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Doyle Brunson's No Limit Poker Genius
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Author: Marc Weinberg
Like most of you who are serious about poker one of the first books I read on the subject was Doyle Brunson's Super System. At the time I was more interested in no limit hold 'em tournaments and found Brunson's views on no-limit to be interesting but not really applicable to tournament play. Now that I play no-limit cash games, however, I understand why the man is a poker genius, and why he made a fortune.
When you play no-limit you tend to win a lot of small pots pre-flop if you are an active player, as I am. You achieve this in two ways: You bet with position, regardless of your holdings, and you bet aggressively with good holdings. I think it is very important to steal blinds and limpers' antes. If you are playing $6-$6 no limit and two players limp there is good money to be made if you are on the button. You raise it up to $24, making the pot $45. More times than not, everyone will fold to you. What cards did you have? Who cares, because you had position, and that's all-important in no-limit before the flop.
But how do you win monster pots in no-limit? For that we turn to Brunson's incredible idea of giving action when you know you're behind, and although it sounds counter-intuitive it really is the best way to make a lot of money in poker. Let me explain. Most players wait patiently in no-limit for a big hand. When they get that hand they make a big pre-flop bet to signal that they have a big pocket pair or Big Slick, and that they mean business. Brunson's central concept is to give that player action if you hold a hand like 5-7 suited or a small pair.
It all comes down to implied pot odds. Let's say a player makes it $20 to go in a $4-$4 no limit game. He has $500 in front of him and so do you. You call the $20 with 7c-8c. You know that this guy has a monster hand. The flop comes A-K-T. You fold when he bets and you're out $20. No big deal. But what if the flop comes Ah-9c-6c? Now you have a huge opportunity to take down a $1000 pot. He bets and you call. The turn is a harmless-looking 5. Your opponent bets and you re-raise. There's going to be fireworks, and because you've been active and "loose" you will get a lot of play.
Your opponent is playing by the book, and doing everything he should do. He gets QQ and raises to precisely 4.5 times the big blind. You hold 22 and call. The flop comes 7-9-2. He bets the pot and you call. The turn is another low card. You are going to win whatever amount of money this guy has in front of him. He made no mistakes, but your speculative play is the key to huge victories.
Many players think that big starting hands are what they need, and there are certain situations where that is true, namely when other players also have big starting hands. But in general those premium hands win small pots in no-limit, unless you are lucky enough to find a very weak player. If you hold AA and the flop comes K-4-7 you can win a nice pot if someone has found K-x and feels frisky. Your wins will not compare to the hand that breaks Aces, however.
Brunson's theories about no-limit poker are very advanced in one respect: You need to be a very skilled post-flop player to make them work. You need a game plan going into the hand. You're not just limping in to see if you hit the flop. Your intention is to trap for a big win or get the hell out of there. You do not play 6-6 against a big pre-flop raise so that you can see a flop of 4-7-8 and get excited because you have an inside straight draw. When you play from behind you need to know exactly how long you've got before you must hit the front. In no-limit players can punish you for waiting too long, and the card you need might never arrive.
There's a lot more to what Doyle does in no-limit (or used to do in the good old days). He liked to advertise that he played loose, and was more than happy to go broke and re-buy in order to maintain that image. His goal was to fatten up rocks for that single hand where he could win it all back plus show a big profit. The amazing fact is that thirty years later the vast majority of players still conform to a very conservative style of poker, which means that you can still make big money playing like Brunson suggests.
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