I've been playing online poker for just over a year, and I have done well at $2NL (35 bb/100 over 16k hands) and $5NL (12 bb/100 over 32k hands) levels.

Now let me just get this out of the way: I am getting crushed at $10NL. Now, I started out okay, then had a massive tilt day, then slowly and steadily climbed my way back to even from -$85. Then, over the last month, I have experience my first terrible, horrible, no good very bad run, and I've lose almost $100 in 4000 hands. I feel like I am playing solid poker, but everything that can possibly go wrong for me over the last month — at this level only, mind you — has, so this post is borne for the most part out of that frustration.

So my basic question is, apart from noble "If you can't play at X level you can't play at the next level" sentiments, why would I play at $10NL when (I play on Poker Stars):

-At $5NL, you can buy in for $10. At $10NL, you can also buy in for $10.

-$10NL is far, far tighter across all table types than both $5NL and $25NL, which seems odd.

-In $5NL, you can bet in .01 cent increments, whereas at $10NL you can only bet at .05 cent increments. I know that think might seem like a small thing, but I just like being able to size my bets precisely, and I also think that villains tend to respect bets that you have to type in, rather than just moving the slider.

-$10NL seems to be positively overrun with $2 nit pushers, who screw you coming and going: coming when they make you lay down everything that's not in the top top range unless love coin flips; going when they knock out all your action on the top top range, so your AA and KK wind up winning you $2.15 instead of, you know, more.

-The wait for a table with a +30% pip and a sub-60 hph is generally 2-3 times as long at $10NL

I would think that, considering the max buy-ins are the same, a player could build their bankroll just as fast at $5NL as they could at $10NL, and skip to $25NL.

Personally, I just feel like I've has so much bad luck at $10NL lately that I am incapable of playing my best cards, because I have a losing mindset. But I keep going back because, after reviewing a session and seeing that I played solidly and got my money in at the right time for the most part, I think to myself "This luck cannot continue," and I go play another 1,000 hands and lose another $10-$20 on shit that makes me want to put my fist through my computer.

Also, any advice on coping with a month-long "these guys must be cheating"-level losing streak would also be good.