levels at starting at

[bigstock2001]

My goal is to be succesful at playing cash games. I am retiring from the military on 4 years and want to use poker to subsidize my income. I have been playing for about 3 years but I have only been succesful at live games. I have been using .25/.50 and lower to get better. But it seams like most people talk about lower limit games like 5.00 and ten dollar games. Is it not profitable to play these games like penny poker. Any help people can give I would appreciate it.

Don

[xptboy]

how much money are you willing to deposit into a poker site?

[jyms]

how much money are you willing to deposit into a poker site?

This has nothing to do with anything.

OP, start at the lowest stakes possible and get some hands in. Learn as much as you can from playing a ton of hands. If you can beat the level for any considerable winrate then move up to the next one. You will find out what you are capable of best this way. Don't bother starting anywhere higher until your used to playing online and able to grind a couple hours whilst concentrating. It is not as easy as some micro stakes players think it is.

[xptboy]

how much money are you willing to deposit into a poker site?

This has nothing to do with anything.

OP, start at the lowest stakes possible and get some hands in. Learn as much as you can from playing a ton of hands. If you can beat the level for any considerable winrate then move up to the next one. You will find out what you are capable of best this way. Don't bother starting anywhere higher until your used to playing online and able to grind a couple hours whilst concentrating. It is not as easy as some micro stakes players think it is.

yeah it does... (assuming it's less than 500$)

[jyms]

Please explain to our new poster then, why it's important.

[xptboy]

cuz if you choose to start with 500$ then you can start at 25NL, but if you choose 100$ then you shouldn't start above 5NL. Anything wrong with my logic?

25NL is still low enough to have horrible players in it and learn the game, and it's always possible to move down if you're losing at 25NL.

[sarbox68]

25NL is still low enough to have horrible players in it and learn the game, and it's always possible to move down if you're losing at 25NL.

Yes, playing within BR is important. Obv if he's got $750, he's rolled to play $25NL. But IMHO that's a little more of a gate than a guide... two reasons...

1) I do believe the players get better and more issues come into play between $2nl and $25nl. Don't see many thought out squeezes, semi- & bluffs, or even a ton of 3 & 4-bets made for a reason at $2nl --- you def find 'em at $25nl. So the benefit of working up (at least starting with 5 or 10NL...) is to be able to focus on a smaller set of core skills at a time...
2) this one's bigger for me.... to Jyms point, you transition to online and really learn this game by playing an f-load of hands. Your bb/100 will give solid feedback on how well your doing... and your going to make mistakes on the learning curve... Bottom line -- you want to pay $25 for a noobie mistake or $10? Unless it's a leak you're not going to be able to find or fix at a lower level (i.e. some of the diffs between $5 & $25 above...) I don't know why you'd wanna pay the higher price...

my noobie 2cents... jump in on the lower end of your BR range -- prove you got no leaks to fix at that level by quickly grinding it up -- and then move on up... I'd rather do that than jump in at $25NL, lose a couple of hundred $ and then have to earn it back by dropping down to $10 before I can even start to show a win rate.....

[jyms]

cuz if you choose to start with 500$ then you can start at 25NL, but if you choose 100$ then you shouldn't start above 5NL. Anything wrong with my logic?

25NL is still low enough to have horrible players in it and learn the game, and it's always possible to move down if you're losing at 25NL.

Your BR is not the primary indicator of where you should be playing as far as stakes are concerned. And he is losing at $25NL.


I get that you think BR management is important, but if you reread the original post he is a losing player on line playing $25NL. In what way would it be advisable to put enough money online to play $25NL after I just explained to him he needs to learn to beat the game, move up when he's proveen he can and get some hands in to gain experience in playing online poker.

If you have read his other thread with the HH posting you may have seen that his first concern should be to learn some Basics, and I would not attempt that at $25NL.

[bigstock2001]

My fellow poker brothers,
thanks for the great advice, i am going to regroup and start over at the lowest level. I am going to try and be patient becouse i hate penny poker. But i can tell I do have alot of holes to fix online. What would you guys consider to be a good BB/100 to have to move up with. Thanks
Don

[MuddyWicket]

3+ allegedly/possibly. put it a good number of hands tho, some say 50k, personally i would say less but I play less tables (up to 4). Start with a low roll and build it up and remember the roll exceeds ability (sometimes).

At the end of the day if you cant beat low levels how can you expect to beat teh weaker players at higher levels so jumping up levels may not be the greatest idea - learn cheaply at the lower levels and work on your strategy.

damn I'm drunk and posting agian. thought i was going to stop this.

[sarbox68]

3+ allegedly/possibly. put it a good number of hands tho, some say 50k, personally i would say less but I play less tables (up to 4). Start with a low roll and build it up and remember the roll exceeds ability (sometimes).

At the end of the day if you cant beat low levels how can you expect to beat teh weaker players at higher levels so jumping up levels may not be the greatest idea - learn cheaply at the lower levels and work on your strategy.

damn I'm drunk and posting agian. thought i was going to stop this.

dude.... vnh if that's your drunk posting

and bigstock ... I completely understand the seemingly minimal motivation challenge of playing for pennies ... maybe look at it this way... don't focus on the $ won but on the bb/100 won as a real measure of getting better. The plus side of not focusing on the actual $ amount at the table is that it will be easier when u bump up levels... fixating on how many $ are at the table vs. playing winning poker at a level your rolled for is a recipe for scared play. If you just seeing chips representing BBs, it won't matter you bumped a level 'cause you'll just be focusing on your game... Don't know if that makes any sense, but it helped me...