Your South Strip Poker Destenation (Luxor Poker Room Review)

Luxor recently moved their poker room closer to both the sports book and the self parking entrance. I think this will prove to be a good move on their part as the location of the room should provide the game with a few new players who wander in from the book, or bar. When these players do get there what they will find is tough 1-2 game made up of local grinders. Even though it is located on the strip, the game at the Luxor is a favorite of regulars. On most nights the room gets about 2-3 games, it helps that they also run small buy in tournaments throughout the day. If your staying on the South end of the strip, this is your place. The likely hood of getting a game going when you walk in is over %90. The Weekend action can be great as well as provide a nice view of the club - goers headed out to LAX. I do really like the staff here as they do a good job of informing you about promotions as well as schedules and structures of daily tournaments. Their daily tournament is a turbo, but it does include 20 minute blind levels which is a nice change of pace from some of the other daily’s . Luxor is also home to some of my favorite dealers, Francis and the guy that looks like John Fox. When provoked they can be pretty entertaining and they contain a wealth of knowledge about Vegas Poker History. They received a 5 from us on our Poker rating scale. Overall Luxor is probably one of the more under valued poker rooms in town. However when most people do visit what they get is a great game and amazing atmosphere.

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The Gold Standard (Golden Nugget Review)

                                                                       

                                                                   Rate the Golden Nugget now!                                               The Golden Nugget is home to perhaps the best nightly run 1-2 game in the world. The no cap buy in makes a huge difference. Once the game gets going, and players start getting busted, the stack sizes become large. New players are almost forced to buy in for 200 - 300 bb stacks. The daytime game is very good but at night is when the freaks come out. The three best 1-2 games I ever played in took place at the Nugget. and they all happened at night. The proximity to Freemont street (AKA “Freak show Central” ), brings in a variety of local characters and drunk tourist. The poker room cocktail service is also the best in town, receiving 5 stars on our Poker review system. It doesn’t hurt that the bar is located right next to the poker room. The waitresses are attentive and come around about every 5 minutes you can set your watch to it. Daily tournaments are run here everyday, and the Sunday Morning 5k guarantee is the best value tournament in town. The cash games are 1-2 NL and 2-4 Limit games, but as I mentioned earlier the 1-2 game is insane and features a No Cap buy in. Guarantee that the Friday/Saturday night game plays like a 2-5, and on the right night it could play like a 5-10. Love this place and believe that it is one of the most undervalued properties in the world.                                                                                                                                                      

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Bellagio Poker Room Review (A Love Hate Relationship)

I was once told that you can not love something you are not willing to hate. This describes my feelings of the Bellagio poker room. There are so many great things about playing poker here that I love. The professionalism of the poker staff, the valet proximity to the poker room, and the game selection, I could go on and on. Personally I play a lot of limit poker and Bellagio is the only place in Vegas where you can consistently get a 10-20 20-40 and 40-80 limit game going. However some things about this place drive me crazy. I hate that when you call in you get transferred to about 20 different people and it’s 50/50 whether your name will even be on the list. (except when Boba is working). I hate that the games don’t have a 3rd man walking rule and people take ridiculously long dinner and lunch breaks. It sucks even worst because many of the red chip (10-20 or bigger) limit games only have 1 or two tables going. Players waiting have to wait 30 - 40 minuets sometimes just to get a seat. Those two are bad but nothing tilts me more than the wait staff at that room. Again part of this is because I play there so often. But the other part is that they are genuinely terrible, I mean like Charles Barkley terrible. It takes forever for them to come around and when they do get to you your lucky if you get what you ordered. You know how I know the staff is bad because I can point out the good ones. I estimate that I have seen at least 15-20 different waitresses there. Out of those there are only two good ones, oddly enough these two aren’t just good they’re Tony the Tiger great. They get to you in a timely manner, they are very polite and courteous and Even when it’s not “their table” they make sure to let you know that they will get your waitress for you, now I don’t know if this is true or not, but at least they make the effort. To this day it is the only room in Vegas where I bring my own bottle of water just in case it takes forever to get a drink. Despite this I do love the room. If you can eliminate all of the outside distractions it’s one of the purest and best poker rooms in the world. The attitudes of everyone from the poker staff, to the Valet and in many cases even the players, is world class. The energy in the Bellagio is something that is difficult to explain or duplicate. The closest thing I can think of would be if your local men’s bball league game was held in the same gym as the US Olympic team, lot of high level poker players in that room. The table side food service is a nice bonus, the fact that it is free with your M life card points makes it great. The best thing going for them is that every day you play at Bellagio you are sitting in close proximity to some of the greatest poker minds in the World. I think in the case of the Bellagio the pros’s out way the cons. Overall Bellagio is the nuts, from the players, to the staff, the Bellagio poker room is the cream of the crop when it comes to Las Vegas Poker Rooms.
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Poker Should Drive You Crazy

