It's hard to say the importance of knowing the limit game before entering the no limit arena. For me, I realized the shortcomings in the limit game, and how those hurt my profits. Because of the relatively small betting amounts, it's difficult to buy your hand when you're winning. Draw hands become more playable. If I flopped top pair, top kicker, I couldn't get my opponents out of the hand, and they would chase their hand and beat me. I think the limit game relies more on luck and less on skill.

I think you can move straight into no limit, but it just may take a little longer to become proficient.

Maybe I'll order those two books you mention, let me know what you think of those after you've gone through them.

I definitely believe that no limit is where it's at and it sounds like you agree. You are not doing that bad for being new to the game, if you are even, then you are actually winning more than losing (beating the rake). As I mention on the site, I dropped $700 before I started figuring things out (one of those things was to move to no limit). Undoubtedly, experience will be the most important factor.

If you played a hand and would like some commentary, you can post the hand history and we'll give you our 2 cents.

I think when I post the rest of the hands I play, and how I play them, that will help you out also.

There are many other topics I'd like to write - picking the table and the seat to play at, taking notes on players, position, etc. All these items are important factors, keep studying, keep practicing.