I am having a problem on Poker Stars lately and could use some advice. My current level is .25/.50 as my bankroll is in the neighborhood of $260 or $270.

I play only tight/passive tables and agree with that strategy or not I have made far more money on tight tables than looser ones and logic dictates you go where the money is the best for you, but the problem is the best tables are at limits I should not be playing.

The .25/.50 tables will have player/flop percentages in the high 30's and the same will be happening at the .50/$1 tables, but the $1/$2 tables will have the players/flop at 22% or 24%. Obviously thats where I need to play, but it is above my bankroll management and hence my problem.

Should I play it anyway because that's the game I will win in. Should I not play at all until the tables at my proper level are where I want them? Of course one cannot make money not playing hands and I am trying to play 1000 hands/wk mininum.

I have had so many problems with bankroll discipline in the past and lately I have been doing so well with it, but I will admit I have been playing in the games that show me my kind of table lately, but could this put me back into my old habits? All input is appreciated.

I know you're posting this because you know the right answer and you just want someone to reinforce it for you. Well, the right answer is 300 BB or stay out! So get yourself up to $300 and then move to the .50/$1 game.

That said... I'll now contradict myself.

I assume you're talking about limit. Questions to ask yourself:

1) Are you absolutely dead nuts certain you can beat the $1 game (don't even think about the $2 game yet!)?

2) Do you have any more money you can put into your BR if you hit a downswing?

3) Are you confident in your ability to step back down a level if you lose to a certain threshhold?

If you answered "yes" to at least 2 of these, then you're just about close enough to consider moving up to the .50/1.00 game. Set a threshhold for yourself, say $200. If you lose down to that, bust your ass back down to the .25/.50 game and stay put until you have at least $300.

lol - don't delete DB's or change DB's when you hit a bad patch - you are losing all the info about what you are doing wrong!

What you shoudl do when you hit a bad run is stop playing and spend a day with PT reviewing your play.

It seems to me that there are two questions, which are only related due to the fact that you are limited in the availability of games.

First, can you move up to the $1 games? This has been answered by many people before me. Let me add that sometimes, for strange reasons, it is perfectly possible for a player to be winning at one level, losing or break-even at a higher level, and yet winning again at an even higher level. That said, the low limits should all be beatable with enough patience and discipline, so I don't think you should worry about this too much. If your winrate is not as good as you hope in the looser small games, then think whether you may be trying to make too many plays or run too many bluffs.

Second, what type of game should you play in? You should try to formulate why you do better in tight/passive games. Everyone has his favourite quadrant in the loose/passive, loose/aggressive, tight/passive, tight/aggressive plane. It is important to know how to adapt your style to these types of games. In principle, you will learn a lot from playing different types of games, and in the long run it will make you a much stronger player. But if you are interested in short-term rewards, stick to the game you feel you play best.

One advantage for you to play the tighter games is the decrease in variance. But you know as well as I do that even in a tight $1 game, you can easily drop $30 BB in a session due to bad luck/suckouts. If this is going to upset you, don't play there!

Caveat: this advice comes from someone who is ultra-cautious with his bankroll, and who is severely pissed if he drops more than 5% on a given day...

Pieter