So - how much better are players as the stakes go up?

[JMatt67]

Hi all. I' m new here, and pretty new to online poker. I'll give you a little background:

I started playing at Pacific Poker a couple months ago (play money). I started with $1000 of fake money, and built it up to over $40,000 playing SnG's. Mostly no-limit, but some limit as well. Usually $800-$1000 buy-ins.

So.......

After building to $40,000 I decided to go with the real $$. I put in $50 and started playing $2.50 + $0.25 buy-in limit holdem'.

On SnG table of ten I've played six times so far. Here's my results, in order, for those six games:

9th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st, 2nd.

You can see that when I changed to real money the first game I got my hat handed to me, but I learned pretty quickly.

So - what's the big question? STAKES! What happens to the play if I move to $5 tables or $10 or $20? What's the jump like compared to the difference between pretend money and real money (even though the stakes are small?)

[Always_Bored]

between those stakes I dont think you will notice that much of a difference. maybe with 20 but I doubt it.

[racquet000]

Yeah realy depends on where you play. Just like some casinos the more traffic the bigger the joke, The bigger the range of crappy players waiting to throw there money away.

[wEbMaStEr]

way to go so far keep it up!
you will probably find that a lot of people who play $10/$20 entry feeswill jump in a $5 also if there aint much action so i would say the difference aint that much. you get idiots at those levels also.
you will probably find more of a diffrence from say ..... $30/$50 upwards here you will find play is tighter and less idiots going out in 1st few minutes.

[JMatt67]

OK - here's a personal update.

After 12 tourneys at $2.50 + .25 buy-in, I'm in the $ 7 of 12 times - 7 of the last 10 times after having lost my first two SNG's.

So I played some $5.00 + .50: 4 wins in 5 tourneys.

And then $10 +$1: 1 win in 3 tourneys.

Based on that history, I think I'll play the $5 + $.50 SNG's for now until I improve.


I also started playing ring games, and am up to $.50/$1 tables: up about $120 on them.

I'm making about $10 per hour at the .50/1 tables, but am still too cautious to up the stakes.

How long do you have success at one level before you step up to a higher stakes table?

[Always_Bored]

How long do you have success at one level before you step up to a higher stakes table?

Until you feel comfortable. There is no set time you should do it. Never play stakes too low because you wont take it seriously and never play stakes to high because you will be too afraid. Find your comfort level and once it starts to become to easy then move up a bit. If you are at a higher level and arent comfortable you will be too afraid of losing your money and you will lose it. If you go up to a higher level and you are stressed out I would immediately go back down.

[Dave B]

move up as soon as you can afford to. 100-150 times the big blind should allow you to try a few sessions without getting cleaned out an a few band hands.

[RATTZ]

First off, Pacific poker is one of the LOOSEST sites around. Any solid player will have a field day here. I quit that site because of disconnections. If you want to play a slightly more reasonable game, head to partypoker. If you want a REAL poker game, head to paradisepoker or pokerstars. Anyway...

You are definetaly ready to move up to 1/2 - at pacific poker. I'd try out 50 cent tables at partypoker just because the playing engine is so much better.

As for the tourny's, 2.50 through 11$ buy ins are pretty much the same. Small increase in quality as it goes to 20. 50 dollars and up are some serious players.

[BorisMcN]

Sounds like youre doing very well... I would say to err on the side of caution as has been mentioned, Pacific Poker is VERY loose, and if you play over your bankroll, a couple of bad sessions could destroy the great work you've done building it so far.

Once you have got around $300 try the 1/2 and see how it is for comfort... if you start slipping... drop back down a level. Personally, I would build your bankroll up a bit, and then switch sites to Party for their bonus.