 

  What Genius looks like 

        Years ago I used to play poker with this older guy, let’s call him Mike. Everyday Mike would come in to play looking an absolute mess. His hair was always scattered over his semi-bald head, and his clothes looked like he slept in them the night before. If one were to describe him the words Mad Scientist  might come up a lot, and believe me his antics at the table would confirm your suspicion. He was always talking to himself, always gyrating he acted like he just escaped from the Nut house. However despite his appearance Mike was a Genius poker player. He had great instincts and understood the math of the game better than Rainman at a Vegas casino. One day I finally got up the nerve to ask this crazy looking human being why he was the way he was. His answer surprised me. He simply stated, “ Cause I’m good at the game” At that time I didn’t quite understand what he meant. Years later as I began to take the game more and more  seriously, I started realizing exactly what he meant. Poker should drive good players crazy. It is a constant war between minds. Successful players are always asking themselves difficult questions at the table, sometimes they do it out loud. All of this madness in an attempt to go one level above their opponents. This is why it is often called leveling. Mistakes from previous sessions are constantly being replayed in the head like a sports highlight reel. The intense pressure of trying to make the correct decision over and over can be a drain on anyone. In fact after a long poker session many times all I feel like doing is having a drink and sleeping for 20 hours. As the hands and the years add up good players begin to skew the line between the felt and the real world. Often times in very innocent situations I will find myself interrogating someone, Studying their every move in an attempt to decipher if the Salmon really is good here. One of my favorite rappers of all time Nas once said, “The noise in my head is the curse of the talented”. Boy was he ever right. Anyone can sit down at a table and play the game, but to be good at the game takes a certain bit of crazy. I believe that the truly great players rarely get a good nights rest. In fact add that to the list of question you ask your opponent at the next table you sit down at. “Hey how did you sleep last night“? If their answer is, “ Like a baby“, Then feel free to exploit, Poker can be fun and enjoyable, but if you want to become great at it  be prepared to be committed, literally.

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9 Reasons why Online is Better than Live Poker

1. Multi- Tabling - If you’re a winning player at poker it only stands to reason that you want to play as much poker as you possibly can. Multi tabling fits that standard perfectly. I can win more money by simply opening up another table.

2. Very Low Overhead - One of the most frustrating things about Live play is the amount of effort that it takes to play. You have to drive to the venue, You have to wait for the game, you have to tip the dealers, you have to tip the waitresses, You have be civilized to the fish. All of that and then you have to try to beat the game.

3. Game Variation - Have you ever tried to learn how to play PLO or Budugi or any other form of poker before? If you go to most casinos chances are they don’t even spread these games, in fact they probably only spread Hold ‘em. Online you have the opportunity to learn these games many times for pennies, combine this with the multi - tabling aspect and you can now learn at an exponential rate.

4. Don’t have to hear other people Bad beat Stories - Now I’m not saying that you don’t ever hear bad beat stories online, but at least online you have the ability to turn off your chat or simply tune out the storyteller. Good luck doing that in live poker, how many times have you sat down at a game and the guy to the left of you starts telling you about this horrific beat? I never know how I’m supposed to respond when that happens. Sometimes I give sympathy sometimes I provide positive re-enforcement, and sometimes I pretend I’m on the Beach in the Cayman Island. One thing is certain though, I never want to hear YOUR bad beat story unless you are going to Pokersteamroom.com to post it.

5. No Dealer Errors - I guess it is possible for the machine to mess up every once and a while, but for the most part online has very little dealer mistakes. I thought of this this past summer when I was playing in an event at the Golden Nugget Casino. My opponent had lead into me on the river and I was trying to figure out what my odds where to make the call. I asked the dealer if he could spread the pot for me. The dealer looked directly at me and said, “I can’t do that” It was just then I realized that sometimes in live poker you can have very little control over winning and loosing.

6. Very little criticism - I was playing in a live tournament recently and was short stacked (under 10bb’s) when I picked up J-10 off on the cut -off everyone else had folded and I decided to take my stand. I was called by the SB who happened to have A-Q I spiked a 10 on the turn and won the hand. I could instantly hear the whispers from the players at the other end of the table. “How could he go all in with J-10” among other comments. I ignored it but it got me thinking. I went through all this work (see #2) to get here and play in this game, and I have to listen to this nonsense?

