[Ulkis]

OP, excellent post. I started poker very recently in April this year, after having retired from the hedge fund industry in my early 40's. It is unbelievable how similar poker is to trading: psychology, risk management, risk, reward, the lot. What you are correctly saying and may be kind a new to poker thinking, is very old and familiar to the financial sector. Many same principles apply. Many concepts are now being "found" in poker, have existed in the financial markets for ages.

What you are thinking is your risk and your attitude to it. I don't think there is one correct way to it. What your post highlights is that there is more to poker than being a scandinavian risk-taker with sunglasses and all-in moves
;-), heck, this web-site and micro-board has proven that to me. Thinking players who not only think about their upside but more importantly their downside.

You have moved up and down (your own will) couple of times, it works for you, fine. I started with $50 lowest limits, got it up to couple of hundred before buying PT, God knows how. Showed nice profits there after, got into a horrible downswing, now out of it and working on to make profits again. My take on risk is different from yours, I'll try to work hard to learn and build it up, move higher limits and try to stay there. But when I lose that $10 pot in .5/1 it still hurts, not because it is a huge amount of money, but because I failed, did not play best poker I could've, and got out in time. I would not dare deposit $'s enough just to move higher - what would be the point, I'm not good enough, it's much juicier to build it up, that way you'll think you've earned it.

As you can see from my rant, your post was a great inspiration.