Thursday, September 13, 2007

On Moving up and Taking Shots

When I first decided to move up to the .50/1$ games last month, the plan was to play 50K hands at that limit and re-evaluate from there if a promotion was in order. After a month and half, it's pretty much safe to say that those projections were a bit too much on the safe side.

Since I play Poker for fun, I'm extremely fortunate if I can manage to put in 25K hands in a month. On average, I'd say I have topped at the 20K mark since march. My benchmark is the amount of rakeback that I earn monthly. I usually aim for 500$ per month. This is a pretty reasonable amount for the stakes that I play since it proves that I've made a valiant effort of putting in as many hands as I could in said month.

With that said, I figure I'll be around the 30-35k hands by the end of September and I definitely believe that a promotion is in order. Why? Because staying within your comfort zone in this game will hurt you in the long run.

When I first moved up to .50$/1$, I was already over-rolled for those stakes. I wisely decided to cut my teeth at this level first before sitting at 1/2$ too quickly. The result? I promptly dumped 1/3 of my online roll on the tables in a month. And I'm perfectly fine with that.

Bankroll nits never progress, they stagnate. How can you improve if you keep playing against the same level of competition for extended periods of time? Getting my head kicked in for a whole month did more for my game than beating up on .25/.50$ retards ever could. I had to re-invent myself, learn to three-bet light in position, when to pull off squeezes, when and how to properly defend your blinds, etc. All concepts that were not really applicable or necessary at the lower stakes.

I also realized that the games themselves were not that much tougher once you figure them out. In other words, playing at the lower levels would also have hurt me where it matters the most: At the bottom line.

Now I'm not advocating that you run up to the highest stakes possible that your BR can tolerate ASAP, Lord knows that is not my style. On the other hand, I actually think that it's just as bad, if not worst, to stagnate at one level with 100+ buy-ins.

If there's anything to take from this text, it's this: Take safe shots, challenge yourself and reach for the stars. Your bankroll and your game will improve as a result.

3 Comments:

At 10:11 PM, Blogger Fuel55 said...

Good advice.

 
At 1:28 PM, Blogger Klopzi said...

I agree too!

I just wish you'd written that a while back when I still had a real bankroll.

Now I'm forced to stagnate at the lower limits because I'm under-rolled for everything else...

 
At 6:52 PM, Blogger Amatay said...

hello mate nice blog. Wanna swap links?

 

Post a Comment

<< Home