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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