7. No waiting for a game - I absolutely hate waiting to get into games, I play a lot of limit poker at the Bellagio and it is one of the most frustrating things in the world to me sitting and waiting for an opportunity to play in a game. Online I can take my time search out the right game for me and sit on down. Time is money and there is no bigger waste of time and money IMO then waiting for a chance to beat a poker game.

8. You know the situations every time - This kind of goes back to my Dealer Error statement. Online all I need to do is look at the screen and I can tell how many chips you have, what the amount of the bet is, and how much is in the pot. In live poker your better off asking someone if you can have sex with their spouse than getting a straight answer to some of these questions.

9. No where for the fish to hide - This is a very intricate statement, when Im playing live and there is an inferior player at the table, I only have this one opportunity to beat them. If it’s a tournament and he bust me, then I’m done playing, if I bust him then he is done playing. I got no other chance to exploit this fishes weaknesses. In a cash game the same thing goes. Yes it’s true that you can reload but you still are waiting for the opportunities to exploit this opponent and these opportunities are far and few between. Online I can play this same opponent as many times as I want. If this player is in 5 cash games I can now exploit him by a factor of five same goes for his tournament play. In fact I can design my entire session around finding where this fish is playing and exploiting him.

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Passive Lines against Drunks at the table.

Recently I wrote a discussion post on a social media site describing a hand that I had recently been involved in. If your not familiar with the hand click here to view the discussion. The gist of the story is that after 3betting a reckless loose aggressive player, He 4bet shipped for my stack. The question I asked was what would you do differently in this spot. Several players that responded felt as if the best line against this opponent was to just flat instead of 3betting him pre-flop. While I respect their opinions let me make sure my position is clear. If I am ever lucky enough to rule the world people who just flat this type of opponent in this spot will be sentenced to a minimum of 10 years in prison. That is how criminal of a decision I believe that calling in that spot is. Before you begin to call me an unfair dictator at least listen to my reasoning.

1. Your putting yourself in a tricky spot after the flop:
By just flatting here your putting yourself in a guessing position after the flop. Let's say the flop comes 10 high, what are you going to do, check fold? Check Call? You could bet fold, but if you were going to do that you should probably just 3bet pre anyway to make your hand look stronger. Also what happens if the flop comes weird like 2-3-4 of spades and your holding two red 99’s? You should understand that if you do just call your opponent is going to continuation bet every single flop so essentially from what I heard your only playing back if you happen to flop a set. IMO taking these kind of passive lines, makes it very hard to win at NL Hold’ em consistently. Your opponent is hyper aggressive and it has been folded to him on the button. What did you think he was going to do? You should be expecting him to raise and a hand like 99’s is to strong to take passive lines with in this spot.

2. Missing out on Value:
One of the things that surprised me is that when I asked people in this discussion what kind of hand you thought he had? Most put him on two big cards. What if this guy has a hand like 44? He certainly will be raising with that hand from that spot. By just calling here you might miss out on a golden opportunity to extract value from your opponent. Remember just because you flop a set doesn’t mean your going to get paid off. This is where I believe that the inexperience of some players comes in to play. Instead of simply extracting value from this opponent where you can. They believe that they have to play every hand for stacks. A hand like 99 is probably going to be crushing this opponents button opening range, plus it is a very good chance that he is going to be playing every other pocket pair below nines in exactly the same fashion. Let’s say you do decide to flat and the board comes 8 - 2 -2 high and you decide to lead because you believe that is a good flop for your hand. Your opponent then tanks and decides to fold a hand like 33 or 44. You just missed out on extra value you could have made by putting in the 3bet Pre.

3. No Commitments :
"Your pot committed" I keep hearing that by 3betting in this spot I have made myself pot committed to calling. Um..... Let's think about this I started the hand with $200 My 3bet only made it $55. If I really think that my opponent has a better hand I can easily fold my hand. I have always hated the term "Pot Committed" anyway because it makes it sound like it's correct to call just because of the size of the pot. This is an easy fold if I believe my opponent, think about it would you take a $100 bet at 1000/1 that Mitt Romney will win the 2012 election? Probably not.

