So we’ve talked Low, Middle and High poker players, the fear that keeps some knowledgable Middle players in that position, and the confidence that allows the High players to excel at the game we all love. But we should take a step back and acknowledge some cold hard facts as well (these are true for me personally, your mileage may vary): <READMORE>

<TABLE cols=2 border=0 rows="1"><TBODY><TR><TD>1) I may have the game and confidence to play $100+ tournaments and $25/50 NL, but with a $500 bankroll, that’s suicide.

2) As a Middle for 2+ years of online poker, I have an established comfort zone. Even if my bankroll went up 10x tomorrow, playing in a game with 10x my usual stakes would probably make me tighten up regardless of how much self-confidence I have. I’ve never thrown a $200 bet (or worse, a bluff) into a pot, and I’m sure my heart would seize up if I tried it without gradually moving through the in-between limits, and succeeding at each of them.

3) If I were to remain a Middle for the rest of my poker-playing days, I’d be OK with that. As much as I’d love to live the dream, I also have to think about what else my meager poker winnings could provide. $209 can get me a couple of buys in an Aruba qualifier, or school clothes for my son. In my life today, that’s a no-brainer.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Now, constrained by those facts, here’s what steps I’m personally taking to try and drive my game from a Middle to a High, when my bankroll puts me in the Land of the Low Player.

First, you have to understand that the creativity that dictates success at a High level will cost you money with Low players. Playing very tight but aggressive every hand you choose to play will consistently make you money. As an example, I think that varying your play with AA or KK pre-flop gets you nothing against a table full of Lows. Don’t limp around, trying to be cute, unless you are overwhelmingly sure you’ll get a raise and a couple of calls back around to you. The Low player may stink, but they’re usually smart enough to fold 75 offsuit when faced with a raise of 4x-5x the BB. Minimum raises and limps only encourage four, five or even more people to stick around and see the flop, which is what you definitely don’t want. At low-limits, the adage “it’s better to win a small pot than lose a big one” is absolutely true. Besides, you’ll find plenty of people willing to call your 4x BB raise with A9 offsuit and will keep paying you off when the flop comes 9-high. Keep grinding it out at .25/.50 NL, and you’ll be surprised at how fast your roll grows and allows you to move up to the next level (or pay for textbooks, or Christmas presents…remember, it’s OK to keep doing that forever rather than trying to be Mahatma).

If you’re confident as a Middle that you can beat games full of Lows, my advice is to play on the edge of your bankroll. I’m not saying to violate Rule #1 above. But the traditional guideline is that you should have 300 big bets for a limit game, 20-30x the buy-in for NL cash games & SNGs, and 50x the buy-in for a MTT. Confidence in your game will allow you to loosen those requirements by half (at least), because your downward swings should not be as great if you stick to what you know you need to do to win. At my current bankroll, I’m playing at 100-150 big bets for limit, 10-15x the buy-in for NL cash games & SNGs, and 15-20x the buy-in for a MTT. Those numbers are my recommendations for low limit games: $10-20 SNGs, $5-10 MTTs. When (not if, when) I get the opportunity to move up in stakes, I will certainly be raising my guidelines back closer to the norm. With a $500 bankroll a few months back, I made the mistake of playing in the nightly $30+3 MTT at UltimateBet for a week or two. I made the money twice, and always lasted until the second break. But I ended up doing more damage to my bankroll than was smart, and ended up damaging my confidence as well with the nightly “there goes another 10% of my roll, and damn, why did I bubble AGAIN?!” thoughts that trickled through my head as I left the table.

Third, experiment around with different poker sites. If you can only afford up-to-$20 SNGs, it’s important to know that each site has vastly different quality of players in them. $20 SNGs at UltimateBet are full of Middles, in which you can start to try out some of your “wannabe High” techniques. $20 SNGs at Bodog are full of Lows, dictating solid play. Knowing your opponents is the key to success, at any level of poker. You can achieve a wide variety of play within the same bankroll level, just by trying multiple sites.

Not only should you vary what sites you play at, you should also play a bunch of different games, even ones you don’t know very well. You can learn something new from every game that’s out there. And the odds are very good that the majority of people at a .25/.50 Pot-Limit Omaha table don’t know any more about the game than you do. I recently sat in a .50/1 Razz game at FullTilt where someone played three full rounds at the table before figuring out that the low hand was winning every time. If you’re fighting an uphill battle in the swarm of No Limit Hold’em, step out of it for awhile. When you come back, you’ll likely come back with a fresh perspective, a better player, and maybe with some extra jelly in your roll.

Finally, there is a simple way for the Middle to work their way up to compete with the High without busting their bankroll. It’s obvious…every site offers satellites to every $100+ tournament starting at $3-5 (and sometimes even cheaper, Bodog offers a satellite structure for WSOP/WPT events for $1). Recently, I’ve been taking a percentage of everything I win in cash games and SNGs and putting it toward playing in satellites. I learned several things from playing (and almost cashing) in the Bodog $100K guaranteed a couple weeks ago, about my game and about myself. It’s smart bankroll management. But more importantly for the Middle looking to become a High player, it’s a way to see up-close-and-personal what great players do, and to be comfortable sitting next to them. Being comfortable goes a long way to eliminating fear, which as we discussed last time, is the primary distinction between the Middle and the High.

Now, c’mon all you Middles, go out there and win something (just not at my tables)....
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