Hi All,

I started playing poker about a year ago and became fully obsessed with the game. I got in a lot of volume online over a 6 month period and was a break even/slightly winning player. Eventually, I got tired of grinding the micro stakes online and decided to cash out the $200 I had and take it to my local casino and play live.

I've won every single session that I've played live over the past month (19 sessions for a total of 70 hours) and turned my original $200 into $4,600.

As you can imagine, I've been thinking of moving up and taking a shot at $2/$5. I've read several books and understand GTO/solid conceptual poker, but never use it playing $1/$2 (because $1/$2 players constantly do dumb ****).

My original thought was to keep grinding until I have 20 buy ins ($6,000) but even then, I'm only adequately bankrolled for $1/$2 and would need to add another $6,000 to that in order to be adequately bankrolled for $2/$5.

So, my question is, has anyone ever taken a shot at $2/$5 without a proper bankroll and was successful? Or would you guys recommend I just keep doing what I'm doing until I'm properly bankrolled to move to $2/$5?

I probably already know the answer so maybe I'm just looking for validation and some encouragement to go for it. I don't know.

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

You have only played 70 hours at live 1/2? That is literally nothing. Absolutely nothing.

I would say you need alot more experience, likely develope your game more, and also a bigger bankroll before moving on into the 2/5 area.

Keep doing what youre doing: log more volume, get more experience and grow the bankroll.

what are your expenses?


like rent? car payment? gas? internet?

do you have a job? (doesn't seem like it)


anyway the safe answer is once you get to like 8500 you can start taking shots. i still think right now your a little underolled even if you like live with your rich parents and it isn't awful if you go broke.

if its awful if you go broke then you should be at like 11,000 but if you go on a down swing you have to move down.

he can probably beat 1-2 if he is on that much of a heater. so i disagree a little bit. its probable that he is a winning 2-5 player but, he is just underolled at the moment.

live, yes. Only 70 hours. But online, I played over 40K hands.

Probably yes, but we surely dont know with any kind of certainty with that small amount of volume/experience.

Its very possible he just went on a huge shortterm heater and still have plenty of serious leaks. Ive seen it numerous times when new guys splashes into the live felt. We dont know,wich we (he) should before moving up taking shots underrolled.

I have a job as an on call salesman so I have a lot of time during the day to play while I'm waiting for an appointment.

bad idea dude. build up to 15k and take a 2k shot. reason for this is eventually you will face fluctuations and $4,600+profits will be decimated.

It would probably be a good idea to stick around 1/2 at least a little bit longer until you've experienced the feeling of having a few live losing sessions to give you a more accurate idea of what live poker is like. If you continue to crush, maybe consider taking shots at moving up once you're over 12-15k.

Most of the commentators are giving sound advice. It is your money so you can obviously do what you want. 70 hours is a small sample size especially when you break it down by session.

You have won 4.6k over 70 hours which equates too $65 dollars per hour or 4.6k over 19 sessions which equates too $242 per session. With an average of 3.6 hours per session.

Essentially you are winning about 1 BI per session. This is great but you should wait for a bigger sample size. I do not know what the BI is for your local 2/5 game, but I do not think you would want to risk 1k or 2k of your bankroll in a small amount of sessions at 2/5.

If I were to take a shot at a 2/5 game it would be most likely with one BI and at a peak time (weekend night) just to see if I could continue to grow the bankroll. I would also think about how often are there sound, aggressive bluffs in 1/2, players who constantly are thinking, and are 3Betting semi-regularly. If there are not a lot of those players you will have to deal with those types in 2/5.

I would also ask myself 'Why do I want to move up to 2/5?' Is it to win more money (, is it because 1/2 bores me, or I want a challenge? I think if it is any of those questions I would personally take a break from the game for a week or so and go back to 1/2 and I am sure the competitive juices will be back again.

I'd also suggest giving it at least another month and then re-evaluating. 70 hrs / month is good volume. You can start to scope the larger games while you continue to crush 1/2. Some players will play both levels and you may get a feel for how players you have played with fare at the larger games. If you continue to smash the next 70 hours and have 8k+ and are talking about sitting a session or two of 2/5 just to shot take and evaluate at that point I think it would be fine as you can always grind it back at 1/2 while studying and plugging leaks with little risk of ruin with a job and a smaller game to rely on.

+1

How to move up and protect your bankroll:

Get to the adequate bankroll for current level (6k for 1/2 is reasonable).

Build up a shot for the next level above current level roll (ie 1k for 2/5)

Play the next stake, if you lose your shot drop back down and grind prior stake again. If you win at higher stake, keep playing there until you're ready to shot take the next level using same system.

You dont need a full roll for the next level, you just need to be protected when you need to drop back down (and not think because you played 2/5 once you're a 2/5 player now and too cool to drop back down)

Good luck!

This is excellent advice, as this is what I did.

I still play both levels based on game selection (whichever level has the most spots in that particular game).

I'm my room, there is a marked difference between the levels.

Good luck!

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I started taking 2/5 shots at $6k. My shots were low-risk, high-return because I was in for one min-BI ($300) and would try to double up with a super premium hand. If I got stacked once/got unlucky, I left. I did this repeatedly and eventually started playing longer sessions and built my roll into the multiple $10ks. Don't assume your heater will continue indefinitely. It most likely won't. Gl.

You have 4600. That’s probably enough to safely play 1-2 since I figure you have a job. You should stay there for a long while. My guess: 500 hours minimum.


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I would feel comfortable playing a 100bb BI at $2/5 now. If you crush it, keep crushing. If you lose, go back to $1/2, lick your wounds, build another BI and fire again.

Nothing wrong with taking a shot, even with a small BR, if you have other income aside from poker. I'd definitely not recommend moving up permanently with your BR and a very insignificant sample size at 1/2, but if it's not going to crush you to potentially lose a handful of buyins at 2/5 then I see no problem with playing a few sessions and seeing how it goes.

I would say this. I would also say that you have so little experience with this game (70 hours live is nothing, but 40k hands online isn't much either tbh) that you might have a somewhat skewed view of where you stand in your current game in terms of skill level. It's very well possible you have just been running extremely well and at this moment are not nearly as good/decent/whatever as you think. This is perfectly natural, I think we've probably all been there, but I just want to warn you that things won't go this smoothly forever. Having said that, as long as you're comfortable moving down when it's not working out yet, there's nothing wrong with taking a shot if you want to.

I really wouldn’t advice encouraging a shot until OP has a little more behind.

I’d wanna see his online stats / long term results too before recommending a bankroll. But I think $6k suffices.

So if we must shot take, if we get to $7k, take $1k, keep topped up (else why are you playing?), if you have under $300 left when a bb reaches you, quit. Soft stop loss.


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With a full time job covering your expenses, go move to 2/5. If you lose 2300, move back down to 1/2. No reason to nit up and keep playing 1/2. 2/5 isn't that much different.

That said, you are on a massive heater right now. Your winrate live is unsustainable.

You can certainly start taking some shots, especially if you are motivated to improve; the stakes play very different.

My initial thought was "Wtf dont listen to these fraidy cats. Take a shot at 2/5 with 3 BIs."

Then I kept humming and hawing about your experience. Its making me think you def should play more 1/2 for the mental game aspect. You could be a crusher at 2/5 for all we know. Issue is youve only won. That isnt going to be your poker life. You are going to have days where you lose 3-5 BIs. You haven't been around the game long enough to mentally handle dropping 2k in a few hours.

Refine your game. Have multiple BI losses at 1/2.