Quote Originally Posted by LuckySlevin
I'm going to deposit 500$, but as I've already said I'm not going to move up from 5nl until I reach 1000$ and have 10,000 decent hands under my belt.
I must be the most ignored poster on the forums. You say you are going to start with a $500 roll, and that you won't move up from 5nl to any higher stakes until your roll is $1000 and you have at least 10k hands under your belt. Uhh, if you do it this way you will have way more than 10k hands under your belt and still not be at a $1k roll. Quick math:

3ptbb/100 at 5nl = $0.30c/100 hands
Therefore, you would need to put in around 170,000 hands at 5nl before making $500 at 3ptbb/100. That would net $510 (170,000/100 = 1,700....1,700 * 0.30 = $510). That many hands will take a long time, and you definately won't want to be at 5nl that long.

Just build your roll by putting on $100 or so and grinding 5nl till you have a BR of $200-$250 or so. At that point look at the number of hands you have put in and your winrate. If you have a good winrate and you have in a decent sample of hands (you'll probably have like 30k hands or so, dependning on your winrate), then move up to 10nl. Grind 10nl till the BR is at $500-$650 or whatever and re-evaluate your hands and winrate. If you are satisfied with them and they prove you are a healthy winner at 10nl over a decent sample, then move up to 25nl. Do the same for it and you will be up to 50nl-100nl in a matter or 3 or so months.

If you try to jump into it too quickly as you did before you will lose. Simple as that. You don't have the skill yet to beat the lower levels so you won't beat the higher levels either. And I really don't see a reason in being so grossly overrolled for a microstakes game like 5nl with $500.

Also Thunder, 20 buyins is actually cutting it thin, but at the microstakes it is usually sufficient because the players are so bad. Everytime you increase your stakes it is generally a good idea to increase the number of buyins you plan to have before moving up again. Say 20 buyins for 10nl ($200), then 25buyins for 25nl ($625), then 30 buyins for 50nl ($1500), then 35 buyins for 100nl ($3500), etc.