get your GA test scores higher. with a score of 17-19 i can see you moving up in limits with no problem.

[Abbaddabba 0]

Yeah, i was going to say. $7,500 at $25NL would require so many hours, that i'd have to question how sane you are.That is 30,000 big blinds.Suppose an optimistic winrate of 10 big blinds per 100 hands, and 70 hands per hour per table. 7 big blinds per table hour... that's 4,286 table hours. Even if you're 4 tabling, that's well over 1,000 hours of time over the course of 3 months, or 83 hours a week.I realize that you said you had .50/1 LHE mixed in, but a good winrate there would be roughly equivalent to the ones ive described above.Even if your winrate was something over the top like 20 big blinds per 100 hands, that's still 40 hours a week.

[nritchi3 0]

Im defineatly the opposite than of you. I want to be moving up as soon as i feel i have an edge over the game and have a good size bankroll for it. Im currently playing 5/10 with a $4000 bankroll. So im not exactly playing above my limits but i don't have 3500BB. I don't think i could be restrained enough to wait that long before i move up. Im sure once my bankroll gets to 6000 ill be moving up to 10/20. I think the problem is once my bankroll gets bigger the amount i win at the level im playing doesn't seem as big, so i move up.

[BNH77 0]

$7,500 playing .50/1 limit and 50NL? That is insane? How many tables do you play at a time? How many BB per hour do you average?

Im sure there are bonuses worked into the equation.

[aim786 0]

Even though my current bankroll is at $7500, I still get upset when i have a losing session of $10 :roll: guess I'm just afraid of changing what has been working and if I go up in levels and have a bad run, my 3 months of good work can be gone quick.Be nice to hear how players got their nerve to go up in play..

If you move up to 1/2 say, at first you'll get upset if you put in a losing session. Overtime though, you won't care as much if you lose 25-50 bucks at a 1-2 game. Furthermore, if you sit down at a .5/1 game, you won't get nearly as upset as you do now if you lose 10$.I moved up from 1/2 to 2/4 (and this was still when 10$ meant alot to me!) about a month ago and dropped about 300$ over 1k hands. It messed with my head like crazy, I'd never lost that much "money" before. I'm now trying very hard to not let the money bother me, and think of things in terms of bets, after all 300$ at 2/4 is 75 BB; I've had worse downswings at .5/1 in terms of BB. However, after that losing streak at 2/4 (I've yet to take another shot there), I've noticed losing 10$ here or there means very little to me now.By the way, I think its good that you feel this way, that losing 10$ upsets you. It prevents you from moving up when you should'nt; just because you have 7500$ does'nt mean you should be playing 10/20. I'd recommend giving 1/2 a "shot" though, eventually you'll become used to winning and losing pots that are 10-15$ on average as oppose to 5-7$.

[WhiteSpade 0]

$7,500 playing .50/1 limit and 50NL? That is insane? How many tables do you play at a time? How many BB per hour do you average?

Im sure there are bonuses worked into the equation.

He also mentioned tourny play which must account for a chunk of it

[Alex916F 0]

A suggestion you may want to consider is to take a healthy chunk of your roll and start playing live. For the longest time I was playing online with the biggest game being 100 nl or .25/.5 LHE. I had a bad run online, I think after all of the reading on poker I did I developed a leak becoming weak/tight. Anyway, I now play exclusively live at 3/6 cuz thats the smallest game and am a winning player thus far. When the money is turned to chips it is really easy to play the proper game in my opinion. Live is easier to concentrate, more fun, and is the purest of all poker.just my 2 cents

[Abbaddabba 0]

A suggestion you may want to consider is to take a healthy chunk of your roll and start playing live. For the longest time I was playing online with the biggest game being 100 nl or .25/.5 LHE. I had a bad run online, I think after all of the reading on poker I did I developed a leak becoming weak/tight. Anyway, I now play exclusively live at 3/6 cuz thats the smallest game and am a winning player thus far. When the money is turned to chips it is really easy to play the proper game in my opinion. Live is easier to concentrate, more fun, and is the purest of all poker.

Yeah, and you see about 1/8th as many hands an hour, which completely devastates your hourly rate.

[shamhawks 0]

only a small portion of my winnings in the last 3 months is from $25nl cash games ($1500) the other 7.5k is in tournies. made $1400 in last weeks 500k tourneyhave 4 final 3 omaha finishes and about 7 other nl/limit final tables in the last 3 months.I really liked the suggestion of 20000 pt hands to move up. I currently have 11000 in the $25nl and about 3000 hands in everything else up to $2/4 and $100nlmy current pt bb/100 stats:$25nl.....18.87/100.....11285 hands$50nl......3.65/100.......865 hands...$100nl.....82.85/100......483 hands... play very aggressive..too much emotionI like to play and usually only play 1 table at a time sometimes 2...I just don't have fun when I multi-table

[stealfromblind 0]

A suggestion you may want to consider is to take a healthy chunk of your roll and start playing live. For the longest time I was playing online with the biggest game being 100 nl or .25/.5 LHE. I had a bad run online, I think after all of the reading on poker I did I developed a leak becoming weak/tight. Anyway, I now play exclusively live at 3/6 cuz thats the smallest game and am a winning player thus far. When the money is turned to chips it is really easy to play the proper game in my opinion. Live is easier to concentrate, more fun, and is the purest of all poker.

Yeah, and you see about 1/8th as many hands an hour, which completely devastates your hourly rate.

any good player can make up for the fact he sees less hands by taking advantage of live reads. what your saying may be true in limit but i would argue that its not true in nl. of course i've been wrong before...

[DLizzle 0]

I can respect grinding it out very well within your bankroll, but i certainly don't do it. Going broke isnt a huge deal. I think if you are playing that low, you may be a very good player, but don't have what it takes to be really good. Not saying that you're a great player if you're not like that but I think you need a little special something that you don't have if you have 1000bb for the limits you're playing.

[Othafa9 0]

I'm the opposite of you also, I moved to vegas last year, and picked up poker as a hobby, the smallest live games are 1/2 no limit, so I played for a few months live first, then when I went online I only put in $100 but I started off playing 1/2 no limit just like live. I've been lucky to never go broke, but I can't take the games seriously that are under that level.