So I just started playing PLO cash games. Been doing very well, but being new to omaha I'm wondering how do you know if you've beaten a level and should move up? Is it just buy ins? Is there a number of hands played? As I mostly played Holdem SnGs and MTTS, not sure how to determine if I'm having positive variance or actually playing optimally. Any advice?

When Mario does his little Toyota jump.

^ thanks, you've been very helpful XD

you play online/live?
which stakes?
obv alot of variance is involved. once you beat a stake over 10evbb over a reasonable sample (~50k hands) i think you can call it "beating a level"

There are only levels of thinking. The higher and sharper your thinking is, the higher you can play and profit.

online. I don't use a hud though so I'm not exactly sure of my bb/100. I'm up around 30 buy ins in a pretty short time. I'm playing the lowest stakes right now though, so its to be expected. I'm mostly wondering about as I move up in stakes and the play gets tougher to win.

I personally don't believe in playing x amount of hands/games to see whether you aer beating level over the long term.

Variance is a bit*ch. You could play 30k hands at PL2 and run okay followed by 5k hands running like absolute sh*t and bring your winrate right down.. Does that mean over a 35k hand sample you don't have the skill set to beat the level? I would say no.. Basically, play until you have enough for next level, move back down when you don't.

It maybe worth downloading software to upload hand histories to review your play and check bb/100 etc etc that is unless your are playing a site that doesn't have hand histories

It's not such a good idea to think of yourself as having 'beaten' a stake -- that can make it harder psychologically to move down when you need to. Poker is not like an RPG where you level up in a consistent fashion. Especially at micros, you should be taking shots at levels above you as your bankroll permits, instead of establishing definitively that you can beat the stake you are currently playing.

I think one should not think about the money won (if any because of the rake), as there are better indications. I don't know how to put that on paper, but above all, the feel will increase, so you are adjusting well to your opponents, and as so you will achieve a sort of a plateau, where you think you have achieved something, and at that time you are destroying the game because of your feel.

Unfortunately, one is still not good enough, harder times ahead, and what to call the next step, I might think one just gets more solid still, as technique, I suppose, and one also keeps scoring, making more money or so.

On the next level up, you know you are not good enough because you don't feel comfortable enough, long enough, that is also one indication when one has achieved something, when feeling comfortable, but it doesn't mean one isn't good enough even before feeling comfortable, but just that one lacks feel and a long run positive score. E.g. my nlh20 is that good that I should be a favourite (and I have played "some," with a modest 10bb/100 + rakeback luckbox score), but my feel is lacking, having made some bit of bad calls and folds, although they were theoretically correct, that is my confidence, but way to go to get a feel (thinking of dropping back to easy nlh10, just to get it, but I haven't learned there enough anymore), and even that depends on site and other things.

It is also possible that the games will get tougher by the time you have achieved, in case the rake can become a problem, but whatever, one has got better. I played plo10 and 20 two years before playing nlh and esports, and now slowly getting ready to play plo again, just that the games don't look like as easy as before, and the relative lack of plo action is a worry.

What I need to do next, is to get a feel and all similarly to above, vs. better players, but there is the rake worry and if the games vs. my modest talent will offer a realistic path. But I have nlh as a back up, even if I would need to play tourneys (another learning curve) (thinking about satellites to live tourneys and maybe buy in directly also; just needing a roll rather than more skills then).

When your graph looks sexy enough to fap to, you're definitely ready for the higher stake