If I'm studying and learning as I go along, about how many hands per level does it take to move up?

Depends totally on how hard you work at your game, and where your priorities lie. I've played just over 500k hands, but some players do this in 4 months, and they're still playing NL50, by choice, by risk-aversion or by lack of concentration. On the other hand, Brian 'aba20' Townsend moved from small stakes to very high stakes in like a year, and he's probably a top-3 online cash player now.

How many hands per level.. if you put all your effort into improving your skills as opposed to grinding 8+ tables for tiny gains + rakeback, ie. you think carefully about every decision you make, and learn from your mistakes, you could certainly step up a level within 20-50k hands. It's absolutely debatable, but I think the best criteria for moving up is

a) you're dominating your current limit with a strong winrate and you feel like you're often the best player at the table, and

b) you're in a comfort zone. Once you're a comfortable winner, it's move-up time.

Yes but with a 90+% chance ROR ie a lunge. So either I make it, I can show how playing correctly on a too-small BR can bust you even if you play correctly or I post hand s and get laughed out of town.
Just bustoed FT chat annoying railbirds on FT Thunderdome. Need a breathalyzer near my computer

sputum,

Have another drink my friend because that's an awesome post. That graph should be the background for the whole Beginner's forum to show what is possible. Smooth, consistent play, big winrate over a LOT of hands. Can I ask which site(s) you played most?

Another thing about moving up: I can almost guarantee once he gets settled and adjusts to the bigger stakes at NL50, his graph, after another 100k hands, is going to look practically the same. The skills required to beat NL25 for 22.5bb/100 are 99% applicable at NL50, and 98% applicable at NL100. Players get a little tighter, a tad more aggressive, but these things require a slight adjustment in some spots, and from there its onwards and upwards.

You could be beating NL600+ by the end of this year if you want, seriously.

Current Status

Tournament Dollars: 29.10
Cash Dollars: 451.42

Day started out with me losing 3 dollars in 2nl. First Aces, then kings and queens didn't hold up. This happened simultaneously in three game windows. I was aggrivated (both with 2nl players, and my hands not holding) so i registered for 2 baby donkaments to convert some of these tournament dollars to cash dollars.

Results:

Crazy, WTG! Nice start for ya, already half way there, sad part is you are already at almost half my BR that I been grinding up for months Finally got an account set up on FT, maybe your good luck will rub off I will be able to emulate you a bit.

amazing !

keep updates !

Wow Gina wtg! What are you going to do next? Stars is your oyster now
Starting at $15.41, trying $10 PLH to get up to $22 for the PLO8 MTT in 11 minutes. One double up will do it ROR: pretty high.
Sick result. $70 an hour. Wow.

i think i'm still gonna grind micros, and throw in the occasional donkament so i can convert these t-dollars. right now i'm doing a 1 dollar turbo, 45 man, and 3 2nl tables. if it wasn't so late, and i was more awake, i'd probably be on 10nl.

good luck in the plo. wish i knew how to play that game.

oops, you said plh. i should prolly say i wish i knew how to play that game too!

nearly rolled for 25NL in three days from $20 is so cool.
God knows how many five buck sit and goes I'll have to play to get over the four hundred mark. No plan, just see how it goes. Only $435 and T$30 behind you though.

vnj on the 2nd placing Gina...that surely puts the BR in a great state...let alone yourself

i've played a few more sessions myself at partypoker that took longer then i expected(you know...more then 10 mins a session lol). had 2 runner runner hands bring me down where i actually had to work to get my BI's back. 3 sessions for a $5 profit swing(meh but definately better then down 3 BI's).

keep up the great work and gg still

OK hangover Hail Mary - $24 bankroll(2nd in that PLO SNG)
$2 6-max PLO rebuy MTT 186 entrants. Couple of bullets if I need them.
Don't think 1st will pay $400 tho

Maybe I should join in... I started 4 days ago with $30 and am up to $180'ish right now grinding out the $5 SnGs and a handful of $5/45's that gave me a decent ROI.

gonna play all the micro tourneys today instead of focusing on mtt sngos, probably 2-11 $ limits obv

i hate myself right now... i could not make a 400$ BR in one year and you guys do that in one day... HOW?????????

- If you are playing micro FR. How do you play them? I can max double the buyin per day... but i'm a nit since everyone's calling with any two cards...

- If you are playing these big micro tourney: How do you play them? I played hundrets of them and i always get one big suckout! I think everyone there is calling with anything... I would have a better chance in a flippament

You can make more per day if you can multitable. Just start adding more and try to get comfortable doing it. I don't play NLHE cash but probably you want to stick to playing tight. The decisions you make should be easy and just avoid marginal situations.

MTTs are somewhat of a crapshoot. I have played hundreds too and never gotten better than 9th yet. You need to be willing to take risks to go deep though from everything I have read. Don't risk too much of your BR on any one MTT. I think the general rule is 2%

Anyhow, this quote from the Dave thread had me confused. Maybe this isn't a great place to ask though.

