my problem: I started out playing 6max limit hold'em at $.50/$1 on PokerStars, with an intial bankroll of $100. Upon reaching $250, i jumped up to play $1/$2 6max limit.

For about 5 months i played at $1/$2 max building on my $250 roll and here are my stats for those 5 months:

32,466 hands played
BB/100 hands: 4.13


so i built quite a roll over 2k in a couple of months which was pretty good for a struggling college student because i have other things to worry about...like exams and midterms and finals kicking the shit out of me every week. Anyways, during those 5 months i had the habit of taking out money whenever my roll reached past $400-$500 and it was fine, even with all the variance at $1/$2 6max. Then suddenly i started having a losing streak that completely differed from my past losing streaks...it was like a 2 week losing streak and i just kept on losing and losing. Eventually i got frustrated and switched to playing some $25NL multi-tabling, and more $1/$2 multi-tabling. And i had never expected to go broke but alas, i lost my whole roll withint those two weeks.

Now, i know i'm a proven winning player after 32k + hands and my win rate...i couldnt believe this had happened to me like that. But anyways...i've been on a break from poker for the past month or so, recommended by some good forum members here at BTP. I plan on getting back into poker once this semester ends and summer begins.. until then i'm just reading up on the stuff going on here in forums and books on limit play to further strengthen my skills.

finally to the question(mostly pertained to the 6max limit players, because i know full ring is a completely different game).

how did you rise up from the low limits to the limits you play now?
when did you decide to bump up to the next level?
when did you cash out?
did you multi/table? if so, with what kind of bankroll and when did you decide to move up?
what do you think the best strategy would be, if i were to start over again with $150-$200 looking to get back into the 6max games?

i guess im basically asking how you all did it, built your roll and stabilized at the limit you are playing at now, because i have a feeling i did it the stupid way.

how did you rise up from the low limits to the limits you play now?
switched from $100 FR to 6 max fall of last year - played breakeven for about 3 months whilst i got the hang of it (bonuses kept roll going up)

when did you decide to bump up to the next level?
I play both $200 and $100 6 max now - I tend to pick high (45%+) Vp$iP tables - I prefer to play $200 but play $100 about 1/3 of the time if juicy $200 aren't around..
Technically I didn't have a great win rate (or much of a win rate at all) when I moved up to $200 but did have an $8000 roll...

when did you cash out?
I have an excel spreadsheet set up that sets my bankroll baseline (currently $8500) and lets me cash out any excess. But the baseline moves up by 10% of any excess each week, so it slowly moves up as the weeks go by (it started at $8000). If I cashed out max every week (which I don't) this would mean that I would cash out 90% of my winnings each week.

did you multi/table? if so, with what kind of bankroll and when did you decide to move up?

I have always multi-tabled Ring (I moved to Ring after 500 $5 SnG's which I mostly 2-tabled). Minimum I play is 2x$200 tables; max is 4x$100. Usually I three tables the $200's..

what do you think the best strategy would be, if i were to start over again with $150-$200 looking to get back into the 6max games?

Can you afford to lose it and are you sure you can beat these tables? If so I would play the $50 tables but buy-in for $20 to start (as on $50 tables you can get some decent bonusesrunning to insulate you against risk). More sensible advice would be to follow the 20 buy-in rule and buy in for $20 at the $25 tables.

...that's a real POTY...wow

I don't know how many LIMIT 6-max players post on BTP. I do hope one of them reads your post and can respond. Excession's reply is very useful but NL is different from limit.

General advice that applies to both limit and NL, though, is: build your bankroll without taking out ANYTHING for as long as you can. Never play short-rolled unless you absolutely have to. No point cashing out until your roll feels significantly too big for the game you're playing, AND you have no interest in moving up limits.

Good luck.