I started with $17, played NL2 6-max ring non-zoom and lost it to $4.

Learned from my mistakes, played NL2 6-max zoom and won to $25. From there, a bit of NL2 and NL5 6-max zoom and won it up to approximately $40. Then I got sick of zoom and tried NL2/NL5 6-max ring and grew my bankroll to $55. But then I got unlucky and lost $30 (2 losses of $15, which I had already managed to recoup).

Summary: I wasn't sure if I got unlucky at NL5 or I'm just not good enough for NL5. Reviewing my hands I think I got unlucky. But the big losses at NL5 have dented my confidence, so I can't play totally on form (I'll still harbor a fear of losing).

At a point when my bankroll was $40, I turned back to NL2 zoom and now I have $65. I'm pretty sure I am crushing NL2, so should I move up to NL5?

post stats, hhs etc. im not sure how you would lose $30 at 5nl in 2hands? must of been super deep and i hope you were stacking off with the 2nd nuts at the bare min

Well not 2 hands, but 2 sessions. For the first session, I forgot the first hand, but the 2nd hand I held KK and got coolered on the turn (a 6 gave him a set of sixes).

The second session I lost 1 BI by stacking off with the nuts OTF but I got sucked out on the turn. Forgot the subsequent hands though.

I had purged my HEM database at the $40 point, because I wanted to compare how much I've improved. Here are the stats for 3000 hands (in a couple days). Small sample size, I know!

Total hands: 3096
Net won: $28.10
bb/100: 45.38
VPIP: 24.1
PFR: 18.5
3Bet: 9.5
WTSD%: 25.3
W$SD%: 53.6
Agg: 5.06
Agg%: 43.6

I have close to $70 and definitely sufficient to support NL5, but I'm not sure if I'm ready for it in the skills department.

I think it depends on how much you want to keep your bankroll and how well you can play with the pressure of it going down by say half if you hit a downswing. Personally, Ive been playing 2nl until I hit around $170, just because it allows me to make a few silly mistakes getting used to the bet sizes and slight added aggression.

search for ``bankroll management''.

I see, but I'm not a very patient guy and I don't think I can wait for my BR to grow so much :/

I know BRM... that's why I'm only considering moving up now. I don't strictly follow the 20 BI rule, but then when my BR decreases significantly I'd move down. Discipline is my BRM

If you arent able to patient, you will struggle with the poker.

Impatience and poker don't mix well, you can work on your patience and improve your game or shrug your shoulders and decide getting better is just too hard.

If you've got 10,000 hands in your database, then post your stats in the official thread at the top of this forum.
If you've only got 3,000, the stats are next to useless, but HEM and PT have a stat called "standard deviation bb/100", which is a measure of the "swinginess" of your play. (It gives an idea of the variance you've experienced). Plug that number into the formula given in the 2nd link of these BRM FAQs and that should tell you whether your current roll is large enough to take a step up without risking going broke.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/32...gement-197887/
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...1&postcount=10

Let me give you my definition of Crushing.

When I'm crushing a game/level then that game/level becomes my personal ATM and bank account. I can sit down in a game and I can almost guarantee that i'm adding to my bankroll.

You are at $65 playing 2NL. If you are CRUSHING then you should be able to run that up to $200 in no time. Hell, if you are CRUSHING you should be able to run that up an extra hundred dollars in a week easy.

If you have the "fear" of losing that money "before" you get a chance to play 5NL then guess what, you aren't crushing anything, you are a rec fish on a heater.

Rule of thumb is you need 20 buy-ins to play at a limit. If you are playing ZOOM poker then I'd double that to 40 buy-ins. So you need $200 before you think of playing 5NL.

So Mr. "I'm Crushing 2NL" fine...

Keep crushing and grind your way to 5NL.

Ever hear of the term "grinding"??? Well, that is what you have to do. Grind your roll up to $200 and read some articles on BRM and also go to BBV http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/54...rags-variance/ and do a search for "Prop Bets" so you can get a sense of what CRUSHING is.

there are players that have done prop bets for starting with $100 and turning it into $10,000 in ONE MONTH. Or starting with $10 and turning it into $1,000 in one month playing nothing but 2NL.

Basically, I get the sense you don't quite understand what you are talking about or your actual ability. But that's okay. You are in the right place. If you want to become a winning player then you got to put some work in and that includes reading a bunch of 2+2 threads and using the search function.

Read up on BRM, Risk of Ruin, and look at the this forum as well http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...ls-challenges/

good luck

dgiharris answers all asked and yet to be asked questions yet again. I'm starting to think there should just be a single "ask dgiharris how to play" thread, only problem would be the entire BQ forum would become redundant.

As for OP, you are "pretty sure you are crushing 2NL"? So what's your winrate?

Could you post a graph OP?

my std dev in bb is 9.80. plugging it into the formula gives me 6.35? i'm confused.


right now, yeah, it's my ATM. if i get sucked out, i buy in again full, and by the end of the session i'm almost guaranteed to recover my losses AND win additional.

and i'm not afraid of losing money at NL2, only at NL5. that's why i said i'm comfortable with NL2, and deciding if i'm ready to move up.

45.36.

sure.

Is this your full graph? I thought you dropped $30 at one point? That should be a huge dip in your graph. Anyway, you have only played 4k hands. That's not enough to determine anything. Why don't you just crush until your BR is big enough to play 5NL? If you're crushing like you say you are, it shouldn't take too much longer. Easy game.

wait +-100$ bankroll before move up to nl5