4. Play to win the game:
The main reason that I hate calling here is that I know that I have the best hand. Isn’t it ironic that you hear this statement all the time at the table and someone usually responds “Why didn’t you raise then”? Well I did. Sometimes to be a winner you have to throw the stats out the window. I recognize that it is very unlikely that this opponent has a “real hand” Let alone one that is better than a top 7 hand. How do I know this? His double fisting of Jack and Cokes, was a dead giveaway, and oh yea he has raised every single time it has been folded to him. So I think if you want to get it in with 99’s this just might be the spot. I agree that there are different sizes you could make your 3bet, but for this specific opponent I decided to error on the size of a larger bet, knowing that his button range will be wide I want to make a bet that will at least get him to think about folding a marginal hand like any two big cards, but not so big that he will fold a smaller pair.
In the end he did neither he shipped it with Q- 8 and missed. Making one thing not debatable, the winner of the pot. Me.

Bruce Williams is a professional poker player from Las Vegas Nevada. You can also follow him here

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Channel your inner Uncle Bob

Living in Vegas is a lot like Groundhog day every day you see the same thing over and over. A group flies into town all with various strategies about how make their Vega trip profitable. There is the intellectual, who studies the numbers and determines the games that give him the best edge. There is the disciplined money manager, who has set his budget and knows just how much he has to loose. He is followed closely by the Veteran. The guy who has been to this town many times and knows all the tricks about how to beat the games. And then you have Uncle Bob, Uncle Bob doesn’t know any of this shit. All he knows is that he has some money in his pocket and the courage that goes along with hours of comped drinks He’s not thinking about strategy, discipline or secret tactics he just wants action. Out of this quartet you know who comes out the winner time after time? Uncle Bob, he puts $10 in the machine and hits at 500 to 1.

About a month ago a friend of mine told me this analogy and it got us thinking about how this relates to poker, and we realized that sometimes Uncle Bob sits down at the poker table too. We all have seen the drunk at the table who gets his chips in the middle whenever he feels like it, often times in terrible situations. He has A-3 his opponent has Aces and Uncle Bob just solves that problem by flopping the wheel with the nut flush redraw. After hours of sitting and watching Uncle Bob pound the game it’s natural to feel frustrated and upset that such and inferior opponent can get so lucky. But before we can hate Bob we must first understand the reason’s why he seems to win so much. Those other guys that came to town spent so much time analyzing and figuring out ways to win that they lost site of why we play the game in the first place. Before we ever read a book about 4betting or semi bluffing most off us sat down at the table for one reason and one reason only…. To have fun. The game was all about kicking back having a few beers and playing some cards with friends of family. No one was sitting there criticizing our every decision, there weren’t a million house rules, and dealers? Hell we just dealt ourselves. The game was fun and as a result of this we played more loose and relaxed.

Maybe instead of being frustrated with Uncle Bob we need to learn how to embrace our inner Uncle Bob, I’m not saying we need to start shipping it with A-3 but we need to learn how to enjoy the game even if we aren’t winning. We all play poker for different reasons but the one thing that is certain is that it is a game of choice. No one has ever been forced to play poker, even tournament players who are in makeup with their backers have input about when they want to play. Sometimes the game beats us up so much that we forget about why we are really playing. The next time your stuck in a game and are going through a bad run of cards, instead of beating yourself up and becoming more and more frustrated by the fish to your left. Step back take a deep breath and ask yourself a simple question… What would Uncle Bob do?

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T.I has a great promotions Stratopshere sucks and I’m pretty sure the Orleans tournament is rigged. (Live Tournament Challenge day 4.5.and 6)

I took Wednesday off from my tournament grind, but got back in full swing on Thursday playing a total of four tournaments that day combine that with the Orleans Friday Night and the Golden Nugget Sunday Morning and that's 6 tournaments in 4 days.

Facebook feeding frenzy -  T.I has one of the most under rated promotions in town. If you check in on Facebook and cash in the tournament they will give you a free buffet voucher. It doesn’t sound like much but in case you didn’t know buffets in this town can be expensive. It’s like getting an extra $30 value.

10:00 Pm Guaranteed - T.I also runs a 10pm $1000 guaranteed tournament that is starting to get popular their were 36 players when I played on Thursday the buy in was $55 and first place was $560.

We have a winner - Right now if I would have to rank the worst run tournaments in town, the Stratosphere would be the winner. Here are some examples of why.

          1. They started at 7:20 for a 7pm tournament.

          2. In level 2 it took nearly 8min for anyone on the staff to notice that the blinds had gone up.

           3. Way to chatty if I was a tourist playing there for the first time I would never come back even if I was staying at the hotel. The dealers spend way to much time engaging in conversation with regulars. It feels like it's you against the city when your playing.

