Champion of Poker

Limit Holdem was once the most popular version of Texas Holdem poker. Ten years ago I first logged onto a poker site online and the only games that were populated with players regularly was in limit holdem. I think this was because No Limit Hold ‘em did appear very scary because you could bet anything at any time and with limit, new players could control their money better and keep control of the pot sizes.

Limit Poker is a very technical game that has faded into the background since the poker boom of 2003. As Holdem became more widely played it was Pot Limit Omaha and not Limit Holdem that became more popular. Amidst all of this there is a dedicated poker playing community online that continue to play high stakes limit holdem. It is a variation of poker that is particularly useful if you want to learn about betting and playing after the flop on the turn and river. Your play of drawing hands, implied odds and the ability to recover from bad beats will be improved by learning this version of poker.

No Limit Texas Hold ‘em is all about psychology. You can win a pot by frightening your opponent away with big bets and offering them terrible pot odds to make a call. Finesse is required in limit hold ‘em with pot odds usually being attractive for most calls to be made. In fact the worst odds you can be offered in limit holdem is 2 to 1. Rather than the focus being on psychology the limit poker focus is on math, logic and legitimate poker skill. The more players in the hand the more improved the pot odds become. It can appear you suffer more bad beats in limit because players are able to chase cards with more ease therefore drawing is far more common in limit because of this.

Any limit game of poker requires a good knowledge of your odds to win at all times. You will learn to quickly calculate odds for your chances of winning the hands based on a range of potential hands your opponent could be holding. Rather than facing big bets for large swings in stack size you will need to outplay your opponents in a limit game and make better decisions more often to win. Whilst it is possible to get lucky and win a poker tournament more often than not it is a skilled limit holdem player that wins through.

For anyone wanting to improve their math in poker, use Limit Holdem to help you refine that part of your game.

The most common criticism levelled at limit poker is that it is boring due to the lack of big bets and exciting action. Certainly in the early levels of a poker tournament it can seem extremely quiet given the small pots that develop and it is difficult to get motivated over pots that are 5% of your stack maximum. But the truth is that not many poker players know how to play limit holdem well. It is widely accepted that limit holdem heads up can involve bigger swings than in no limit holdem due to the hands you must call down and you can have big runs of good and bad luck.

All of the large poker rooms offer Limit Holdem as a playing option and I found it complicated but fun and not the boring game many brand it. It is a technical game and it will suit any player who enjoys out manoeuvring their opponents. Extraordinary profits can be earned by heads up specialists in limit holdem and we will look at some of the big names in the limit holdem world in part 2 of this article.

By Malcolm Clarke