I am grinding my way up NL5, but I really really want to take a stab at NL1/2 live. Huge step up shoving all in for $200 vs $5, but after 30k hands at NL5 I am up about 4 buyin. Was learning along the way but I think I'm pretty solid now and am doing really good at NL5 HU cash games. I can make tight folds and know a few good spots to bluff and range my opponent. Lemme know, I'm thinking about going tonight, but would like to hear some responses here first!

get in there and learn how to beat it. I don't like it because it is 200 max and it seems like a real hand waiting game. Lots of short stacks, not a ton of room to play until you and a few others have 500+. That said, the average bad player is loose passive and the average "good" player is tight passive, so learning to beat it shouldn't be too big of a problem.

If you're going, do it just for fun, not because you're going to beat the game

You're beating 5nl for less than 1ptBB/100. You're going to find playing for $5 at a time much different than $200. It is going to affect your game.

I think you are right. I figure every mistake will cost me around $6-$12. One orbit is $3, and I play VPIP <20%. If I get no good hands in late position and marginal hands in early pos, there's a good chance I could get blinded away. Next thing you know I'm down almost $50 just waiting for a hand. Not sure how I'd take even a $50-$200 cooler/bad-beat. I'd probably just think what $200 can buy. I think what I need to do is work my way up so that I'm gambling with the house's money. That is the only way I'd play at my best.

Ya this is a question more about bank roll. Sounds like the money means a lot to you(not saying that 200 bucks isn't to me). I have a roll of 4k that I often take money from when I win. My point is if you can't afford to lose 5 buy ins don't bother playing these stakes. Just be honest with yourself and your financial situation.

Save up $400-$800 and find a game where you can short buy. Play tight and watch the other players for a while, eventually you'll notice that they all suck. If they don't change tables. If you lose your $60-$100 rebuy for $200 and play. Repeat...
The only caveat is to only play with money you can afford to lose, and don't expect to win right away.

There is nothing wrong with taking an occasional (once a month) stab at 1/2nl provided that you have no expectation of winning and are just playing to dip your toe in the water.

But if you are talking about consistently beating 1/2nl and becoming a winning player, then you just don't have enough background or experience.

HU 5NL is not a good indicator if you can beat 1/2nl live full ring. My advice is that you grind up to 10NL full ring and then when you are beating 10NL for 50k hands THEN you can start thinking about playing 1/2nl live.

Basically, if you want to step into 1/2nl and become a winning player relatively soon, then don't half ass it. Put the time and work in PRIOR to playing 1/2nl. Or put another way, you can learn on the cheap by grinding up to 10NL while simultaneously reading all the "how to beat LLSNL" threads in this forum. Or you can rush it, jump into 1/2nl before you are ready, and lose $3k+ learning how to play LLSNL full ring.

I'm not a big fan of short stacking strategies. The more chips we have, the more we are able to exploit the leaks of our villains. In my opinion, trying to minimize our leaks by short stacking is just the wrong way to go about learning, plugging leaks, and improving. A better strategy is to plug our leaks one by one. And the best way is to just learn the game by playing with full buy-ins. Otherwise, you will ingrain a host of bad habits imo...

I play full ring and 6 max and have slightly winning graph in each (30k hands full ring). But I have been achieving best results HU. I read that NL10 = NL5, so theoretically I should be able to hold my own based on this? I am moving to NL10 going forward though.