i see on sharkscope some guys who played 50k games over several years at the 3.50 hyper husngs and crush it for 5% roi but havent played any at higher limits, or just very few.. are they just chicken? whats the reason? if they move up just one limit im sure they'll still win, because 5% at hyper husngs is close to the top win rates, so why not move up and make more money?

Maybe they blow all the winnings playing games that they're not so good at.

It could be a few things:

1. Bankroll management
2. Higher buy-ins usually have tougher opponents (not all the time but usually)
3. Comfort with the winnings/losings at that level

they dont like when other players respect their raises so they dont move up...

in my humble opinion, in 45p sng for exemple, i think the minimum salary in certain country compared to USD value can make people stay at those limits more profitably

This is likely.

Yeah it's all about which is the most +EV for said individual.

There's a few supernovas at 25nlz...

If they are not moving up because they feel their hourly is better at those limits that shows some serious discipline that many could do well to emulate. Winning poker is about teh moniez, not about trying to take on the toughest opponents you can.

Also shows how dead and tough online poker is if players are having to drop down just to survive

Surprised no one has mentioned this reason (possibly because you're all naïve), but many players who crush a very low limit and don't move up, are bots who don't want to risk getting caught at higher stakes (it's much easier for bots to go undetected at lower stakes).

I know a guy who runs a bot at 25nl, played almost a million hands, beats it for around 3-4bb/100, but says he doesn't want to move up because a) he would more likely be caught b) it's harder to program a bot to play against better players at higher stakes.

I'm beginning to think there's bots at 10nlz

I you cash out regularly (ie; to eat and pay rent) your bankroll may never grow enough to move up stakes.

Can't speak for others but whenever I move up I spew a TON and think the limit is so much tougher and everyone is triple barrel range merging me.

I mean, that's been true across the board for a lot of years now. Most people who have been around since the 2000s have probably cut their stakes by like 90% by now unless they've managed to keep up with the immense increase in difficulty.

@ the topic, it could be for a variety of reasons. I'd imagine the major one (even for third-world wage grinders) would be that they simply aren't good enough to beat the next limit for a good rate, and don't want to put in the fairly significant effort it takes to jump up the last couple uNL and initial SSNL limits. For example, some guy could be beating 25nl for 5bb/100, but can only beat 50nl for 2bb/100, so his hourly at 25nl could be like $12, while his hourly at 50nl could be more like $10 with harsher downswings to boot. That guy might prefer to just mass table 25nl even harder after he's got 100k hands of experience there instead of making that push to move up and meet/exceed his current hourly in harder games.

Additionally to bots some players play for fun or comfort level that is a relative illusion though as every time i have become comfortable again, except when the games have got tougher with time that additionally creates a different animal. Often time the games keep getting tougher as fast as one improves.