I have read Piers posts for a long time, I have the utmost respect for him as a card player and if he can have a bad run like that then anyone can. Take his words of wisdom and experience to heart.

Yes, Piers is a very wise man. But I think 1000BB for full ring limit is a bit insane. This means you won't be playing 5/10 until you have a $10,000 BR!!! That is really overdoing it in my opinion, 300 BB is definitely enough, maybe 400 if you're BR isn't easily replaceable. especially if you have the discipline to drop down a level if you drop below 150BB (This puts you at 300 BB for the other level, like $1200 to play 2/4, if you drop down to 600 you go back to 1/2 where you'll have 300 bb again, you can move up accordingly)

I will try to tackle this one more time and again this is only my opinion as factors such as aggressive play and pushing all edges versus a more conservative approach will change the numbers. For a recreational winning player playing at the lower limits they certainly don't need a huge bankroll and if they are willing to drop levels it can even be smaller, let's say in the neighborhood of 200 Big Bets if they are willing to drop down a level if they lose 100 BB. If a person has any type of game at all and are pursuing bonuses, rakeback etc. to a somewhat proficient degree it would be hard to go bust with 200 BB and dropping levels when needed.

On the other hand if you are playing poker as your only source of income I would say that you need at the very minimum 500 BB for a certain limit, IF you are not willing to drop down after a 200 BB or so loss and if you are not particularly efficient at going after bonus/rakeback etc. Because of bonus chasing and rake back I was still able to show a profit pretty much every day despite suffering through a near 600 Big Bet downswing. That is the power of playing within your BR and taking advantage of free money. If I had been playing at a level where I only had 300 Big Bets this downswing would have been really nasty even with the aid of bonus etc. At least for myself there is a real mental comfort in knowing I can sustain probably the worse run of poker that I will ever face and it doesn't so much as dent the BR. That in itself helps me to continue to play my best game at all times without having to worry about what happens if I lose the next couple of hands. The mental comfort of being able to play your best game, and I don't know many folks that play tremendously well on scared money, without worrying about some losses is one of the keys to my long term success and you just can't do that if you are sitting on a 300 BB bankroll and go through a 250 Big Bet downswing in my opinion. It is for that reason I gave a real conservative figure although at times I don't follow my own advice and take shots at higher levels on occasions but I am not afraid to beat a hasty retreat if things go bad. I am also coming from the point that my BR is used to play poker and is also used to pay the bills each month so in that respect it has to be much greater than 300 Big Bets because rent/food/utilities/beer are a pretty serious bad beat every month.