Moving on up!

I am trying to sit back and think about the best way to move up levels. I have been reading a lot of different ways to go about it. From the ultra conservative of having 100 buy-in's -- to a system of people who grind 4 buy-ins - then move up - if you lose 3 buy-ins - go back down and grind again and repeat.

To me- the most important part is being able to establish that you can beat a level. Once that has been established over 25 thousand hands (Min.) you can plan your growth from there. At the same time, I don't want to be playing 5NL forever and I believe grinding up 100BI is a bit excessive at this level. To counter that, the most important thing is to establish a win rate at the next level. To do that you need time at the next level. If you run bad, you can be knocked down 3 Buy in's in one sessions, or you maybe start playing different if you fall behind one or two.

So I think a more balanced approach is in order. I am thinking of grinding up 8 buy-in's -- then retreating back when I loose six to regrind back to 8. I think its important to be able to play and establish at the next level and I feel six buy-in's is a solid measure. You need to be able to get in volume to deal with variance and also to tweak your game for the next level.

Now - Techincally I am up 8BI to move to 10NL- but I am not gonna do that until I reach a min.of 25 thousand hands to make my win rate is a bit more established.

Reboot--

I have been grinding 5NL basically trying to get my way back into being fully committed to the game of poker. I have basically decided to do a reboot of the way I was going about playing poker. Focusing on volume as much as anything. I have been doing pretty successful this first month as i've been able to 8 Table 5NL at a 6.0PTBB/100 hands - averaging about 2.20 an hour over 13K hands. This was actually really much more then I thought I would be able to make playing penny poker.

I am trying to push myself with more tables -- but found myself struggling a bit with 12. Might be I just have to get used to it, as I struggled with 8 early on. Or maybe I need to come up with a new setup.

Either way - as stated - I wanted to start a reboot on my approach to poker. I feel that I was all over the place. Cash games to tourney's, 5NL to 10NL to 25NL and back again anytime I ran bad. I felt that it was very important to establish a base. a ground floor if you will. The plan is to finish out the month with at least 25 thousand hands. From there I will have to decide if the best course of action is to increase my buy-in at 5NL (which is an usual option of being able to buy in for more 100BB)

I guess the only way to find out is to try them both and see which is more profitable. The super easy 5NL or the higher 10NL. Though I believe trying 10NL first- as you also have to include Pokerstar bonus's and eventually I want to challenge myself to move up.

Take Care-
Tarheelfan