are players ever just "not smart enough" to move up?

[StacysMom]

I don't move up very often. To me, poker is about making money, not about playing the highest limits I can. I've put together 2 solid months in a row now pulling in 1-2 hundred an hour. I have a year off of school to make as much money as I can. If I spend the whole year bouncing around limits then I won't have money set aside for my next 2 years of school.

In short, if you always move up when you have the bankroll, you will never have money unless you happen to be the best player in the world.

[Mendacious]

I noticed this little tidbit in ABA's story:

"I know looking back I wasn't playing my best because I wouldn’t think about hands that I was playing, I would just multi table like a robot".

I play PL08, and have taken a few stabs at bigger games, but this is the biggest obstacle for me. I may have the brainpower and knowledge to move up, but I find that I typically play a very distracted game. Eventually you reach a level where you have to devote full concentration to what you are doing, because the level of competition is such that there aren't as many fish overpaying you in hopeless situations time after time.

[mperich]

You guys are settling too low.

-Mike

[jb9]

This is something that regularly bothers me about my own play. Overall, what really holds me back is inability to accept the losses in dollar terms that occur at the higher levels. I dislike the losses more than I like the wins.

Lose 5 buyins at 25NL? No problem -- go win it back.

Lose 4 buyins at 50NL? Ouch, but it happens. Take a break and win it back tomorrow.

Lose 3 buyins at 100NL? @#%@#$! Why do I even play this game? I think I'll go read a book or something instead.

This isn't a bankroll issue or because I need the money for anything else. If I stopped playing poker, my bankroll would just end up in my savings account with other money that I'm not doing anything with.

It's a psychological/emotional problem with accepting the losses at higher levels without getting discouraged and without altering my play.

I decided last night I have to drop back down to 50NL after I folded when someone bet $50 into a $100 pot on the turn (and he was all in and we were heads up) and I was pretty sure there was a 50% chance he was bluffing.

If my read is right, this is an easy easy call, and my experience is that my reads are reliable enough that following them has been profitable for me. I make the call every time at 50NL when it is a $25 call for a $75 pot. But it was a $50 call for a $150 pot, and I folded.

This is what holds me back.

[MrDannimal]

[ QUOTE ]
This is something that regularly bothers me about my own play. Overall, what really holds me back is inability to accept the losses in dollar terms that occur at the higher levels. I dislike the losses more than I like the wins.

Lose 5 buyins at 25NL? No problem -- go win it back.

Lose 4 buyins at 50NL? Ouch, but it happens. Take a break and win it back tomorrow.

Lose 3 buyins at 100NL? @#%@#$! Why do I even play this game? I think I'll go read a book or something instead.

This isn't a bankroll issue or because I need the money for anything else. If I stopped playing poker, my bankroll would just end up in my savings account with other money that I'm not doing anything with.

It's a psychological/emotional problem with accepting the losses at higher levels without getting discouraged and without altering my play.

I decided last night I have to drop back down to 50NL after I folded when someone bet $50 into a $100 pot on the turn (and he was all in and we were heads up) and I was pretty sure there was a 50% chance he was bluffing.

If my read is right, this is an easy easy call, and my experience is that my reads are reliable enough that following them has been profitable for me. I make the call every time at 50NL when it is a $25 call for a $75 pot. But it was a $50 call for a $150 pot, and I folded.

This is what holds me back.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm the same way (although limit). It takes me a few starts and stops to re-focus my mindset off the $$ amounts and back onto the BBs involved.

As someone else said, it's funny how there's a different mindset live.

[Beavis68]

I am not sure if it has been mentioned but someone who tears through limits in a short time is a very lucky person.

They had to have ran pretty well during that time, and could just as easily as suffered a bankroll crushing downturn.

I am not saying they are not good players, but they had to be fortunate during the time they were briskly moving up to at least not run badly after hoping up a limit.

[ QUOTE ]
I am not sure if it has been mentioned but someone who tears through limits in a short time is a very lucky person.

They had to have ran pretty well during that time, and could just as easily as suffered a bankroll crushing downturn.

I am not saying they are not good players, but they had to be fortunate during the time they were briskly moving up to at least not run badly after hoping up a limit.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is very true.

[DagnyTaggert]

I think it has more to do with nerve/guts than smarts once you hit middle/upper-middle limits. Many of us are paralyzed by thoughts of losing thousands of dollars a day and stay in our comfort zone, grinding out $1500/week or so.

The game changes significantly at the $80/160 limit and $10/20 NL level. Most players are competent at this level, the winners in those games are even more aggressive than most winners at the next level down and a losing streak does not bother them.

Winning poker does not require a great deal of intelligence, at least the way most of us define intelligence. It does require inflection, self-honesty, information, and nerve.

[Eder]

My current state of sobriety usually determines my propensity to move up...I need to work on that...