After playing about 100K hands at NL100 I´m starting to mix in NL200 tables and hoping to move up to exclusively NL200 "soon".

Just wondering how the midstakes dudes that are posting here have moved through the micro-small-mid stakes and have arrived to where they are now.

What stakes did you start? How many hands/time did you need to move up to the next? Were you a winner directly? Have you moved down and moved up again after a bad start/big downswong?

Plan to move up soon?

Thanks.

My history: Deposited $ 30 to Party last summer. Busted it fast to tournaments (lol) and did some reaserch and deposited $ 150 to Ladbrokes after doing a whole lot of research which I managed to grind at NL10 pretty fast. In that time, I read every possible poker book that I could find and used something like intellipoker starting hand sh*t for starting hands. Hey, NL10, raising JJ+ with 6*BB= 11 ptbb/100 hands.

Every time I had 18-20 buy-ins, I would raise my level as a test as I didn't see the idea of grinding micros any more than necessary. Money isn't good enough for any skilled player and the upper levels are easily beatable typically. All the gurus say that 20 buy-ins is good enough and I'm not making any serious profit so I might as well go for it. And I went. At worst I'm going to lose that $ 150. I typically spent like 1 hour after the session going trough hands and trying to understand the game as early as NL20.

In 3-4 months, I was sitting in NL50 with nice, safe roll but not going anywhere. I started reading several poker sites daily. I had huge difficulties with this level and I never managed to beat it clearly (like 1 ptbb/100 hands) and I never really moved down levels, I just didn't play it unless I had a good reason to do it (huge fish). However, I managed to build a roll playing NL20-NL50 mixed and due to the fact that I didn't take anything out via rakebacks (Lads rake is a killer but rb is 20 % - 30 % automatic).

I finally managed to take a shot at NL100 last december, which was more like NL20 than NL50. NL100 was the best level so far so I grinded it 3-4 months easily making 50-60 buy-ins total and taking taking it out. At this point I started already giving something back to some poker communities and blogging so my game would have goals, I could go over my hands with ease etc. I grinded bonuses at several sites at NL100 making pretty solid income with very low variance playstyle. During this time I learned a lot about table selection, position etc. constantly and reading my opponents (putting them on hand ranges, using timing tels etc.) + using the stats a lot by my own and TRYING to find stuff online.

Finally last spring/early summer I made my move at NL200/NL400 while I was earning easy $ 3000/month from NL100 playing semiprofessionally. This proved a lot difficult than NL100. I never really grinded NL200 level as I saw my roll being high enough for NL400 where there seem to be huge fishes, that I have played against before, spewing their money constantly (the table selection skills made me go for medium ). I just figured my roll is good enough and I could make some profit there. Also I'm not playing at Full Tilt or Stars so there wasn't enough full NL200 tables always.

Currently I'm making my move for NL1k where I'm grinding very profitably. I started there because I kept watching the tables for hours when other tables seemed dead at NL200/NL400. It seemed that many short stacks were spewing there their whole roll so of course I went for it. I won a little/lost a little and now I'm constantly watching those tables and playing them maybe 50-60 % of my time.

For the future, I will probably sit in NL1k tables until I have my roll for higher levels and I see the opportunity but I'm not going to start railing/stat-mining those tables for this year probably. I can't go play NL2k for couple of months since I'm underrolled.

I'm trying to play where it's most profitable so I'm not actually moving levels up or down. If the table seems very profitable and I have the roll to take the variance, I'm playing that table. Basically I'm just bringing new tables to my watchlist and getting rid of the lower ones. At the moment I might be grinding at 3 NL100, 1 NL200, 2 NL400 tables, which I have small, but profitable edge, while waiting for good NL1k tables on any night. I'm trying to get rid off NL100 since it seems I don't really care about the money on that levels even though sometimes it's the most profitable one. But basically if the tables are dry, I might be sitting in 12 NL100 just waiting and making pocket money (NL100=free candy moneys always). Typically it's mixed heavily NL200-NL400 being the average.

The sick part of my tactic is that typically my "shots" make me a huge winner on higher levels when my lower level grind is barely positive while I make these shots since I start to ignore the same table selection rules that I use on higher level and maybe not caring enough about the money. So while my profit and levels get higher, my lower level stats get worse and then I'll finally drop the level since I'm not intrested anymore.

Short answers:

What stakes did you start?
-NL10

How many hands/time did you need to move up to the next?
- about 2 months per level, beating every level, 20 buy-ins.

