Limit vs No Limit What's Right for You
There are two basic betting structures in poker: limit betting, and no limit betting (there’s actually a third, which is pot limit betting, but since this game in many ways plays like no limit we’ll exclude it for the time being). And while many players master either one form or the other, the fact is that very few players can play both of these games at a high level. Some people gravitate to no limit, while others seem to do better in limit games. Which game is best for you?
Oddly enough, many new (or otherwise unsophisticated) players are surprised to learn that this is even a question which needs to be considered. They assume that the two games ‘more or less’ play the same, and are happy to take a seat in whichever game is available. But as any experienced player will tell you, these two games are like night and day. In fact, other than the fact that they share some basic rules they almost couldn’t be any more different.
When people ask me which of these games they should try to specialize in I ask them one basic question: How much time do you want to spend learning the game? Once they’ve honestly answered this question I find it’s relatively easy to steer them in the right direction.
If you don’t plan on really dedicating yourself to learning the game, but just want to learn enough to keep you from losing your shirt, then no limit is probably the game for you. Most people are surprised to learn this; they assume that no limit is far more complicated than limit, and that it takes much longer to reach a general level of expertise. But this is only really true for no limit games with big antes and strong opponents. In the smaller blind games—like $2-$5 and lower—the quality of play is often so unbelievably poor that a player who simply plays a cautious and patient game can frequently clean up. Say, for instance, you find yourself in a small no limit game with lots of preflop calling, and plenty of players who will thoughtlessly call huge bets with hands like an overpair (i.e., a pocket pair that’s bigger than the highest card on the board) or top pair with a decent kicker. In a game like this you can usually do quite well by just sitting back, playing speculative hands like small pocket pairs and suited connectors when it’s cheap to see a flop, and then pushing in all your chips when you flop a huge hand. Playing big pairs is also fairly easy; when you get dealt a hand like kings or aces just bet about 20% of your stack before the flop and push it all in on the flop (an exception to this would be when you have kings and an ace flops). Sound easy? Well, it is! And while there’s definitely more you can do in a game like this to increase your win rate, a simple strategy like this can often give you a respectable earn.
Limit poker, on the other hand, can take a while to learn to play well—even at the smaller limits. This is because limit poker often requires a player to play a hand in an unusual way in order to ensure themselves of a positive expectation. The reasons for this are beyond the scope of this article, but suffice it to say that limit poker, while appearing easier on the surface, actually requires a unique set of skills that can take some time to acquire. The bright side for limit players is that middle stakes games tend to be easier than their no limit counterparts, so a player who really immerses themselves in the game can move up in limits more quickly than a no limit player. While learning the basics of no limit isn’t all that tough, you hit the ceiling pretty fast. In limit, however, the basics are harder to learn, but those ‘basics’ will allow you to beat some fairly big games—provided that your game selection skills are up to snuff.
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