I have been reading the threads for a long time now, but quite honestly I have been a tournament player live and online mostly. After Black Friday, I decided to play cash at the local casinos.

A few questions to pick the brains of you who have been there and done that.

I have a 5,000.00 active cash bankroll. My questions are as follows:

1. I am playing 1/2 nl, how many winning sessions do you think I should have under my belt before moving up? I have played 2/5 before and I am comfortable in the game but I want to prove to myself I can beat 1/2 consistently before making the jump. Is that the right or wrong way to go about it?

2. I buy in for $100-125 in a 100-300 max game generally. Does any rec'd buying in full?

3. I am trying to figure out what the best style is for this game. I have a range of generally playing suited connectors from 6-7 up, and pairs to raises to 15 and lower. With a short buy in should I be lowering my starting hand ranges. Any and all advice is welcome...

Side note: I have been playing Venetian mostly, seems consistently most balanced game. Some grinders, some tourists, etc....

Disclaimer...I am *NOT* a LV grinder by any means...

Sticking with 1-2 for a while, until you are more comfortable with it is probably a good plan. $5k bankroll for 2-5 is a little on the light side, unless you have the ability to reload if you run especially bad, so it's not a bad idea to build it up more first...there are a lot of threads on 2+2 about bankroll size, do a little searching and you'll find reams of advice on this topic!

My bigger issue is with buy-in v. hand selection. You can buy in short, that's fine...but then you need to adjust what hands you play. If you're only buying in for 50-65 BB, you don't really have enough money behind to play a lot of small pairs and small suited connectors, especially to raises. These hands need to win big when they hit...Harrington suggests you need to have the potential of winning 20x the bet you are having to call to profit with these hands. So calling a $15 bet with something like 67s is ok if you both you and your opponent have at least $300 behind. If you've only got $110 left, you're just not going to be able to make enough when you do hit for it to be worthwhile in terms of long-range EV.

So you either need to start buying in full (well, you really need to think about getting to that point at some time in any case) OR...you need to concentrate on hands that are likely to win early, i.e. big cards and big pairs, and only play the speculative hands when you have position and can see the flop really cheap. At $1-$2, that will actually come up more than you think...I can't tell you how many times I've been on the BTN or CO and by the time it got to me there were 6 or 7 players in and the bet was still $2.

You should buy the full amount, that's probably $500 or 100bb in 2/5. So you have only 10 buy-ins and that is very light. By my standards you need at least 50 buy-ins or $25K for 2/5 to take full advantage if you are the best player or one of the best. I would strongly suggest on staying on 1/2 until you make more money and gain some more experience.

AT

asking these questions, I would focus on getting basics down first before even thinking of moving up.

Go read a lot before failing

I would recommend playing deeper at 1/2 before moving to 2/5. I was in a similar situation in that online I played mostly tournaments and very little cash. It takes a while to adjust to the cash game.

When you do move to 2/5 you can buy in for 400 without your stack limiting you much. Depending on your risk tolerance and confidence level, you could move to 2/5 with a $400 buy in with a bankroll about 6K.

+1

I know these questions seem basic on a couple of levels. I just wanted to see what everyones advice is. I've done well in tournaments over the last 8 years in Las Vegas (100-300 buyins) and online. Some deep runs including a Sunday Million FT. I have alot of hand experience playing online (over 2m) but a majority of it is in STT and MTT.

I have the ability to reload at anytime with my tourney bankroll being strong. I just wanted to start out with 5k or so and build it honestly.

I think I will start buying in deeper for 1/2 like 200-300. at least 100-150 BB

Thanks for the advice, and as for reading and studying, constantly doing that.

Op go play the 5/5 no cap at the rio, it should be pretty soft this upcoming weekend. Short stack them with $350 buyins should be plenty of Euro donks. Be sure to wear glasses and headphones to tilt the Regs.

lol, sounds good pokahblows. I think I might just wear a tank top that says "laughlin rocks" and sit with a Natty Lite can, spouting off things like, "who likes to straddle? This guy!!!" WOOOO HOOOO