Were you a winner directly?
- Yes, NL50 barely. I have never lost a month.

Have you moved down and moved up again after a bad start/big downswong?
- I have never dropped levels, maybe mixed a little lower level back. I would drop levels if I had a big downswing but I'm a nit so I never have had bigger than 7-8 bin downswings.

Plan to move up soon?

- I think I try to stay as NL1k lurker for couple of months. That said, as soon as I have the roll (and a good opportunity (good, profitable NL2k table), I'm there.

Cliff-notes:

Semipro NL100 nit-grinder fooling around up to NL1k. Started with $ 150 last summer grinding NL10 going for any table which seems profitable if BR-management is in order. Reading absolutely everything about poker and analyzing hands for hours.

My history: Started out at 100nl after getting fired from my job at a low profile Wall Street firm. I was doing a lot of cocaine at the time and it was starting to get in the way of my career and family life (I have nine children, ranging in age from 1 to 17). I spent a while at 100nl, taking the occasional shot at 200nl. Never really got any momentum going. Most of my hours were spent trying to find strangers to have sex (unprotected) with. Sexual addictions are serious and it's only a matter of time before they are fully recognized by the medical community. I gradually worked up through 200nl and then into 400nl. I really have no idea about the time frames on any of this because I was so obsessed with getting my next sexual fix that it was all really just a blur. Anyway, I've started mixing some 6max in, and now have my family life under control.

Cliff notes: Balancing family, poker, sex addiction is a challenge but has taught me many valuable life lessons (ie never trust hookers).

Got a job, so now I have 20 buy ins for 400nl every month. Oops sorry I have to go back to the echecks screen now

I tried to be a sex addict, but I couldn't find anybody to **** me.

bunga for mod

nl 2 may 07
nl 5 June
nl 10 august
nl 25 September
nl 100 October
nl 200 december
nl 100 January
nl 200 march
nl 400 march
nl 600 march
nl 1k march
nl 25 may
Various levels of msnl since. Started with $20, up almost six figures but I've blown a bunch of it.

All in '08

January- Deposited $100 run it upto $500 taking shots
Feb-Went through 25nl/plo quickly upto 100nl/plo
March-Started in 100nl/plo moved upto $1/$2 playing 90% PLO
April- Beat $1/$2 PLO pretty good, Decided to cash out 50% of my roll since i was now way overolled for 200plo but decided that i didnt want to hit up $2/$4 yet
May- Ran terrible playing 200plo then moved down to 100plo
June- Cashed most of roll and decided to be a degen and play the Super Tuesday on Stars with the remainder of my BR i had online ($1050 buy in tourny for those that dont know) and busted pretty early. =(
July/August: Didnt play any online since I busto'd myself and really didnt feel like re-depositing
September:Played some 25nl through to 50nl cash and won a bunch (around $2-$3k) cashed out and degen'd most of it away playing -EV casino games.

Who knows what the future holds? ldo

venni vetti vicci

imo.

JUST LIKE JA RULE!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JQX3gvc86c

cliffnotes:

late freshman year like 2005 I think, I lost like a dozen $50 deposits on Stars mostly due to poor BR management, put my last $11 from a deposit into a $11 MTT, won it for $1500, decided to start being smart and haven't deposited on Stars since (other than to take advantage of deposit bonuses)

got a free $50 on PartyPoker (because of the refer a friend thing) and played for like 72 hours straight that weekend. went to class on Monday with 20k in my account.

played over on Party exclusively Sophomore year ('06) MTTs and SNGs until they closed down shop.

came over to stars, played exclusively MTTs. was a marginal winner until I had a good run in mid-late 2007. took down a couple of 5 figure scores and decided to give cash games a shot with my new robusto roll in november '07 (had never played online cash before)

started out 24 tabling NL200 (I've never played lower than NL200 other than when coaching friends/flipping) and won like around 8-12k each month playing like 50k hands/month when I had some free time while still playing donkaments most sundays

july 2008 I luckboxed the sunday million. moved up to NL400/NL600 and haven't played lower since.

sept 2008 moved up semi-permanently to NL600+ with occassional shots at NL2k and NL5k when the games looked soft

Started off scamming those free $50 promotions on party. Probably went through 10 of those before I got my bankroll up to $500 halfstacking NL50 2 tabling (lolz). I figured i was ultra badass then one day tilted it all away at 1/2, was devastated and essentially gave up.

