My 100th micro-limit post.

[Donkey Kong]

I've been lurking the micros here at 2+2 for about a year and a half. I havent really been posting much yet. That said, I've been reading a lot of posts, and I really appreciate the discussions. I've reached a point now where I need to decide what to do next, and I'd like some advice if any of you would care to give it.

About my career thus far: I started playing online at Ladbrokes in january 2005. I ended up depositing about $800 and wasting it all playing NL and sng's. By the end of march I was really frustrated, not understanding how these idiots could be taking my money [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] . Thats when I figured out I might not be as good a player as I thought I was. So I checked out Amazon and found "Winning low limit hold'em" by Lee Jones. I read it twice and started playing limit. It instantly made me a winning player. I figured "cool" and started searching for more litterature, which lead me to 2+2 and the Miller/Sklansky/Malmuth titles. I got SSHE, HEPFAP, The Psychology of Poker, TOP etc. I read'em all and by july 2005 I was break-even.

I soon found myself winning quite nicely at 0.5/1 and stayed there for a long time bonuswhoring and multitabling up to 4 tables. I've been doing this until about now. I've been a significant winner all along at about 2-2.5 BB/100. I've taken some shots at 1/2 (singletabling) and I seem to be a winner there as well although my sample size is small (about 5k hands).

I've adopted a semi-loose aggressive style with stats in the range of about 27/16/2.5 over 200k hands. (I only play SH).

I've come to a point now where I'm thinking I need to take some more shots at higher levels. I'm hoping my style is robust enough to do the trick at 1/2 or 2/4.

What do you think would be the best way of taking a real shot at higher limits (recommended sites ect)? When should I be moving down if I get shot? What are the major differences at the higher levels? What would be signs that I'm not good enough yet (except losing money)?

I know these questions probably have been answered in previous posts, but I'd really like to get some advice on this matter, and I hope they will be relevant to other aspiring players. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[Zeldark]

Metagame advice in general is often vague. When it comes to assessing if you're prepared to move up, it's certainly not an exception. If you've played a lot of hands that have evidence that you know what you're doing, my advice is to just set aside a certain amount of money that you're willing to lose when you take your shot and have at it. If you lose the money, move back down. As long as you keep your head clear and don't play scared, you should hopefully do ok.

You've inspired me. I think it's time to take a shot myself. Good luck to you.

[BigBadBabar]

27/16 is solid for 6max. i don't see any reason why you can't take say $200 aside, scout out the 6max games for your favorite fish, and try 1/2 for a while. While there's always a jump between limits, I don't recall the .5/1 - 1/2 jump being super huge. post hands in the small stakes shorthanded forum here or here as well. do the session reviews weekly (there's a sign up thread) to work on your game. keep posting!

if you have a winrate over more than 100k hands at any one limit the chances are very high you're beating the limit obviously. if you can continue beating the higher limit, even at slightly less level than before (since players get better), you will earn more rakeback and bonus and in the long run you'll move up high enough to where those don't really matter.

what site do you play on now? are you american/nonamerican and can you move your money around? with that info i can recommend good sites. ultimatebet has a good rakeback/bonus/signup combo although they don't always have tons of games. cryptos have great bonuses. some of the primas do. partypoker from what i hear is coming back into its own as a softer site.

[Donkey Kong]

Thanks for the replies.
BBB - I'm non-american, and I'm free to move my money around. I used to play at Party/Absolute/Stars/Poker Room skins/Doyle's, but recently I've been playing mostly a Prima skin and WPEX. I just got at rakeback-deal at FTP. I have an account at Interpoker, but havent played there in well over a year.

[BigBadBabar]

wpex can't have very good game selection.

the cryptos (there are a lot of them) used to have great monthly bonuses; i assume they all still do?

a lot of the prima skins are good.

i would check out party poker as well.

if your style is solid, and points clear pretty quickly at .5/1 6max, or 1/2 6max if you move up, why not bonus whore around for a while? are you familiar with bonuswhores.com probably? just go right down their list, looking at clearance rate. if nothing else it could boost your roll with some "extra" money for taking shots at 1/2 or 2/4. i made more money doing that than staying on one "home" site back in the day. now that sites are few and far between for americans, i made ultimatebet my home. they have the best bonus/rb combo if you put in a lot of hands. lots of 2p2ers are at full tilt also and using their rakeback/bonus. some prima skins have quite good rakeback. i would stay away from absolute right now just b/c their bonus is too slow since they changed it.

just stream of consciousness-ing [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

feel free to pm me for more info.