Taking A Shot On Higher Stakes
Many players have difficulty resisting the temptation of moving to higher stakes. If you’re a winning Online Texas Hold´em player, higher stakes means more money and more excitement. Most people feel like the best players play at the highest stakes. The questions become, should you move up, and do you know how to play poker against stronger opponents?
Should You Move up to Higher Stakes?
There are two reasons you should consider moving up in stakes. If the stakes are so small relative to your bankroll that the money has no meaning to you, it’s unlikely that you will be playing your best game. If you have $1,000 in your bankroll, 25/50 cent limit poker is unlikely to hold many challenges for you.
You should generally be playing at stakes in which you are financially comfortable, but where the money is still meaningful. The other time you should consider moving up in stakes is if you are consistently beating your game of choice and think you can maintain this winning rate at a higher level, against better poker players.
When Should You Move up to Higher Stakes?
If you’re moving up because you feel that you are ready for bigger challenges, you should wait until you have clear evidence that you are beating your current game. You should have a bankroll large enough to sustain a few big losses at the new level. If you don’t, you are probably not winning as consistently at your current level as you think.
Try to track your results over several months and calculate your actual win rate per hour. If it is significantly positive, give a higher game a shot.
When Shouldn’t You Move up to Higher Stakes?
You should not move up to higher stakes just because you have had one big win. It’s tempting to try to turn a nice win at your level into a huge win at the next level. However, it’s more likely that you will simply erase your nice win and possibly even turn it into a loss.
Hold onto that big win to protect your bankroll and keep trying to generate winning sessions at your current level. Move up when the time is right.
November 12th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Hello. I was reading someone elses blog and saw you on their blogroll. Would you be interested in exchanging blog roll links? If so, feel free to email me.
Thanks.
November 17th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Well I did add your link and e-mailed you, but evidently you had no intentions of actually adding my link to your blog. Says a lot about you and your blog.