Then few weeks later I read up on bonus whoring and decided to give that a shot and deposited $100. Was pretty terrible still but the bonuses were ***** awesome so bankroll grew pretty rapidly. Moved up to 100 started 6 maxing then UIEGA came and I moved to stars. Finally moved up to 1/2 despite my mediocre results and had even more mediocre results. Decided to try FR cause of mediocre results but had more mediocre results so went back to 6 max. Continued to be mediocre and had massive downswing and decided to give FR another try (Beg of 07)

Decided to stick with FR cause my mediocrity was less variable thus I would stop throwing valuable objects across the room when tilting. Grinded 1/2 for a while and was once again mediocre then brilliantly decided itd be a great time to try 2/4. Somehow this was a good idea and won like 100k before switching to FTP at beginning of the year cause I didnt think Id make Nova and Stars was starting to become rigged.

Now I rule 2/4 on FTP and occasionally dump money to 5/10 when i feel like it

Started playing 2/4 6max nlhe in late May 2008 on Absolute. Could have moved up to 5/10 after a month, but thought I had more to learn so I didn't. I switched to FT in July (better game selection for higher tables) and the win rate was lower because people were more aggressive than I was used to. So it took me two months to get used to it. I was decent but not great.

I was still making decent money every month so in Sept I decided to play full time and made a commitment to switch to FR because the whole reason I started playing poker was to do well at the wsop (which in the early stages is most closest to FR). So I had to retool my pf and postflop play for FR (since starting ranges are different). I enjoy FR more because you get a little more variation in the game (since there are extra seats), and 6 max and HU can be thought of as subsets of the FR game. I'm still tinkering with some of my strategies, and always reading/analyzing. I win, but I'm not great now, but I'm getting better every month. Also, I want to give the regs time to adjust to my play and see how I do then. Bankroll-wise, I can move up at any time, but will look to move to 5/10 FR later in the year after I finish working on a few more things. If that goes well, I may look to step down to 2/4 again to work on my 6max and HU games. There are few FR high stakes games online, so I would need to work on 6 max and HU to progress above 5/10. Multi-tabling online could get boring - fortunately, there are a lot of variations of each game.

I will also start mixing in MTTs soon. My ROI is pretty good for SNGs, but I find it very unsatisfying (because online blinds go up so fast), which is why I started playing cash games.

My goal for next year is to win at 5/10 or higher NLHE (in some form), and I want to learn PLO (the next most popular game).

My goal before I die is to win a "major" tournament, and to be good at all the major games (NLHE, PLO, LHE, stud, etc) and it's variations (FR, 6max, HU, tourneys).

This is long, but once I started, I liked writing my goals down.

BTW, wrt moving up, I disagree with the "20 BI rule". I like 30+BIs to move up. A downswing of 10+ BBs is very common, especially for the shorter-handed games (even if you are good) PLUS you have to give yourself time to get used to the differences in the game at the next level. I don't think just because you had bad variance you should move down. But of course if you lose half your (or less), you HAVE TO move back down.

Also, you should be honest with yourself regarding the level of your play. If you can hold your own against the better players at your level, you can probably move up. Just making a ton of money off of bad players but getting owned by the better players is not an indication you are ready to move up. For all your hands against the better players, ask yourself, "if the cards were reversed, could I have lost less or made more?"

Good luck.

started out hustlin

ended up ballin

started out hustlin

ended up ballin

Spring 2006: 200$ deposit online!

I started by playing a little bit of everything. Sit&Go, cash games, tournaments... I was just playing occasionnally and did not take it very seriously. In july 2006 I had... still 200$ in my account, BUT globally I lost money in tournaments/Sit&Go and was UP in cash games.

July 2006: I decided to take it seriously and started to grind Limit Holdem with my 200$ bankroll.

December 2006: 5000$ bankroll! I was bored with Limit Holdem, so I opened a new account on Full Tilt and started to grind NL100 full ring.

January 2007: moved up to NL200 full ring... grinded that limit on Full Tilt until september 2007. I was making decent money 14-tabling and playing around 50 000 hands a month. I thought the games were a lot harder at NL400, so I was scared to move up.

September 2007: Moved up to NL400 full ring on Full Tilt. Moved up to NL600 full ring. Moved up to NL1000 and NL2000 full ring. I had the bankroll for these limits since a long time and I realized that I was beating the games. So, NL200 to NL2000 in less than a month.

October 2007 to January 2008: a mix of NL400, NL600, NL1000, NL2000 full ring on Full Tilt.

