Moving up from 0.25/0.5$ to 0.5/1$

For the first time I tried to move up one step in my ring games.
I have played 50$ buy in for some time now and get my all right allthough my BR-curve has stayed between 1200 and 1400 for a while.

I sat down at a 0.5/1$ NL 10 player with max buy in of 100$ and played tight (10-15%), observing the table. Firt thing I noticed was that people seemed more careful and that the betting level wasn't double of the 50$ buy in tables. I took advanteage of this and found it more easy to take 5$ in blind with my pocket J's by betting harder then the others. I didn't get a lot of good hands to play, but I concluded after some time, that there wasn't so many fish here and that people folded "when they should".

Then I got dealt AJ, called a 2$ bet and the flop came J73. One guy bet 3$ (pot 10$) so I raised him
to 15$, putting him on an obvious flush draw. All others folded, but he called and turn brought Q. At this time I should have slowed down, but for some reason I was sure he was playing Ax and I bet 20$, feeling confident, and he calls.

Turn brings 2 and he moves all in to my new 20$ bet, I call and he shows Q8, costing me about 75$. I couldn't believe that he had been playing Q8s all that long and then trusted his 8 kicker to raise me on the river!?! I read him for a failed flush draw bluff, but he obviously read me better, since he didn't fear QJ for example.

So I returned to my regular 2x50$ buy in and am happy to say that I doubled my stack at both tables within 150 hands, covering my loss. It will be some time before I move up again I think. I didn't like the atmosphere of careful betting and not knowing the chasers before they hit you. On my regular tables it seems easier to get a read on people quite quickly. I will lick my wounds and try again when I feel confident enough.

Be aware that a few players at the table will be aware of how tight you are. That + aggression is why you were stealing blinds. Not just aggression.

On the hand in question, he can put you on AJ becuase he was looking at the whole picture. You're tight and aggro but just called a minraise preflop. That's not how TAggs play QQ-AA. Flop comes with some threats and you go into protection mode. He makes a bad call for whatever reason fish make bad calls then he turns his queen. You just can't sell him that you had any hand other than QJ, 77 and 33 that he's losing to.

-'rilla

ok-sounds logical. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Borax

Firt thing I noticed was that people seemed more careful and that the betting level wasn't double of the 50$ buy in tables. I took advanteage of this and found it more easy to take 5$ in blind with my pocket J's by betting harder then the others. I didn't get a lot of good hands to play, but I concluded after some time, that there wasn't so many fish here and that people folded "when they should".

This is very table dependent. I've lost AI preflop holding AA against Q7s when an unlucky board came at the NL$100 level. So there are definitely still idiots...just perhaps fewer of them.

I've recently made the jump up to .50/1 because my bankroll allowed me to do so. I find the play at these tables to be better than .25/.50 tables simply because people know when to let go of absurd draws. I've made a lot of money against people who haven't, which I presume to return to lower stakes.

im still old fashioned as i play $1/2 $100NL but dont ever assume that people are better the higher stakes you go. there are a TON of fish at this level. well, in live games anyway.

In live games, this is about as low as you can usually go for NL...

Originally Posted by JeffreyGB

In live games, this is about as low as you can usually go for NL...

true.

for me on AP i play 25-50 tables & do well, but i'd rather play lower stake tables with the cheaper blinds, seems to work best for me