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How To Win At Limit Poker - Some Thoughts
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Author: Marc Weinberg
I am far more successful at tournament poker than I am at limit poker, and it finally occurred to me how to change my game in order to improve my limit poker results. These insights should help your limit poker game as well. I learned two things this weekend: You should overbuy into a limit game, and you should play very aggressively with that big stack.
The second observation is the crucial one. I am advocating a style of play that is very loose and aggressive, frequently betting with mediocre hands, and raising whenever you are in a hand. It seems to me that poor play is rewarded to a far greater extent in limit poker than it is in other formats, particularly tournament no-limit hold'em where poor play usually ends your day's work entirely.
If the game is $3/$6 the typical buy-in is $100. You're in a card room and it makes sense to get one rack of whatever denomination of chip you're playing. So when you play $10/$20 you buy-in for $500 (100 $5 chips). I think you should buy-in for at least double the amount and play for suck-outs. When you enter a pot you do so with a raise, and you slow down only when you feel like it.
Today I three-bet with absolute rags on the turn, something I hardly ever do in tournament play, and I did this more than once. It worked every time, but it wasn't that surprising because I had momentum and a huge stack in front of me. The stack frees you from concern regarding "correct" play. Are you getting the correct pot odds to draw to this straight? Who cares? Bet like you have the straight already and put the question to your opponent for four-bets. If he calls you could still hit the straight and bleed him for at least two more bets, and if you miss you can fold at the first sign of strength.
It was liberating poker. I am often the guy who flops top-pair great kicker in a limit game only to be chased down by some fool who makes two small pair on the river. But what if there is wisdom in this foolishness? A wise scribe once remarked that in poker most flops miss most hands. This is very true in shorthanded limit games where my "scorched earth" style of poker has it's greatest returns.
No-limit poker is the arena where miscalculations are punished, and where understanding odds and value is all important. But in limit I just don't think it's true. Money goes to money in limit poker. Arrive with a big buy-in, a fatal error in no-limit cash games by the way, and drive out your opposition with sheer force of will and a little pressure thrown in.
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