They do have one positive they serve free pizza to all the players. For this reason alone I'm willing to give the place another shot and try to see if I catch them on a better day.

Where the magic happens - I am %90 sure the Orleans Friday Night tournament is rigged, I just can’t prove it. I play this thing on a regular and I have never seen more ……. (insert your own word). It’s not just what happens in my hands but also what I see going on around me. The beats are weird. (How can a guy call off his stack with A-2 in level 2 of the tournament and get there?) Also there seems to be a ton of setup hands and just strange plays. Maybe it’s the re-entry structure, maybe it’s Friday night, maybe it’s just rigged I don’t know, but to borrow the NBA’s slogan this is where amazing happens.

Google me -
Heard a great argument at the Orleans the other night two guys are going back and forth. The guy that goes bust is taking his walk of shame but makes sure to let his opponent know he is a fish. After a few minuets of this the opponent finally shouts back “Oh yea Google me” It got me to thinking what a brilliant comeback, for me personally I have a very common name so I figure if you do Google me something good is bound to come up. The funny part is the guy comes back about 15 minuets later to tell him that he had indeed googled him and he was not impressed with his 31k lifetime earnings.

Easy Money - The Golden Nugget 5k guaranteed tournament is by far the softest in town. The early start brings out one of two kind of players.

             1. Old

             2. Hung over or carrying over from the night before.

Whatever the reason any competent player should have a good shot to go deep.When I say it is soft I mean level 1 thinkers all around. This is the same tournament where in the past my opponents continued to let me steal blind on blind with less then 5bb's. On this day I finished in 7^th place out of 34 players however it wasn’t good enough to get in the money as they only played 5 spots. The hand that crippled me actually took place when we were down to 11 players. I raised 2x from the button with AK off. The bb defended with J-8 of spades. The flop came K-7-3 with two spades. He checked, I fired the flop, he called, the turn was 9h he checked, I shipped, he called, the river brought the flush. Oh well better luck next week.



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Rookie Mistakes at the Poker table (Showing hands for free)

 



It is often said, there are no friends in Poker and I am a strong believer in that theory. I don’t care if my mom sits down at the table next to me if mom is she is an opponent then she’s getting pounded, I know my mom feels the same way. Often times when I go play I will see players voluntarily show their hand to the table, even if no one calls. I never understand this, in any competition the goal is to give up as few advantages as possible, in Football you don’t decline penalties even ones that were wrongly called, just to be friendly to your opponent. Dictionary.com defines the word call as it relates to poker as….

A. to demand a card.

B. to demand a showing of hands.

C. to equal a bet

Essentially if someone doesn’t call your bet you can assume that they don’t want to see your cards. Many people watch the pros on T.V and they see them playing the old show one card game. Well, that is a completely different dynamic. Many of these players have played cash games together for years. Seeing the card of their opponents is a strategic ploy designed to gather information. They also understand which card to show. In many of the 1 -2 NL games I play in I see this being done time and time again by 1^st level thinkers or players who only understand the strength or their hands. They do this because.
1. They want the other players to think they only play solid hands.

2. They want to let other players know they don’t bluff

3. They are excited to show a big hand

These are all valid points but lets examine the pro’s and con’s to see if they are valuable points.

Point #1 Whenever level 1 thinkers tell me this, my response is always the same. “must be nice.” Essentially what you are telling me is that when you come to the table you expect to get a number of solid hands. And at your discretion you are going to show some of those hands to your opponents for free just so they think you only play solid hands. Do I have that correct? Unfortunately the game doesn’t quite work like that. I don’t know about you but the majority of my poker sessions are filled with mucking trash and looking for spots to 3bet. The idea that I will receive a number of “solid hands is foreign to me” When I do get these solid hands and they hold up I want people to pay me, I certainly don’t want to let them off the hook by giving them a free look during the hand, it would be considered a mistake and considering that the game is constantly in motion it is also a mistake after the hand. The last thing I want them to do is find out for free that I only play solid hands this is only going to provide me with less action over time.

Point #2 This statement is so contradictory, in the same breathe that they make this statement players will say “Everyone at the table is terrible” It can’t be both if the players are terrible they certainly won’t be able to recognize the significance of you showing your hand. In your average 1-2 game many of the players are not paying attention to what is going on when they are out of the hand. Some times they are even oblivious to what your hand means. For instance when you bet the river on a As - 4s Js 2h 10s board with Ks - Kh in your hand your opponent folds on the river and then you show the table your hand. Many at the table will only glance and see that you were betting Kings with and Ace on board, in their mind you are a bluffer. If you consider the players at the table to be above multi level thinkers than you shouldn’t be showing them anything for free for fear of giving away information. So either way it is a bad idea.
 
