Moving Up - Bankroll?

I currently play $1.10 Turbo Double or Nothing SNG's at PokerStars, and want to move up to $5.20. How much should I have before moving up, assuming I only play Turbo Double or Nothing SNG's? If I hit a bad streak, when should I move down?

In addition, what changes should I prepare for as I move up?

I'm a pretty big BR nit, i usually have 100 buy ins buts more about my comfort level then BR for me, i would say Min 50 Buy ins, and move down whenever your below this.

5.50 are still terrible, but you will find quite a few more regs, and players that have a better understanding of basic strategy, pay attention and adjust your ranges for these players, but over all if your a significant winner at the $1 you should be able to win at $5 although your ROI will drop.

DavSimon suggests 15 buy ins, but not sure how double or nothings would change things. I'd think your variance might be less since you only have to make the top 5.

Sit-n-Go Strategy Guide

100 buy ins for single table seems a bit conservative to me, but I'm new at this myself. You shouldn't have a downswing of 50 buy ins, and if you do it's probably not due to variance.

15 buyins is way too low in my opinion. I'd aim for somewhere between 30 and 50 depending on your risk tolerance, but I'm not familiar with the expected ROI and variance of DON games so I'll let somebody more experienced with them comment on that.

Personally I prefer 100 buyins for my level ($27 turbos) but then I never want to have to drop down a level.

its more about skill/comfort level then BI for me as I'm staked for much higher then I play. But 15 is way to little as 10+ BI down swing is fairly common with a big enough sample size. i would say at bare minimum 30.

Not sure about variance in DONS i assume it would be lower, but i would still recommend 30BI's.

EDIT: sorry didn't see taipans post.

15 is fine in theory if you move down when you have (for example) 15 BIs for the level below, but for the vast majority of people (including me!) that will be very difficult mentally and have an adverse effect on your play. And if you were one of that small group of people that it would work for, you would not have created this thread.

Generically I would go with 50 with a plan to move down at 50 for the level, except that 1->5 is a really big jump so that system isn't so great and whatever your plan is you are going to have a rough time in your first run bad patch moving up at the 5s when going 0/4 costs you the same as 0/20 at the old stakes.

I think you would be better served playing non DONs so you can move to the 3s instead. You would also do yourself a big favor playing some micro cash.

Thank you, everyone, for your help/suggestions!

I see a wide range of recommended bankroll, from the bold 15 to the cautious 100, with a moderate range of 30-50. I might lean conservatively, since I don't want to worry about depositing money into PokerStars.

Some of you and some articles seem to say that Turbo probably increases variance, while Double or Nothing probably decreases variance. Right?


fulksy: How much harder is the $5 game? At my current level, there are still people who go all-in with A9 and call all-ins with AQ on the first hand!

drmcboy: But I love Turbo Double or Nothing! They're so fast!

Originally Posted by fxyjrntsom

fulksy: How much harder is the $5 game? At my current level, there are still people who go all-in with A9 and call all-ins with AQ on the first hand!

$5 aren't that much harder, you'll find the same donks doing the same things they do at the $1's the difference is you will find more reg. multitabler's who have a decent grasp on ICM play. but they're still very profitable because the majority are still bad players that just feed you equity by bowing out early with garbage. i moved up to $12 turbos and still tons of terrible players but again just more regs then the $5's

work on your end game (push/fold) and you'll be fine, but stick to your BR management.

Originally Posted by fulksy

$5 aren't that much harder, you'll find the same donks doing the same things they do at the $1's the difference is you will find more reg. multitabler's who have a decent grasp on ICM play. but they're still very profitable because the majority are still bad players that just feed you equity by bowing out early with garbage. i moved up to $12 turbos and still tons of terrible players but again just more regs then the $5's

work on your end game (push/fold) and you'll be fine, but stick to your BR management.

I see. I wanted to get an idea of how much my win rate would decrease if I moved up. Thanks!