c/t: Making big monies with the Whale

[BalugaWhale]

Whats up SSNL crew

As you all have read (and if you haven't, you need to), Fimbulwinter put together a pretty sweet set of guidelines for moving up limits. You can find that list of guidelines here.

Munkey, a good new poster, is analyzing fim's stuff... he made a killer post a little while ago that you should check out here.

Fimbulwinters guidelines weren't right for me though... I took shots too aggressively and without the proper confidence and skill to play at higher limits, and when I ran bad, my confidence was lost and I doubted whether or not I could even beat the game at its lowest limits. I thought about giving it up.
However, now, my poker career has taken me a long way from my trip (and subsequent return trips) to busto... I recently moved from 25nl to 50nl to 100nl to 200nl in a couple of months (beginning of june until now), and I am going to dabble in 400nl very shortly I think. How did I do it? How can you do it???
Here is my easy to follow plan:
Playing winning poker is about two things-- confidence and skill.

PART 1: Confidence
For me, I gained confidence from having two things: a complete bankroll and an absolute knowledge that I am a winning player. The only way to be sure you're a winning player at any given limit is to beat that limit consistently for a considerable number of hands... so thats what you are going to do. Play the limit you're at for 20k hands AT LEAST.. When you're done, check your ptbb/100... if you don't think its high enough, do it again.

Thats a lot of playing you say? Well... a lot of playing results in a lot of skill.

PART 2: Skill
So now you've been playing a lot (like I did), and lets say after 20k hands of 25nl 6max you beat the game for 4ptbb/100 (like I did). Well you weren't satisfied with that, so you played another 20k hands and raised that to 6ptbb. Now, you decide to move up. Well you now have the confidence of beating the game for 40k hands, and the skill of 40k hands... which should be more than enough improvement to your game to help you crush the next limit up for 20k hands. Plus, now you KNOW that if you ever need to move down for any reason... you can beat the 25nl game. You have the data (and money) to prove it.

Ah, yes... the good stuff. Money. 5ptbb/100 hands for 20k hands comes out to be 1000ptbb, or 2000 big blinds, or 20 buyins. Lets say we started with 20 buyins... that now gives us 40 buyins... or enough to be rolled for the next limit up.

I 6table 6max, and I play a couple hours a day on average. I can play 20k hands every two weeks. This is the fast track to a massive bankroll while creating a confident and skilled poker player.

Quick recap-
1)start with at least 20 buyins for your limit.
2)Play 20k hands and evaluate.
3)If satisfied with PTBB/100, move up. If not, repeat step 2.
4)Repeat step 1.

Oh, and posting a lot on 2p2 doesn't hurt either.

See you all at the top.

[BalugaWhale]

Nooooooooo i did a Pokey

[censored]

[Al_Money]

Good post bw, very good advice.

[silentbob]

vnh -- I just moved up to NL50 this week after 20K hands at NL25 and know exactly what you mean. It was tempting to move up after crushing the game in my first 5K hands, but variance brought me back down to earth and I eventually took my time developing the confidence and skill as discussed above.

[kitaristi0]

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Nooooooooo i did a Pokey

[censored]

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AAHAHAHAHAH LOL

[Womble]

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[ QUOTE ]
Nooooooooo i did a Pokey

[censored]

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AAHAHAHAHAH LOL

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Whats a pokey?

Anyway, This is one way of doing it and the more sensile one. But I think instead of moving striaght up to 50NL from 25NL and not looking back you should set a loss limit - say 5 buyins. Move back down if you lose it to rebuild.

Variance could get you but its not too likely and you should be able to stay up with your shots if you are skilled

[cbloom]

BW good post.

However, 6 PTBB/100 at 25NL is not very good. You can do 10 PTBB/100 at that level with a nitty TAG style. Perhaps you know that and just like playing LAG for fun and practice, that's cool, just making sure you know.

[EMc]

2400 < 2500

Close.

[BalugaWhale]

cbloom-

I know that 6ptbb/100 is not great... but I had some severe variance issues (KK was not kind to me) which I think was responsible for it.

Also, I am 6tabling 6max, so 6ptbb isn't terrible.

[Jamougha]

Nice post.

It's irrelevant to talk about your 'winrate' unless you have >100K hands at a level btw.