I'm play mainly LHE, mostly 4-8 but would like to move up to the higher levels and have a few questions.. hopefully they're not to out of line..

Been playing for about 2yrs now. Started with $500 and now up to a decent bankroll, so I must be doing something right.

I tend to stay disciplined and tight and play the cards based on my postion, play a few bad hands just to hopefully keep others at least a little off balance and not be to predictable.

As you go up in limits does the toughness of the games increase? or is it really a matter of having the right bank to play at the higher levels?.. one thing I've noticed is that in the higher levels, it seems like if you're going to come in, especially in early or middle postion, it's almost always with a raise.

Or is it just a matter of playing your the cards right relative to your postion no matter what happens before you act?

Seems like what I see a lot of is early/middle raises with good starting hands, i.e. 98 raise... with the intention of getting the remaing players to fold. Is this the right strategy or just bad play? Anyone coming in after would have to have something to justify playing, but not always...

Thanks for taking the time to read and look forward to any replies, help regarding moving up to higher levels... $10-20 and higher....

Well as for moving up, you should have a minimum of 300 BB (so $3000 dollars for your move) AND be solidly beating the limit you're currently at before you move up.

However, the questions that you've asked are really basic LHE concepts. If you don't understand the reasons why you should be raising if you're the first one in the pot or why you SHOULDN'T play bad hands, unless you have a damn good reason to play them (better than "to be off balance") then you really shouldn't be at the 4-8 limit. From your 89o example, I'm guessing you play 6max so if you move up in limits the leaks in your game will be amplified further than they would be in FR.

My suggestion is to post some hands and reply to some hands in the Small Stakes LHE forum and make sure you have a solid grasp on your play before you try to move up to 5/10.

Is this live or online? Live the 4/8 and 5/10 games shouldn't be that tough. Online, they're much tougher.

VUcats & MoonOrb,

Thanks for responding. I didn't do a very good job of my post, so I thought I'd try one more time.

I play 4/8 live in the Scal area. The bankroll issue I understand. Using the example that VU posted of 300BB, my next move would have to be 9/18, only because their are very few 5/10 games in the SCal area..

In the example in my OP I used 98os, should have been 98suited, I can see where that makes a difference.

From what you're reply indicates, if you are the first to enter the pot form middle/late postion and you have 98suited = raise...

From middle/late postion with 2+ players and you have 98suited = call

From middle/late postion against raise/reraise and you have 98suited = fold

Pretty standard as you mentioned, it's just that at 4/8 ATC seem to play, but when I watch 9/16 or higher, the games seem much more disciplined. Do you see that also?

I think I'm ready to move up; would you advise more seasoning at 4/8?

Thanks again for replying and look forward to any replies..

If you're rolled for the stakes you want to play at and you're beating the level you're at now, go ahead and move up. You can always move back down if it doesn't work out.

Also, I don't know about the "I play a few bad hands to keep people off balance" part. This presumes people actually pay attention to what you have, which they probably don't. I don't know at what level metagame considerations turn -EV plays into +EV plays, but it's something to think about. If you are playing with the same people time and again and believe they are paying attention to what you're playing and won't give you action with your good hands because of it, fine. I'm just going out on a limb and saying I don't know that people actually pay that much attention to what you have. Perhaps as you move up that will be the case, especially since there are fewer (probably) players as the levels increase.

I would move to 6/12 or 8/16, not 9/18 (which is a little bit of a jump for you). Prepare for a skill level increase. The players at 6/12-9/18 are definitely better than those 2/4-4/8. Fortunately, 20/40 is not really any harder than 8/16 And the skill level jump between 4/8 and 8/16 is fairly small still and 8/16 can still easily be beaten by nutpeddling.

If I were to give the relative skill levels for live California limit games (higher being harder) it would be like this:
1/2 limit: 1
2/4: 1.3
3/6: 1.3
4/8: 1.4
6/12: 1.8
8/16: 2.0
9/18: 2.0
15/30: 2.2
20/40: 2.2
25/50: 3.0
30/60: 3.5
40/80: 4.7
60/120: 6.5
80/160: 9.5
100/200: 12
200/400: 36

So as you can see, its gets really hard really fast after about 20/40 limit. And theres a reasonably jump in skill level between 4/8 and 6/12.

This is from someone who has played up to 100/200 limit by probably plays 40/80 limit the most.