It has been awhile since I last seriously tried to move up in limits at Poker. I've only really done it a handful of time. From my starting ground of 0.5/1 full ring limit I moved up twice to 1/2 and 2/4 limit. Then I started playing 6max no limit at 50nl, and moved up once from there to 100nl which is where I've been at for awhile. This past week had been very good to me. I got a Party Poker reload bonus emailed to me, so I decided it was time to go back there and try and clear it. Well, I did rather well playing 100nl. I was up over 7 stacks in 4 or 5 days playing a couple hours per day. I felt confident and on top of the world. So it occurred to me -- what about moving up again? I had been playing 6max 100nl for quite a long time and had made a few grand at those stakes.

A few nights ago I gave it a shot. The first night I had 2 tables open and made about half a stack at 200nl. Not too shabby, but it was a short session. The next night was terrible. I dropped 4 stacks, and it just didn't feel like anything clicked. It seemed like every time I raised preflop I'd get called by people who would call my continuation bets -- but I wouldn't flop anything. I know I made a few errors, and I think I got a bit flustered. But even if I played perfectly, I doubt I'd be better than down 2 stacks.

The next night went quite a bit better. I was down a stack fairly early, but I got pretty comfortable and in the end managed to win a stack and a half or so. That brought me to last night where I thought I played alright, but for the longest time couldn't dig myself out of the one-stack whole I had got myself in. I had a great table with two incredible fish who were just asking to give their money away. It took me several hours to finally get one of them for about a stack and a half to finally draw even for the night.

It's interesting -- I don't think the game is that much tougher than the one I'm used to playing. I think it's just that the size of the swings is a little daunting. Like I said, it's been awhile since I tried moving up. So far, the experiment seems to be going alright even though I'm down a little bit so far. I've got a bit of a bankroll to sustain some loss, so it's not like I'm risking all that much. If I succeed in moving up, then I think my win rate in dollars goes up a fair amount which was the whole reason to move up.

Wish me luck! Heraldk