Not sure why you wouldn't.

I'll bite.

I made 2/5 my main game after building my roll to $10k at the beginning of February. Finished the month +1200 after 35 hours at that level, but made so many mistakes that my confidence is down (at least $4k-5k worth of preventable losses..probably would be kicking myself if I didn't run so hot.) I'm sitting on 12.5k now, and I feel like I should be playing less 2/5 and more 1/2 and 1/2/3 this month. Getting stacked for $500 still hurts too much for me to lose comfortably.

I have been tracking my play over the past 6 weeks and I have been crushing 1/2 part time. In 6 weeks I have 15 session, only two are negative. The one big loss was 600 and I feel like it is only because I had to leave after 3 hours and could not play through the variance. Many times in the past six weeks I have been in the game deep, 1k, 900, 700, 600 etc and grinded my way to profit, usually the long sessions. So I am used to big swings when I switch to LAG mode.

My poker roll is also my life roll, I pay bills and live off this money. I think I am crushing enough to move up. I have 4500ish in my poker/life roll.

You only live once, I do not want my tombstone to read, nit ITT (in the tomb)

Next time I play I will play 2/5!!

Here are my stats. GT = Greektown casino, RT = Roundtree charity, LJ = Mixed games home game .5/1$, HB = Heidelburg charity, ES = Electric stick charity, MC = Motorcity casino

GT 1/17 +775 14 hr
RT 1/18 +450 5 hr
LJ 1/27 -130 8 hr
HB 1/29 +941 8.5 hr
MC 2/1 +200 16 hr
ES 2/2 -600 3 hr
LJ 2/3 +130 1.5 hr
MC 2/6 +550 16 hr
MC 2/10 +760 12 hr @1/2 and @2/5
MC 2/18 +430 10 hr
HB 2/21 +430 5 hr
RT 2/23 +200 4 hr
LJ 2/24 +370 10 hr
GT 2/25 +165 4 hr
HB 2/29 +48 5.5 hr
-------------
Poker $ Total +4719
Poker Hours T 122.5 hours
Hourly Rate 38.5 per hour

Am I a nit?

You're an optimist. However, from reading this post alone, I don't think you should do it. Doesn't sound like you have an idea what running bad feels like, and if you do in a 2/5 game, you're done.

congratulations on your success to date and it's terrific to see you putting in long, winning sessions.

but unfortunately, 'playing through the variance' isn't something that you can do in each session - for you to think that it is means you haven't been beaten by nearly enough rivered two outers, lost with middle over top set and hit the wrong side of flush and straight draws etc etc. experienced grinders will tell you that this can happen for weeks and months.

you may well be a good enough player to beat 2/5 and you've made a great start but at 9 standard buy ins with a roll that needs to supplement your life too, you're not rolled - maybe a 1 buy in shot, but not a permanent move


good luck with it bro - my roll's at 6.5k now and doesn't supplement my life. I'm taking a 2 BI shot next visit so I'm not too far from your position - but I wish you all the very best

Thanks. If I lose 1k at 2/5 I will drop down.

Great plan!

Beware of the short stackers at MC. They like to hit and run even more @ 2/5 than 1/2.

Now go kick some ass.

Reading most of this thread makes me sound like a NIT. I'm 29, and I currently play 1/3 about 2-3 times a week aside from my job. My playing bankroll is about 12K, which is completely separate from my life bankroll. I lost a lot more than that bankroll thanks to FTP and Black Friday.

Back when I was first learning poker in 04-05ish, I used to only play 2/5 on a much smaller bankroll. Mainly because the casinos where I played on a recreational basis back then didn't even offer 1/2 or 1/3. It was 2/5, 5/10, or limit games.

Since Black Friday, I've sat down at a 2/5 table exactly once, and that was after I doubled my stack at 1/3 one night, and I simply just got the itch. At my local casino, the room is filled with mostly 1/3 tables, a couple limit tables, and usually 1 table of 2/5 and 1 table of 1/3 PLO. So in my opinion, the 2/5 game here simply isn't as profitable as the dozen or so tables that run of 1/3 on a nightly basis.

I've found that over the past few years, as I've gained more life responsibilities, I have less gamble in me to go play 2/5, especially since there is usually just 1 table, maybe 2 on a Fri/Sat night. I feel that I'm successful at 1/3, and I'm quite content with the monetary potential that I have everytime I play 1/3 to book a win 4-5 buy ins in a session.