I am really wondering about point #2 if anyone can elaborate on that

Almost all the time that this happens its "not just in one day". Sure it happens at once but gina for example I know comes from a live background and has been playing online for awhile now and is now rebuilding from below where she was. The experience one learns from higher levels/buyins makes the lower levels easier and more profitable, maybe not as far as $$/hr but from a ROI and BB/100 your edge is ussualy much higher when you move down after winning at a higher level regularly, which in her case gave her an edge over the usual 2$ MTT player along with im sure a bit of good cards and some luck (not downplaying her acomplishment btw, just a necessity to beat a field of 2k).

I'm going to be trying to build a new roll on tilt from 50-100 and hopefully not take to long as soon as I get someone to trade me some stars money for tilt money will probably post my progress here, though ginas far ahead after her score.

What time frame are you giving yourself to run to 1000? I actually have less in my PS account than you started with- just recalled old account that has hardly ever been used. But I had a somewhat more modest goal I was setting for myself due to severe time restraints on when I can play. Let me know what your timeline is though.

I'm going to try to do this prior to when I move, so my goal is by the end of February. My time is pretty restricted too, and playing 400-ish hands per day is a pretty big day for me, so I thought more time would help.

Regarding the tournament... yup, I got lucky a few times, and only had 1 big hand get cracked. It also helped that when I wasn't catching cards (the last 20 players or so), they were knocking each other out like crazy- and sending me up the rankings. Then when i did catch cards, those lovely fellas all ganged up to knock me out- but instead tripled me up a few times.

Wish I'd have played that last hand better though.. I lost w/ ATs to 66, on a 722 board. Shouldn't have pushed. I'm an idiot.

Today- I've played 2nl again. I'm up about 8 more dollars for the afternoon, and will be playing later this evening as well. I'd like to make another 50 if possible by the end of the weekend.

Gina, with a bankroll of $450 now or whatnot, why are you only playing 2NL?

Are you afraid you cannot compete and/or win at alteast 10NL? I think with 40 buyins you'd be fine at 10NL.

way to go gina, nice score, keep it up

thx for that..........
don't know about overs killed, but do appreciate it....

If your money in on Stars or FT that have 4 man HU matches, run the $2-->$100 excercise

Balance-$2, Plan Buy in to .01/.02 NL for $1
Goal, turn that $1 into $3 If success, go to step 3, if fail, go to step 2.

Step 2-Balance $1 Plan Buy into .02/.04 limit for .50
Goal turn that .50 into $2, if success go to step 1, if fail repeat step 2(and hope)-Note, I played Stud at this level instead as I find it an easier game to control the pot and get inwhen you have the best of it and get decent pots, if you arent decent at stud, play limitHE

Step 3 Balance $4 Plan Buy into .01/.02NL for $2,
Goal Turn that $2 into $5 success go to step 4, fail go to step 1

Step 4 Balance $7 Plan Buy into .01/.02NL for $3
Goal Turn that $3 into $10 success go to step 5, fail go to step 3

Step 5 Balance $14 Plan buy into .01/.02 for full buy in $5
Goal Turn that $5 into $15 success go to step 6, fail go to step 4

Step 6 Balance $24 Plan 1 Table HU SNG 5.25
Goal WIN success go to step 7, fail go to step 5 until you get to $22.25

Step 7 Balance $28-$30 Plan 1 Table HU SNG 5.25
Goal WIN success go to step 8 fail go to step 6

Step 8 Balance $33 to $35 Plan Buy into 1 1Table 5.50 or 6.50 SNG
Goal 1st or 2nd, win Go to step 9, 3rd Repeat step 8, fail go to step 7

Step 9 Balance $50+ Plan Buy into 1 1table HU SNG and 1 4person SNG
Goal, Balance to $70, Repeat as long as above $50, Fail go to step 8

Step 10 Balance $70 Plan Buy into 1 4person SNG, and 1 1table SNG (5.50/6.50)
Goal Balance to $100 Repeat as long as above $70, Fail go to step 9

Now you have $100 which is good for 10 full buyins at .05/,10NL or close to 20buy ins for 5.50 1 table SNGs
If you fall below $60 at any time, go back to step 9 IMMEDIATELY and begin rebulding.

Then you can run straight cash games with your roll

Buy-in Roll


$10 $100

$25 $375

$50 $1000

$100 $4000

$200 $10,000

$400 $20,000

$600 $40,000

wtf? 40 bis for nl100 and over 65 for nl600? There is no way you need that big a roll.

You might, if your win rate isn't so high, and it's quite reasonable to have a lower numerical win rate at NL 600 than anything you have encountered at lower levels. It is also much more reasonable to set a high threshold for moving up when your alternative to playing isn't not playing, but playing at a lower stake you are beating for a higher rate. At $30,000, you might prefer playing NL $600 over not playing, but playing NL $400 might be better still, just like calling can be better than folding, while raising is best.

See my bankroll management video on StoxPoker (#257).