What Level of Limit to Make Money

Drakestar

Hi there,

I've been playing online for about 8 months now. I switched to limit from NL about two months ago to avoid some of the swings i was having. I was finding that if i lose concentration for ten minutes i'd be down quite abit of money.

So, I've been playing mainly 1/2 limit with some 2/4. What i find though is that after a couple of hours playing I will either be down $20 or so, or up 30-40. so over all i'm up, but hardly enough to justify the hours i'm putting in.

Generally, at what level do you need to be playing to be making enough money per hour to make it worth it. I was thinking probably 5/10 and up. I realize that there is some talk about making XBB per hour, so from what i take that to mean is that if i want to make $20/hour i need to be playing (well) at a 20/40 limit table. is that right? or are the estimates based more on a NL ring game?

Thanks for any advice,

Drakestar.

raiseany

BB as applied here is big bets, not big blind. About 1 big bet an hour is about average, maybe 2 if you're doing very well.

pkrfce9

factor in multi-tabling plus you can play a lot more hands per hour online vs B&M.

i'd say you should get in the area of $20/hr on a 3/6 without much difficulty. i'm not at that limit yet but others can comment on that.

Drakestar

Well.......I'm much happy now that the weekend has passed.

What i did was was bump up to the 3/6 tables on Sunday.

When i was at the 1/2 tables I don't think that I was paying the proper attention to cards and players and was underestimating draws. I think I was just mentally bored.

How do i know this?

Well once i jumped to the 3/6 limit games I was attentive, paying attention, and actually having some fun.

I started with a $150 buy in, and in about four hours popped it up to about $400. Obviously happy with that result, but still very aware of the possibility of going broke.

I read somewhere (maybe on here) about people that would drop to the micro limits and get creamed. I think that playing at a level where the money means something is key. I think that Vorhaus says something along those lines in one of his books.

Anyways I'll keep you posted. Before playing at the higher level I spent a good half hour just watching a game in progress just to judge as to weather or not I could even handle the competition.

thanks all,

Drakestar

Chugs

while you don't want to be playing with your mortgage payment, playing at a level where the money has some meaning to you is important.

I'll occassionally play 1/2 to finish out a bonus on stars or something. I find that i just can't play the game properly. When i move up and play higher limits i know i'm giving it all my attention and that's important. The key thing though is making sure when you move up limits you understand that you're still going to lose.

BBC Z

I read somewhere (maybe on here) about people that would drop to the micro limits and get creamed. I think that playing at a level where the money means something is key. I think that Vorhaus says something along those lines in one of his books.

I think this is dangerous thinking. It sounds far too similar to the age old "I'd win if I played against better players" banter.. Especially when you encounter a great first session after moving up. Low limit games have high variance but are immensely profitable because your opponents make mistakes hand over fist. As you move up limits, the number of mistakes decreases which means holes in your game will be exposed...

Also, are you sure you can handle the notion of swinging $6*15 = +/- $90 in an average session? (15BB being the usual standard deviation per session for a TA player) and handle the usual run of -100 to -200 BB (-$300 -$600) streaks?

Anyway, I'm glad to hear the first session went well and I hope it continues forever but please remember that a single winning session doesn't mean you've beat the level. Theres no shame in moving back down if things dont go so well.. I've heard far too many stories of people moving up limits, winning a few times and then dropping their bankrolls because they think they're got it beat.. I don't wany anyone here to fall into that trap..

ScoobyD

Congrats on the win. Just keep in mind that one session means very little in the grand scheme of things. When you're playing well and catching cards you can easily have ridiculous sessions where you might average 20BB/100 or more. Of course you can also have painful sessions when your big hands run into monsters or get cracked by 2 outers on the river. I would highly recommend an investment in Pokertracker, I just can't say enough about it. I also find multitabling to be a good alternative to moving up in levels as you are kept busy enough to "not get bored and play reckless", and in general playing 2 tables at half the limit "should" give you the same expected win rate (probably higher since you would expect better players at the higher level). Some people would say you give up an edge of not paying as close attention, but coupling pokertracker with Gametime plus I find to be a very lethal combination. I still feel like I'm cheating using that info...