Question for winning players moving up blinds

Which blinds games did you guys start at, and which game do you think its hardest to move up to? I been playing for around 2 months, pretty much break even at the .10/.20 blinds. I can't seem to build up a roll. I heard it is easier to move up once you graduate from your first level.

At first I played FL play money, then FL cash for about a day, then SnGs. It was then that I decided to get serious about poker, and play cash, with the ultimate goal of sustaining a living from it one day. Read everything I could, asked a decent profitable recreational player how much money I needed to loose before I could decide I was never going to be any good, and he said about 40 buyins. Put $80 on Stars, and played 2NL, with a few micro MTTs when I was board. Then I moved to stars 5NL, and annihilated everyone in my path. I stayed there for a bit, playing 12 tables at a time, and I was making a couple hundred dollars a week. Moved to stars 10NL, and hit a snag. It turns out my 5NL pwnage (12ptBB after roughly 100k hands) was due to the fantastic implied odds at Stars 5NL. Now I was going to have to play a bit, which meant cutting down to 5-6 tables. Learned to play a bit better, finally beat 10NL to a satisfactory level. Tried 25NL, didn't really work out. Seemed like an unacceptable high ratio of TAGs to fish. One night I was watching a friend play on Ladbrokes, and I realised I still had about 4 dollars kicking around from when I used to play there. Wanted to give short stacking a try so I bought in to a 20NL table, and I quickly realised how awful the players were. They're about the same as Stars 2NL. I got outdrawn for the 4 dollars, but I quickly loaded on another $50, and started grinding the 10NL tables. Meanwhile I datamined the 100NL tables, and those guys play just as bad as the guys on the 10NL. Grinded up from 10NL, to 20NL, to 30NL, currently playing 50NL, and rinsing everyone. The average stat is 35/11/1.2. Very rare to see another TAG. I'm currently averaging $18 an hour, and I'm about $500 away from the bankroll requirement to play 100NL. If all goes to plan (and I can't see why it won't), I'll probably stay at 200NL, and tell everyone I'm a professional online poker player.

Just under $4k up from online poker since almost exactly a year ago when I first played 2NL. $1.5k of it in the last month playing 10NL/20NL/30NL/50NL against fishy British drunkards.

I've played a fair amount of 10NL, 25NL, 50NL & 100NL.

The differences between the limits are fairly subtle in my experience. There are bad players everywhere, but as you move up the average skill does increase, as does the aggression. But the game remains largely the same...

If you're breaking even at microstakes you're either on a cooler, or there are fairly large holes in your game. I would suspect the latter, as most (even winning) microstakes players have fair sized holes in their game.

Grinding out billions of hands serves the purpose of helping you fix these leaks. Once you can successfully beat 10NL, you can beat 25NL. While you're beating 25NL, you get even better, and adapt to the subtleties of it to prepare you for 50NL etc...

There's no shortcut. Like most other things in life -- you gotta work at it to be successful.

I spent a lot of time breaking even at 25NL & 50NL. I posted hands, read more books, tightened my game and soon I was beating them. Then 100NL was relatively easy. If I had just jumped from 25NL to 100NL I would have been crushed.

Practice proper bankroll management, and grind out a bankroll while you're improving your game at the same time.

Getting paid for learning is fun

I was stuck in 10NL in what seemed like FOREVER. But I jumped from 25NL to 50NL in less than a month and haven't looked back. But still, there was a big learning curve from 25NL to 50NL. You have to pick your spots more carefully and read the table much more than before.

I occasionally try my hand at 100NL, but I'm a consistent winner at 50NL and making enough to pay for over-priced gas and goodies each month.

But really, every level has a whole new set of players. There's still fish at the table, just not as many.

Originally Posted by Mezza Morta

I was stuck in 10NL in what seemed like FOREVER. But I jumped from 25NL to 50NL in less than a month and haven't looked back. But still, there was a big learning curve from 25NL to 50NL. You have to pick your spots more carefully and read the table much more than before.

I occasionally try my hand at 100NL, but I'm a consistent winner at 50NL and making enough to pay for over-priced gas and goodies each month.

But really, every level has a whole new set of players. There's still fish at the table, just not as many.

This from Mezza and the post from Dozer are similar to my story. I learned to crush 10nl in Jan/Fed '08, and took several shots at 25nl. Lifetime, I'm break-even with 25nl if you count rakeback earned. And more recently, I have a slightly winning game at 6max 25nl.

Don't get too discouraged if you have to stay at a certain limit for a long time, even 5 or 6 months. If you're at least breaking even, you have time to learn. You're not decimating your bankroll. You're getting better. And the winrate will come along soon enough.

Also, don't worry about moving back down. I've done it several times. You can hack it for a while. Winning is more addictive than pretending you're at a higher level than you can beat.

started at 0.01/0.02NL almost 2 1/2 yrs ago, broke even at 0.25/0.5NL for like 80k hands or so, pulled some good money at 0.5/1NL, am now breaking even at 1/2NL FR and earn some at 1/2 6max.

Started to take shots at 2/4NL and got owned everytime I sat down.

Originally Posted by XTR1000

started at 0.01/0.02NL almost 2 1/2 yrs ago, broke even at 0.25/0.5NL for like 80k hands or so, pulled some good money at 0.5/1NL, am now breaking even at 1/2NL FR and earn some at 1/2 6max.

Started to take shots at 2/4NL and got owned everytime I sat down.

Awesome inspiration, XTR. vnh, sir.

BTW, what br limits did you use grinding your way up?