Moving up in limits

I’ve been hanging around the lower limits of Omaha 8 or better for several months now.  I play best at a full ring, and so I’ve been sticking to 9 and 10 handed table as much as I can.  I finally moved up to $5/$10 limits.  This means that the early bets are all $5 each, and the later bets are all $10 each.  The most I can lose in a single hand, if I bet like an idiot and had someone else betting with me, would be $120.

On the site I’ve been playing, the players are loose, and it’s been profitable.  I think this won’t be true of every site I go to.  Pokerstars O8 $3/$6 game probably plays like a $5/$10 elsewhere.

What’s interesting is my play.  I thought that the higher stakes would rattle me, but it turns out I’m playing far more carefully because there’s more money at stake.  At lower stakes, I wouldn’t think twice about playing A3KK (two suits), but at the higher limits there’s a pretty serious conversation with myself.  "This is gonna cost me at least $25, who else is in this hand?  Are they usually a strong player?  Do they even leave the house without A2, am I already beat before the cards come out?"

It’s been fun, and I think that shows that at lower limits when I get bored, I’m a loose and probably unprofitable o at least break even player.

[Update: Since I wrote this a few days ago to put in the queue for posting, I’m up about $350 at these games. Whoa.]