Moving Up Stakes Online Poker
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Many poker players - both online and live - are successful at small stakes but struggle when they try to move up in limits. Bankrollcash While smaller stakes are beatable with a fundamental strategy, the game gets much more competitive and difficult to beat as you move up in limits. Here's another great poker strategy post where we cover the basic strategy of how to move up a level in stakes while playing online poker. 3 Tips for a Safer Online Poker Game If you're worried that playing poker online may expose you to an inordinate amount of risk as far as your online poker bankroll, there are.
Beating the game of poker, and consistently moving up in stakes is a long, complicated process. Like they say, “if it was easy everyone would do it” but the reality is that only a small percentage of dedicated poker players reach their dream of dominating the mid or high-stakes games.
There are a wide range of factors why most players never make it to the top of the mountain but this post focuses on 4 of these reasons.
The “roller coaster ride” bankroll trap
The first trap I want to discuss is by far the most controversial of the 4 that I’ll be covering in this post. I know that a lot of poker players will disagree with me on this one but hear me out.
The “roller coaster ride” bankroll trap is a trap which I have fallen into many times and only after making significant adjustments to my game was I able to get out of it. The trap works like this; you play in games where you are under rolled vs. crazy, loose aggressive players that are willing to risk it all with very little equity. These are the guys that will call thousands of dollars with a flush draw or top pair. Right off the bat this sounds like a dream situation but the issue here is that this environment results in massive swings because of the high variance of the game. The reason I consider this a trap is most non-professionals are willing to get their money in as a small favorite and let the math work itself out in the long run. The problem is if you are playing in games where large amounts move across the table, and you aren’t able to absorb the blows, then you will be cleaned out both financially and emotionally.
If you have over 50 buy-ins for your limit then go a head and gamble it up, I’d even argued that this is the better approach since you want to take a more aggressive line when playing against loose players. If you are under rolled then you will need to make certain adjustments to limit the variance and build a bankroll which can absorb the swings.
How do I get out of the “roller coaster ride” bankroll trap?
There is two main ways to get out of this trap. The first is quite obvious, play in games which you can afford from a conservative bankroll perspective. If you like your regular games and don’t want to go through the headache of finding other games then you’ll need to make the following adjustments:
- Tighten your range – you want to prevent bleeding and aim to play large pots where you have the majority of the expected equity.
- Bring more dough to the game – I know this isn’t always an option for players but if you can come with more cash to the game then you’ll feel more comfortable and be able to play through the variance. Most importantly you’ll be able to top up your stack as the game gets bigger which will allow you to win a massive pot when things fall into place.
- Start making big folds – You flop a Q high flush draw vs. three players and now you’re facing a raise and a re-raise. You can push and hope for the best or you can fold, what should you do? Unless its early stages in the game or you’ll short stacked and facing an opportunity to triple up, you should probably fold and wait for a better spot. Remember, you have the edge, committing in situations where you are breaking even is not a smart strategy.
- When you have it bet huge – Punish the weaker players for chasing by betting very big and committing yourself when you believe you have the hand close to locked.
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Playing this style isn’t very sexy but it works and will make a world of difference to your results.
The “multi-game” trap
Becoming a winning player at Texas Holdem and reaching the upper levels of the skill pyramid takes huge effort, discipline and years of dedication. If you are spreading your efforts across multiple types of of the game you will be throwing a spanner in the works which I recommend against.
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It’s best to become a one trick pony and master a single type of poker until you have reached your current poker goals.
How do I get out of the “multi-game” trap?
Forget about PLO, 5 card draw, Stud and any other variations of poker for now, they aren’t going anywhere but you need to be focused.
Focus your efforts on beating Texas Holdem (the most popular variation of the game in the world) and reaching a buy-in level which satisfies your poker goals. Once you’ve reached this point you can start thinking about mastering a new type of poker.
The “I’m happy where I am” trap
The only way to become a consistent winner at mid or high stakes games is to get your skill level to a similar level to the winning players at these stakes. This won’t be possible if you don’t compete against better players which can only be found at higher stakes.
Many consistent winners get comfortable at the stakes they are winning at and don’t bother to try to move up the stakes. I call this trap the “I’m happy where I am” trap simply because if you had to ask these players why they don’t want to move up this is what you’ll most likely hear.
How do I get out of the “I’m happy where I am” trap?
The solution is simple, sit down and add a poker goal to your list which includes taking a shot at the next stake. So if you are a regular at 10NL then take a shot at 16NL or 25NL. Make sure you are implementing correct bankroll management so you have a 10 – 20 buy-in shot at the stakes you want to try, plus enough that if you lose those buy-ins you can fall back to your regular stakes, and still have enough to play through an unexpected downswing.
