194 hands is an extremely small sample and I would say you should put in at least 5-10K of hands before you consider that level "beat." Moving up too fast is the cause of many player's problems.

Thanks for the advice. Every night I keep Poker Tracker and Ultimate History open and track various tables at my current limit and the next higher limit.

I'm now currently up to 700 hands winning 15.14BB/HR. I had my first losing session earlier this afternoon where I caught cold cards for a good hour on both tables, or was drawn out on when I had the 2nd best possible hand (smaller FH vrs bigger FH made on river). That accounts for the major decline in BB/HR. (And of course because I now have a larger sample size.)

As I've been telling my friends, I will be following your advice. I'll stick with these limits for at least a few more days. If all goes well (as it seems it should), I can move up to the next highest limit, where I am already preparing. There still are plenty of other calling stations and fishes for me at the next limit, as PT has shown.

I don't know about playing another 5k hands at this limit. But I'll at least stick with it for a few more days. If I have trouble at the next limit, I'll drop back down and practice some more.

Personally, I spent at least a couple months at each limit before I moved up. I was also very cautious about moving and could have moved sooner but I believe the extra time I spent at lower levels really helped me. Good luck with everything and keep us posted.

Well, after looking at these numbers, I have obviously gotten very lucky to not be hurting real bad. Here are my numbers for 3/6:

1745 hands
VP$IP - 30.03%
VP$IP from SB - 47.06%
Won $ WSF - 35.68%
PF Raise - 9.28%
Win rate - 4.08BB/100

Aggression:
Flop: 1.08
Turn: 1.12
River: 1.41
Total: 1.15

Okay PT experts. I take it that I've been extremely lucky to have a positive win rate? I've played almost exclusively no limit, but I've been tinkering with some limit lately. I'm thinking that I should play less hands, and play them more aggressively when I do?

Perhaps just play more "scared"? My much more limited 10/20 numbers are as follows:
286 hands
VP$IP - 20.63%
PFR% - 5.88%
W$WSF - 34.92%
Win rate: 7BB/100

Aggression:
Flop: 0.81
Turn: 1.30
River: 1.75
Total: 1.13

I was playing scared to death at this level, and I twice flopped sets only to have AA river an A once and QQ river a Q (almost $500 total between the two pots). It was shortly after these hands that I decided I was glad to be up at all. And just about everyone was a freakin' eagle at this level. Seems like a huge jump from 5/10...no?

Thanks for any input.

GlassJoe, first let me say that I like the avatar

Your sample size is rather small, but you definitely look to be running well. 30% VP$IP just won't cut it long term, unless you are playing 6-max. Your 10/20 numbers look a bit more reasonable, but that's a pretty high limit to be learning at -- you should pick something in line with your experience and bankroll, and work your way up from there.

Post flop aggression is also a little on the low side.

Thanks for the input, Nortenesque. Yeah, I was tinkering around a bit higher than I should. I placed 2nd in a $50 MTT and tripled my BR (got it just over 7K), so I was messing around up at 10/20 because I had 350 BBs, but wow the money flies around up there.

I just need to read up some on limit and try to get used to the patterns. I think my flop aggression numbers are a bit low because I tend to call more than I should on the flop because I'm either drawing or waiting until the turn to raise a monster. I'm discovering, though, that raising the flop doesn't necessarily give my big hands away, though, because people so often raise their draws on the flop.

Anyway, I'm going to do some research here about how to best improve my limit game. I think I'm probably better suited to NL, but I like the idea of not getting these kinds of beats:

***** Hand History for Game 2165866114 *****
$200 NL Hold'em - Monday, June 06, 19:57:53 EDT 2005
Table Table 36617 (Real Money)
Seat 10 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 3: zzedy ( $253.2 )
Seat 6: arkose ( $206.7 )
Seat 7: mick2000 ( $272.2 )
Seat 8: StrtFlush32 ( $21.45 )
Seat 4: GlassJoe ( $193.2 )
Seat 10: IBangHoes ( $32.85 )
Seat 1: PlaysWthNuts ( $200 )
Seat 5: FinweSaralon ( $233 )
Seat 2: neverWINSnow ( $174.28 )
Seat 9: snotogo ( $200 )
neverWINSnow posts small blind [$1].
GlassJoe posts big blind [$2].
snotogo posts big blind [$2].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to GlassJoe [ As Ac ]
FinweSaralon folds.
>You have options at Table 36543 Table!.
arkose calls [$2].
mick2000 folds.
StrtFlush32 folds.
snotogo raises [$8].
IBangHoes folds.
neverWINSnow calls [$9].
GlassJoe raises [$33].
>You have options at Table 41397 Table!.
>You have options at Table 36731 Table!.
>You have options at Table 36543 Table!.
arkose folds.
snotogo calls [$25].
neverWINSnow calls [$25].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6c, 2s, 4h ]
neverWINSnow checks.
>You have options at Table 36731 Table!.
>You have options at Table 41397 Table!.
GlassJoe bets [$75].
snotogo is all-In [$165]
>You have options at Table 41397 Table!.
neverWINSnow is all-In [$139.28]
GlassJoe: man, i hope you guys both have KK
GlassJoe is all-In [$83.2]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ts ]
** Dealing River ** [ Kd ]
GlassJoe shows [ As, Ac ] a pair of aces.
snotogo shows [ Th, Td ] three of a kind, tens.
neverWINSnow doesn't show [ 7c, Kc ] a pair of kings.
>You have options at Table 36731 Table!.
snotogo wins $6.8 from side pot #2 with three of a kind, tens.
snotogo wins $37.84 from side pot #1 with three of a kind, tens.
snotogo wins $521.84 from the main pot with three of a kind, tens.
neverWINSnow has left the table.

I believe that's what sent me to 5/10 limit originally...

What site do you play?

Showdown Win % can be misleading. Example:

WtSD (Went to Showdown): 16%
W$SD (Won $ at Showdown): 100%

What does this tell you? The player is weak-tight, and only goes to showdown with the nuts. When taken WITH other statistics, W$SD is a valid indicator, but alone it can't really be a useful measure.

Hands - 2,200

VP$ip - 10.36
VP$ip from small blind - 17.39%

pfr - 5.97%

Flop - 2.98
Turn - 3.04
River - 1.7
Total - 2.64