written by VINNY VT DeucesCracked Contributor
published about 3 years ago

So you've grinded all those hours at 100nl and are all prepared to move up to 200nl. You've watched countless videos, read the forums, searched for advice from everyone, you have the allotted 30 buy-ins for the new level, and now it's time to take the plunge so you can start making some serious bank from this game. It's time to take it to the next level!

You fire up 4 tables of 200nl and start off by folding every hand. Hands you may play at 100nl just don't look good enough anymore, you're scared these new opponents might see right through you so you just fold um up, after all these are 200nl players!

Eventually you get into your groove and start playing then something happens. Something just goes wrong and a basic situation destroys you. It's called fancy play syndrome, or FPS for short. FPS is a syndrome that a ton of poker players have, actually, everyone has it in some form or another and it plagues the best of the best. This is where you out level yourself and take a basic hand and absolutely just butcher the hell out of it. You try to get cute by proving your superior knowledge of the game and your reasoning tends to go like this:

My opponent knows, that I know what he has, so we have to know he knows that you know etc etc.

Don't fall into this as I have once before.

Here's an example of an actual hand I had from a while back that I made a stupid move that cost me a lot of money at the time. I still remember it to this day and this is where this lesson comes from.

400nl, full ring, CO:400 Button (Me): 786 SB: 356 BB: 805

Fold to the cutoff who is a loose/aggressive player and he raises to 14

Button is me and I look down at AcTc so I 3bet to 48, SB folds, BB 4bets to 169

Folds back to me and here I go.

Oh he knows that I 3bet light because this other player is a lag so he's just making a move on me. He knows I can't have anything here so he's just trying to push me out. I'm gonna out level him, I won't be pushed around, you're playing a professional buddy! ALL IN!!! Yeah he can't call here I'm soooo good so ship those 200 big blinds in.

BB snap calls and shows KK, oops, Ace me please dealer, HIT ME!!! Flop blanks, turn blanks, come on river hit me with the goods ONE TIME (it's always just one time), nope blanks out and ship the biggest pot you've ever been in to some random donk who actually woke up with a hand.

So what went wrong, why did I shove such a clear fold spot? Well, when moving up to a higher level many players have to cross the mental threshold and understand that IT'S STILL POKER!! It's still the same game that you've been playing with the same type of opponents. AA is still AA and will be beat by 22 the same percentage of times. The game is the same, maybe a few opponents are better, but they don't sit around looking for people who just moved up so that they can make super fancy plays on them and send them back to the micro stakes.

Treat the new level as the same game and initially do what you've been doing, do what has made you successful the countless hands before this one. Don't over analyze the situation and just keep it simple. KISS (keep is simple stupid) is what I was always told by my soccer coach back when I was younger. Just keep it so simple it's stupid, but it's effective and it will work.

This principle isn't just for the micro grinders, mid stake players must also overcome these problems while moving up to higher limits also.

Good luck moving up guys and remember give yourself a stop loss and move back down if you're not comfortable. There's no shame in it you'll just make yourself better by doing this in the long run.