Point 3 This is the one point that I can empathize with, it is hard to make a big hand in poker and when you do make one you start to feel a little rush of adrenaline. Your so disappointed that no one called you that you feel like you have to share your enjoyment. If this is your feeling let me let you in on a little secret. No one at the table cares about your enjoyment. The players are there to take your money, so unless you have to turn over you hand to collect a jackpot just keep em to yourself. You might not recognize it right away but in the long run it will pay off. Remember your cards have value to you make em pay to see them.

Crucial keys to Crushing Limit Poker games.

Limit Poker? The name alone sounds foreign to many of today’s players. In today’s fast action poker world limit poker often takes a back seat to NL games. Many players frown upon the game complaining that it’s silly and filled with stations. While I won’t argue with that It’s a lot more profitable than your average 1-3 game. To those who say they can’t win at Limit my response is that they probably can’t win at poker period. Every game whether it’s football or poker has a strategy to it, the key is to identify and employ a winning one. So that’s exactly what I’ll do

In my opinion the key to winning at Limit is more intangibles than tangibles. Like knowing when your running good and knowing when to cut your losses. As for the tangible there are some things you can do.

Pre - Flop aggression - It is key in Limit poker to get the last raise in Pre-Flop even more so than in NL. The main reason is because you can’t be raised off your hand. In No Limit when you 3bet someone you open up the possibility of them re-raising you off your hand. In limit the best they can do is give you better pot odds. Increase your 4betting range in these games to build pre-flop pots. Because many people will check to the last raiser regardless of their hand, You will be assured of at least one street of control. Finally by building that pre flop pot you provide yourself with correct pot odds should you have to make a tough call on latter streets.

Saving bets - In Limit poker it’s not so much the bets you win as it is the bets you save. Many people play a calling station type of game just check calling on every street hoping to turn over a winner. The most obvious example are the players that call down all three streets with one pair hands. This is a common mistake that limit players make thinking “I flopped a pair so I should go to the river with it“. You should be trying to use the post flop street to get significant information on where you stand in the hand. Wasting two small bets is much cheaper than wasting two big bets speculating. So many players never make a profit in Limit because they waste so many bets calling down with weak holdings.

Keep your pots big and their pots small - You no how you can check to see if you are having a winning day at Limit poker? Count the number of times their pots go check - check vs. the number of times your pots go bet call. This is one of the main reasons I like raising Pre to get the field to heads up as quickly as possible. Heads up play in Limit is much simpler than NL because now there is a cap on what you can lose. The quicker you get the hand to heads up the quicker you can decide if you want to play for max value or not. You should be trying to play passive and get to cheap showdowns with marginal holdings, but conversely pressuring and raising big made hands or draws. Let’s say you have AK spades and the board comes 5-9-2 with two spades. You opponent leads into you for $20 and gets called in one spot. You raise to $40 and both your opponents just call. The turn is a blank and they check to you. If you decide to check behind it has only cost you $40 to see two cards as opposed to $60 also you have taken control of the pot and if you do bet the turn and make your hand on the river you have built a big pot for yourself if you miss your hand they win a check - check pot. The point being you want to let the size of the pots be dictated by your holdings. Strong hands big pots marginal hands small pots.

Enough’s enough - NL is a game of swings limit is a game of runs, In a No Limit game your money is at risk every minute your in the game. Nothing is more frustrating then to build a big stack and have a fish sit down and wipe you out because he got there. Limit is not like this In Limit there is only so much they can take from you each hand. When I’m in a limit session I am trying to get to a winning day a number so much that I can’t loose it all unless I sat through an awful run (which I won’t do) In $20 - $40 that number is usually about $800 If I get up that much in the game then it is unlikely that I will give all my profit back if after a short time I’m down to only $500 profit then I will start making decisions about when to leave, usually I make some sort of goal for myself, I will say if I don’t win a hand by the next dealer, or the next blind or in the next $100 I’ll leave. I know it sounds suppositious but I have found that the gut knows. When your playing NL hold em there are so many wild card factors that it’s hard to predict what the next hand will bring. Limit is a true grind and to win consistently you must recognize that. There is no glory in beating Limit only profit.

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