January 2008 to August 2008: I started to play on Party Poker too... 2 poker rooms for a better traffic at NL400 to NL2000. I started to play NL5000 when the game was running and was good. (Mike Matusow obv.)

September 2008 to now: transfered some money on PokerStars to play there too, because I was bored with the NL400-NL600 ... not enough traffic à NL1k+ full ring during the night. (west coast). Second reason: Full Tilt was rigged for me in the last months so...

Now, I play NL1000+ full ring on PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Party Poker. Around 50 000 hands a month on average. I'm not the best player at these limits, but I think that I'm a OK regular.

Worst downswing: -30 000$
Worst break even sequence: 110 000 hands.
Biggest pot lost: 22 000$ pot (NL5k deep)
My Poker Nightmare: Eric Beren (ran like **** against him lifetime + I played like **** because I was tilting)
Since July 2006, I had 1 losing month on 27... that was september 2008...

See you at the tables!

January 2006 : 50$ deposit (42.53 euros)

September 2008 : 50k cashout (46.42 euros) !

WCGrider style:

freerolls march 07 - july 07
nl2 & nl5 august 07
nl25 september 07 - february 08 lolololol
nl50 february - april 08
nl100 may - july 08
nl200 august - october 08
nl400 october 08
nl600+ november 08 onwards, hopefully

also, xerxes story is amazing

Mine:

July 08 - NL25 $100 Deposit
August 08 NL50
September 08 - NL100+200
October 08-NL200 and now NL400 currently

Whoa, I always thought people were grinding slow, raising levels slow and steady and that only I did two months per level. Glad to see that I'm wrong

You only have to double your bankroll to move up most of the time, so this is 20-30 buyins. Assuming you play full-time, that's around 40K hands per month, so even if you made 2ptbb/100, that's 32 BIs after 2 months. But I suppose people plateau after a while. So for a lot of people, they will reach some point where they can't get to positive ptbbs any more, and there will be some optimal level to maximize one's earnings.

Start in 2007 $10 dolars
January NL5
febraury NL10
march NL25
june NL50
2008 :
january NL50
febraury NL200
april NL400-600-1000
June NL200 and Supernovaelite
at the moment NL400 and NL600

nl400
nl600
nl10
freerolls
nl600
nl25
nl50
nl25
nl200
nl600
freerolls

Id say 4 years ago, I had a fight with my gf, and I reluctantly let a friend of mine teach me poker to get my mind off it. We were using pennies on my table...I soon realized, that there was skill involved.
I played $5 tourneys until I was up $100 bucks (back when winning a $15 game was a big deal!)
Then one spring, about 3 years ago, I went to the boat and played some 3-6 limit poker. I was a hooked degenerate!
After about a year of toying around and losing money, I was planning on taking my football coaching stipend and using it as my bankroll...this was Fall of 2006. I officially started on Thanksgiving after I turned my ankle playing football, i said screw it and went to the boat.

I played Live 1-2 NL where the max buy in was $100.
By new Years I had won several thousand, includine a 24hour session where i cashed out for 25 buy ins!!! (and I almost went to a girls house at 2am to get some down 5 buy ins!)

I didnt really start online until June of that year, although i messed around usually playing 3-6NL or 2-4NL single tabling if I had a bad night online!

In October 07 I had my first and only 5 figure month, as I quickly used up my bankroll thanks to EPassporte!!

In February, my silliness sat in a 10-20NL full ring game, and lost my NL200 bankroll in a matter of 51 hands.


A loan from my gf, and 2 months of NL100 and I was back at the NL200 andNL400 tables. I ran good as hell over the summer winning 10K, and have since lost 4K back due to lack of playing and playing like crap when i do!

Ive almost been playing semi-professionally (meaning I have seperate poker money and records) and have won about 30K doing so...which is more than i would of made for coaching, so im happy with that!

Deposited $100 in May 2007.

NL 25 until 1k roll (Sept 2007)

NL 50 until 5k roll (February 2008)

NL 100 until 8k roll ( March 2008)

NL 200 until 50k roll (July 2008)

NL 200 mostly, with some 400, and occaisonal 600 (July 2008-Present)

Yeah I'm a total bankroll nit, but I thought that was because I started with $100 and remember when losing $25 was a big deal. I have a 60k roll but still have a heart attack everytime my stack goes in at 400nl. So that's why I still play 90% 200nl. Not a gambler by nature, I've been paying my bills doing this since I was back at 50nl.