It’s no secret that No-Limit Texas Hold’em is what draws a lot of people to the game of poker. After all, No-Limit Hold’em is what’s commonly shown on television and it is also where many of the poker stars have made a name for themselves. But even though No-Limit Hold’em is so popular, it is often the game of Limit Texas Hold’em that many people end up playing once they take up poker. This variation doesn’t require players to go all-in (unless they’re extremely short on chips) and people can play at the limits they’re comfortable with. Since this game has also become quite popular let’s examine some strategy for doing well at Limit Hold’em.
Choosing Your Limit
The very first thing that you need to take into consideration when beginning in the game of Limit Texas Hold’em is what limit you’re going to play. Luckily, there are lots of different choices for you to make since everything from tiny micro-limits of $0.01/$0.02 all the way up to high roller stakes of $1000/$2000 are offered. In order to narrow down your choices, it’s best to pick a limit where you have enough money to cover 300 big blind bets.
For instance, if you’re looking at limits of $1/$2 then you’ll need to have at least $600 to play comfortably here. Now this isn’t necessarily saying that you’re going to lose all this money; you just need to have this much in case you’re going through a bad stretch of cards. Another thing to take into account with choosing a limit is that you should either be as good as – or better – than the people you’re playing against right away.
Starting Hand Requirements
People tend to be pretty liberal with what they’re willing to play in No-Limit Hold’em but this should change once a person sits down at a Limit table. Much of Limit Hold’em is based on math and probabilities so you need to pay special attention to what you’re willing to play in regards to your starting hand. And your starting hand requirements should be based on where you are sitting at the table and obviously the cards themselves.
Assuming you’re sitting at a full table with 10 people: the early position would be the first 3 spots after the big blind, the middle position would be the next three spots, and late position would be the next two spots (one of which is the dealer). The blinds aren’t really factored into table position since the small blind has already made half a bet and the big blind has placed the initial wager. Good hands to raise with in each position are as follows:
Early position: A-A to Q-Q, A-K
Middle position: A-A to 10-10, A-K to A-J
Late position: A-A to 8-8, A-K to A-10, K-Q
Of course your late and middle position raises will definitely depend on what has occurred before your turn. However, assuming not a whole lot of action has happened before you, you’ll want to raise with the aforementioned hands. As far as what you should be willing to call in regards to minimum bets, here is some good advice:
Early position: J-J to 7-7, A-Q to J-10
Middle position: 9-9 to 2-2, A-10 to 9-8, Ax
Late position: 7-7 to 2-2, Q-J to 7-6, Ax, Kx
Using Pot Odds
The other big component to Limit Hold’em strategy is utilizing pot odds. The purpose of pot odds is to help a person decide whether it is a good idea for them to stay past the flop, turn, or river. The formula can seem a little bit confusing at first, but it actually gets very easy to do in your head once you get the hang of it. To get started with pot odds, you need to look at the size of the pot and the bet that you need to make. For instance, say that the pot is currently $18 and you need to make a $2 bet to stay in the hand. This means the pot will be $20 after you’ve made your bet and so you’d be contributing 10% of the pot.
The second part of pot odds involves seeing how good of a shot you have at actually making your hand. The best way to do this is to look at how many “outs”, or potential cards in the deck that could make your hand, and take the number times two and add one. For instance, if there are 6 cards in the deck that could make your hand, then the formula would be 6 · 2 + 1 = 13. This means that you have a 13% to make your hand and only have to contribute 10% to the pot so this would be a profitable call. If you always exercise pot odds in Limit Hold’em, then you will be make profitable calls in the long run.
