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I have often heard it said that Limit Holdem is the weakest form of Texas Holdem Poker because you cannot lose your stack in any one hand. Exponents of no-limit holdem seem to think that this is the ultimate form of poker. However it is relative to the stakes that are being played. A game of $30-$60 limit holdem could see a player lose 100 big bets in a session and that equates to $6000.
But a player who was playing $100 no-limit poker would have a very bad session after losing four buy-ins which is a mere $400! So it isn't the game that dictates the risk but the stakes. To be able to judge the merits of both games properly then you need to have experience in both of them and substantial experience at that.
The greatest ability of a skilled Texas Holdem Poker player is in how they play post flop. While playing post flop is a requisite skill in both no-limit play and pot limit play, it is even more so in limit holdem. This form of poker requires that you not only play far more flops, turns and rivers but you will also see far more showdowns as well.
Any fool can identify a good hand and a strong hand comes close to playing itself. This isn't always the case of course as one of the key skills in all forms of poker is in extracting the maximum available value. However you could take the same hand in both no- limit poker and limit holdem and the limit example would require decisions far more often on later streets.
Not being able to lose your entire stack in limit play is often seen by many players as being the deciding factor in why this form of poker is less skilful than no-limit poker. The now famous quote by the legendary Doyle Brunson about no-limit poker being the "cadillac" of poker games seems to indicate that this is the ultimate form of Texas Holdem poker.
Well if no-limit play is the Cadillac then limit play must be the Rolls Royce. An unskilled but aggressive player in no-limit hold'em would be dangerous but take that same player and put them into a limit holdem environment and they would stand very little chance of survival. The constant grind of playing flops and turns and rivers would be like death by a thousand cuts to their bankroll.
However there are strong similarities with both forms of poker. One of those similarities is in how crucial it is to select the appropriate games. Picking weak opponents is just as crucial in limit holdem as it is in no-limit or pot-limit. Also the playing patterns of your opponents come into play as well. If you spot playing patterns in your opponents in poker and you set out to exploit them then it does not really matter what form of poker that you are playing.
Limit holdem was my first game of choice in online poker when I first started years ago. This was to do with the fact that the software for playing no-limit poker wasn't around at that time. The games were populated by weak fish but because this was the first big game online then this became the game that people became good at first. So what happened was that more and more players were choosing a different form of Texas Holdem poker and that form of poker was no-limit. In limit holdem ring games, it is often the case that when you play pre-flop that you either raise or re-raise or fold. Calling is usually not an option unless you are playing in full-ring games with hands that play well in multi-way pots or you are in the blinds.
In limit six handed play then you need to figure out two important things before the hand even starts. This is the overall profitability of your hand and whether or not your hand wants a multi-way pot or whether it would prefer heads up action. A piece of junk like Jc-4d for example shouldn't be played at all but if you had to play it then you would choose to play a heads up pot than a multi-way one.
This is exactly what I mean by deciding whether or not your hand wants heads up action or multi-way action. In no-limit play, doing hand match up simulations is of little use as many of the hands do not go to showdown. For instance it will do you little good to put the hand 3c-3d into PokerStove against A-K to see that it is a 53% favourite if it goes to showdown.
The chances are that it will never get to showdown and the pocket threes play poorly against numerous overcards. The situation is compounded even more if the player with the pocket threes plays too passively post flop. But in limit play, the 53% has more relevance as the river and showdowns happen far more frequently.
Looking back to the J-4 example, if you chose to play this hand then you would be better off open raising with it from the button or small blind after everyone had folded to you. At least in these instances you would stand a fair chance of winning the pot pre-flop without a showdown or at some further point in the hand by a continued show of aggression. But as I said earlier, you would be simply better off mucking the hand as the hand has poor equity against most hands that would play against it.
You need a good technical game to do very well playing limit poker but if you can achieve this then you can do very well with rakeback schemes. The lower limit games are raked very high in proportion to the amount of the average pot but if you can break even on the actual tables themselves then you can often make a lot of money from rakeback payments. This means that the fact that you see more flops, turns and rivers is working in your favour on sites that have contributed raking systems.
This article was written by Carl "The Dean" Sampson who has been a professional online poker player, poker theorist and writer for eight years. Prior to that he was a blackjack player and has written three books on poker and casino games