Another tip is to play a combination of your regular stakes and the next level. So if you play 4 tables of 10NL then play 2 tables of 10NL and 2 tables of 16NL or 25NL. This way the transition is a bit smoother. If you use tracking software like Holdem Manager then you can track your wins or losses at the new stake and cut them out if you lose more than the 10 – 20 buy-ins you allocated to the “shot”.
The “I’m a slow learner” trap
While some players might be too conservative, others are overly aggressive in their attempts to move up in stakes. These players will dedicate a large portion of their bankroll to trying to beat the mid or high stakes games, fail to beat the level, fall back down or take a break from the game for a period, and then redeposit and try again.
I’m calling this the “I’m a slow learner” trap because these players have failed to grasp an important concept in beating poker, that it is a long-term process which can be approached systematically.
How do I get out of the “I’m a slow learner” trap?
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The way to get out of this trap is to implement one new rule to the way you approach poker. This rule is to not attempt to move up in stakes until you have beaten your current level for a significant sample size. That sample size should be in the tens of thousands of hands. Only after you’ve reached a win rate you are happy with, and done it over a relevant sample size (north of 30k hands) can you be confident that you are a winning player at the stakes you play. Once you’ve done that then you should definitely start taking shots at higher stakes.
Have you ever fallen into one of these traps? What did you do to get out of it? Let me know in the comments section below.
Good luck at the tables.
Most poker players can’t wait to move up in stakes. And can you blame them? For one thing, there’s a feeling of accomplishment when you move up — it means your game is improving. Then there is the money. You have the ability to make more of it, and you don’t have to put in as much volume to get it.
Now, the thing is with moving up is that players either don’t wait long enough, or they wait too long. Both can be expensive mistakes.
If you move up too fast, you might not be good enough to play at higher stakes. You’ll lose money because you suck. This can lead to busting your entire roll.
You can also lose money if you wait too long to move up. If you moved up sooner (when you were ready), you’d be playing higher stakes, therefore earning more big blinds per hand or more dollars per game.
So in short, moving up in stakes is a balancing act. Lose your balance and you’ll lose your money.
But there is a method that I used when I was playing/coaching that helped me with this balancing act. I want to share that method with you today, in hopes that it’ll help you move up faster too.
The method that I used to move up in limits faster is to blend the games I played.
By blending, I mean to mix two different buy-ins. For example, if you play $3 SNGs, and the next level up is the $6 games, then you would load up a set of tables consisting of both. The ratio will depend on you, your bankroll and skill level. If you’re just barely beating your current stake, I’d do something like 80/20 or 60/40 in favor of your current stakes. As you improve, increase the number of tables at the higher stakes until you’ve reached the point where you can load up 100%.
I like this method because instead of needing a full 40 or 50 buy-ins to move up, you can take a shot at 25 or 30. For example, if you play $3 SNGs the rule of thumb would state that you need like $240 or $300 to move up to the $6 games (minimum). However, if you blend stakes, there’s no harm in having $180 and taking a shot.
With all of this said, I do want to point out a few things:
You need to be able to stop blending stakes and/or move down entirely if your shot doesn’t go well. I suggest moving down entirely if you lose around 25% of your roll. The great thing is that it won’t take long to regain that 25% back so that you can take the shot again.
It’s important to still put in enough volume at your current stakes before trying to move up. This is so that you can be sure you’re good enough. Just because you have enough money to play higher stakes, it doesn’t mean that you should.
I would also avoid blending different types of games. In other words, don’t load up 45s and 18s together (at least when you’re first starting out). While much of the early game is the same, the late game strategies are not.
Another Method to Move Up in Stakes Faster — Mass Tabling
Another method you might try to move up in stakes faster is to mass table. Meaning, you load up as many tables as you can handle. (I don’t recommend this method for a few reasons, which I’ll get to in a second.)
To make this method work, you will need to have a heads up display and a hot key program like Table Ninja or AHK. These programs will help you keep track of tables, bring tables that need your attention to the front and allow you to program things like betting amounts. This is in addition to having hot keys set up.
Something else you will need to do is adjust your strategy. You won’t be able to play poker — you’ll have to play using a push/fold strategy. There just isn’t enough time to think and make a logical decision with so many tables up.
Now, the upside to this strategy is that if you play $3 games and you’re averaging $.75 a game, you can play 40 tables and average a little over $30 an hour. This will add up quick, allowing you to move up faster.
The downside, in my opinion, is that you don’t learn anything by doing this. There is very little thinking in push/fold poker besides when to shove, and when not to. You also take thinner spots, which increases the amount of variance you see.
Put simply, I don’t recommend using this method to move up fast because you don’t grow as a poker player. You stunt the education needed to truly excel at the higher levels; at the very least you make this education harder to obtain.
So I’d only use this method if my blending method above doesn’t work for you.