Making a run...

Ok, today after playing and winning my normal 5+1 sng at paradise poker, I got the bright idea to try something. I would like your opinions on this...

Winning the 5 put me up $25, so I did something I don't normally do. I moved up to the $10 sng. I also wound up winning that one, which put me up $65. I was on a good streak so I decided to just play on these winnings so I moved up again. I sat down at the $50. I was on the bubble this game, so I was back down to $15 for the day and decided to quit.

Anyway, the point of this is, does it pay off to make a run like this up in stakes, as long as you don't dip into your roll? I mean you could have a pretty good chance of hitting some big money if you play well.

Well as you get to the higher stakes youre going to run into better players. I think its best to play at the highest level where you feel like youre a favorite to win. If you can usually win at the $10 table but have a hard time cashing at the $50 table, you have to recognize this and play where you are the favorite most of the time. That being said I think you have the right idea. Try your skills at the higher stakes when you have "won your way in". Then at least the money aspect doesnt bother you.

Making the jump from $5 to $10 to $50 sounds a little ridiculous to me. Were there no $20 tables? It just seems like a huge jump, and seems to me that the players would be MUCH better at the higher tables...

JMO, though.

Look at it this way:
You had $65. You now have $15. You could easily have kept playing the $10 limits as you had the skills to play them and the confidence, however at the $50 level you are playing against players who also regularly do well at the $10 and $5 tables.

I don't mean to berate you, but you have to know that when you win 2 SNGs in a row you're not the man. If you want to keep going up, play a $20 table, but KEY to winning money in poker in all aspects of the game is knowing when you're beat.

Heh, I think we've all tried this before, but we really practice good bankroll management here. Next time you'll sit at the $50 table and lose on a bad beat on the bubble, you'll buy in again because you know you can take these guys, and you are on tilt. You lose this game and two more and before you know your Bankroll is shot.

Moral of the story: you may be better than the game you are playing at, but playing within your bankroll will only help you in the long run.

Play within your BR. That's like doubling your bet playing black jack. You'll eventually lose most if not all of your profits and then start losing. Play at the highest SNG your BR can afford.

If you want to take a lottery-type stab at the big money, try something like the PP Steps or a small buyin freeze-out MTT(like $5 or less).

One thing I will do is play a $5 or $10 to see how I'm playing and move up to my normal $20 or $30 if I feel I'm playing well regardless of if I win or not. But this is only because my BR supports the $20 or $30 SNGs.

if you have more than ten times the buy in for your level, i think it's wise to play the occasional game one step up, so you know what you're in for. say about 1 in 10 sng's. as you progress to 20x the buy in, play the next level up more frequently. once you hit 20x the buy in for level 2, you should be totaly done with level 1, and start moving up to level 3.

it's ok to play at different levels, just make smooth transitions... a 5 to a 50 is bad news.

The players on the 50s on party are no better than the 20 and 30 players