Can anyone relate to this? And can anyone convince me to take more shots at 2/5 or perhaps even play in that 2/5 regularly?

you win 4-5 buy-ins every session?

wow. nice.

I think this depends on what you want out of poker. Are you looking at poker as a hobby with monetary benefits? Or as a way to make supplemental income and you want to maximize that extra income?

It's important when making decisions like this to know what you want. Someone else can't really give you that perspective. And if you take a shot just because some guys on the Internet said to you are less likely to be comfortable with your decision and probably end up playing worse.

Not everyone is obsessed with moving up as quickly as possible and maxing out their profits. Which is fine. You just need to know of you're one of this people and then maybe you're better off staying put.

In our situation I would be taking shots for the purpose of evaluating the game to see if I am a winner in it. From there I would decide whether to make it my main game or not.

I don't think you should move up yet. If you only $4500 to your name, one bad session at 2/5 could destroy your life. Even at 1/2, that's pretty underolled if your poker roll=bank roll. I think you got to play super careful. Good luck man.

This is so wrong. Learn to NOT USE your bankroll, and you can take all the time in the world moving up to 2/5. with a 2k bankroll and at $20 an hour, it should take you about 300 hours to move up to 2/5, a perfectly reasonable amount of experience at live poker, and if you play 20 hours a week, it would take you about 3 months. If you arent winning at $20 an hour? Well then maybe you should take more time to move up.

Aggressive bankroll management is how you lose it all, and is how you end up spending your own money and becoming the fish. Dont play as scared money, play with a healthy bankroll so you can open up your game.

It is definitely risky to move up without a healthy bankroll. However, like I've stated in previous posts, if you can crush 1/2, then you can crush 2/5. Taking shots is essential and a lot of the pros that are famous did the same thing. You think they sat around grinding at 1/2 for years until they had the right bankroll for 2/5 and so on? You can cut your learning curve tremendously if you get lucky and variance is on your side. Of course you can easily lose it all but what is a couple grand to you anyway? If you go broke so be it. You can grind your life away at 1/2 trying to stay ahead of traveling costs, rake, tip, and food. Or you can take a shot to give yourself an easier life now when you can. Who knows what will happen to poker in ten years. Get the most you can now while you know its good.

hahaha, ya thats exactly what I meant

Thanks man, tough questions to answer and for me to think about. Pre-Black Friday, I would have quickly said that I'm in it to earn supplimental income. But now, for me, I think that's inherently the case in playing, but I may be playing for reasons other than what you mentioned above.

What I'm struggling with is this: take last night for example. Friday night, poker room is packed at my casino. Easily 20 tables full of 1/3, a couple BS limit tables, 1 table of PLO with a mixture of local sharks and gamblers, and 1 game of 2/5 with mostly players that I recognize as good players. I'm just not sure if I should be sitting in this game because they know me from the 1/3 tables, and they know that I don't play 2/5. It just feels counterproductive to me to sit there because I know there are a ton of fish at the 1/3 tables, and I know that I can do well there.

I have over 400 hours logged since January @ $19.21/hr mainly 1/2 and 1/3

Unfortunately I've been paying tuition out of my roll so I have $4600 (~10k life roll). The 2/5 at the casino has been really good when a 5/10 runs at the same. Am I absolutely ****ing crazy for thinking about playing this game during the weekends?

This thread basically got me to jump into 2/5 early, I ran a little hot and binked about 12k.

Nice work 2p2. Nice work.

what is binked?

My roll is only 2k, i might give a 500 BI a shot in a couple weeks if i can get up to about 3k.

bink = luckily acquire

Loved reading this. Keep it up.

I'm always glad to see this thread bumped because I think its a very good premise that would serve most 1/2 players that are interested in maximizing profits quite well.

This thread is the nuts.

Almost ready to make the jump to 5/10 lol

Just FWIW I wouldn't really apply the logic ITT to the 2/5 to 5-10 jump. This thread assumes most winning 1/2 players will be winning 2/5 players. Which is a fine assumption.

But the 2/5 to 5/10 jump is a much larger jump in terms of skill level and 5/10 games tend to have much higher variance than 2/5. Its best to establish that you are a big winner at 2/5 before moving up (so assuming you aren't diverting a lot of your poker bankroll to other expenses you shouldn't be shortrolled at all really).

1/3 seems the obvious choice under these conditions.

So let's say you take a shot at 2/5 and do well. Then what? Do you keep playing 2/5 until you get your br to a certain point, and if so what is that point?