| Limit Hold Em for the Novice
Some newer players don't understand the attraction of Limit Hold Em. They see No Limit as the more attractive, more televised, richer game. This is true to some degree. However, in the real world of professional poker, there are a massive number of players who make their living playing Limit. For some time, I was among that number!
The first thing you should do is determine if the pace and attitude of Limit appeals to your nature. In Limit, you have to fully understand the odds. You need the discipline to play quality hands and only the best speculative hands. Most importantly, your gains and losses tend to be steady and gradual. You'll need to follow strict bankroll procedures, and don't expect to be doubling your bankroll overnight. In a nutshells, Limit Hold Em is a more conservative gave than No Limit.
Be prepared for a LOT of players seeing the flop in the lower stakes Limit games. That means, in a multi-way pot, you either have to be willing to call a capped pot (4 bets) to see if your speculative hand is going to hit, or you have to have the discipline to fold if the implied pot odds aren't in your favor. You should also expect to see a lot more suited connectors seeing flops, and don't be frustrated when a strange hand takes it down. The numbers work out in the long run, and if you continue to play quality hands correctly, you'll find your bankroll going up!
Bluffing in Limit is different. Overall, bluffing works less often, but making people THINK that you're bluffing pays out much more often. On one side of the coin, it's very cheap for someone to call your heads-up raise, so if they have a decent piece of the board, they're going to call you right down to the river. That having been said, putting out a false tell at the right time is the best way to make a couple of extra big bets! And since the fish at the table are losing their money at a slow pace, they tend to stick around.
In order to sit down at a given ring game, your bankroll should be at least 250 big bets. In other words, in a $2/$4 Limit game, you want a bankroll of at least $1,000. When you reach 400 big bets, you can consider moving up to the next level. For example, if you get up to $1,600 in your bankroll, you can move up to a $3/$6 game (which requires a minimum of $1,500). Keep moving up until you're still beating the games to your satisfaction. As long as your casino or online haunt has a wide selection of games, the 250 to 400 big bet range should work quite well. But if you find yourself outside of that range, with no games available in the right limits, err on the side of caution and play in the cheaper game.
Your goal in a ring game is to make between 1 and 2 big bets every hour. Don't expect to sustain anything more than that over the long run. If you do, that's great! You'll rapidly push your bankroll to the point where you can play in higher limit games, which you're probably more suited for anyway.
Limit Hold Em doesn't have the same glamor that No Limit has. But the rewards are there, and the overall risk is less. The monitoring of your progress and your bankroll is much easier. Finally, you'll have another trick in your bag. There are a bunch of Limit tournaments out there, and a bunch of WSOP bracelets to win in Limit events! And of course, Limit Hold Em is one of the components of HORSE, which is possibly the best cash game online right now. So consider picking up a good book or two on Limit, and then get your feet wet.
Bill Ricardi ? Internet Gaming Guru  | 
11-13-2007, 05:43 PM
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