How to transition from NL to Limit?

I hear limit is a steady money maker, but I know if I just jumped in as a holdem only player, I would get smoked... any tips to help me adjust before I try it out?

I believe there is a lot less unplanned bluffing in limit. In my exp. people usually go in with top hands, and don't bluff much. I have a pretty poor sample size though, so anyone wanna chime in?

Adjussting from No Limit to Limit... play tight be very patient and don't let all the people who always play rags fool you. IN my experience I played very tight and aggressive but there were alot of times where I lost because I got tired of seeing the guy playing rags bluffing out loud. I'm sure you will do fine check the flop if you got the nuts bet the flop if you have second pair. At the $0.50/$1 and lower. 75% of the players are fish.

p.s. never show your hand and never use the automatic turn buttons. like auto check, auto raise, auto fold.

Good Luck!

these guys pretty much hit the nail on the head. If you're moving from NL to Limit...you'll have an easier time than moving from Limit to NL. Limit poker is a somewhat mechanical game where you're not going to bluff alot of people out of the pot - in the low limits, even up to 3-6 people are going to see a flop nearly 100% of the time, and if they hit even 3rd pair, they'll call you down to the river hoping to improve their hands, even though its not likely they will. And because of this, you'll see alot of suckouts....

The key to playing limit poker is to play strong poker by playing tight aggressive nearly all the time...and when you win by showign down quality hands 6 or 7 times, your raises WILL begin to get respect and you can loosen up slightly.. But the only way to beat limit poker is to play tight, and rarely bluff (if at all).

... but don't confuse "playing tight" with "playing weakly".

It's difficult to give general advice, but feel free to ask any questions you like and post some hands in the hand analysis forum, and many of us will be happy to help you out (as long are you don't include the results of the hand you post - if you do, I'll happily ignore it.

anytime you play limit the raise or fold strategy works wonders.
Thats my tip for ye, though I loathe limit games... I do play well in them. My aggressive playing style really hates the lack of ability to push people around though.... now Pot Limit is another story all together

Like in holdem, if you have a dismal hand (let's say king 6 off) in the blinds or button with only a few limpers, you can raise and isolate it to usually yourself and one other person, setting up a steal.. but I don't see any way of doing that in limit.

Yeah. Don't play K6o.

Isolation is one of the things that won't really work all that well for you. Instead, learn how and when to play the more marginal hands (that like company) - suited connectors, pocket pairs, etc. Also learn how to extract maximum value for them (for instance pumping the pot on the flop when you have four to a flush and more than 2 opponents).

Limit is all about the small edges, and exploiting them to the maximum.

yeah, get your money in before you hit it because people will fold?

Become a number-cruncher. The odds will dictate usually what you should and should not do. It's much more straightforward than no limit.

joosebuck said:

yeah, get your money in before you hit it because people will fold?

Click to expand...

Right action, wrong reason You get your money in because you're getting positive expectation on it. On the flop, with 4 to a flush, you expect to hit the nut hand ~35% of the time by the river. If you can get 3 opponents to put in money on the flop, then, you're only paying 25% of the money that you "own" 35% of. I promised Rob I wouldn't use the word so often, but it's called to have 35% equity.

Stuff like that gets really important in limit.

so just try to bet enough to keep 4:1 on your money from ppl that will/should call?

You're betting with the expectation people will call but you never know how many. If they all fold, great! A small pot is better than a big loss. But if it 'checks' around and then you hit the flush card, people will see it and be on guard. The best time to bet a flush draw is right after the flop and make them pay to play.

joosebuck said:

so just try to bet enough to keep 4:1 on your money from ppl that will/should call?

Click to expand...

Well, this specific example is kinda like that.

It has to do with how likely your hand is to win after the river. If your hand has, for instance, a 55% chance of being the best after the river, you should always bet, raise, re-raise, etc. For every dollar that goes into the pot, you get at least 55 cents.

Your hand doesn't even need to be the favorite to win for this to be correct. Let's say that your hand has a 30% chance to win, another hand has 40% to win, and three more hands have a 10% chance each to win. If you can bet and raise this pot with all of them in it, then for every dollar that goes in you've paid 20 cents, but you "own" 30 cents. So every bet you can get in the pot, you make 10 cents off of (if it's a dollar limit).

The flush is a good example, because in low limits, you so often get many opponents with you to the flop, and you therefore stand a great chance to get lots of money in with a hand that will win more than its share of the times.

I made two hand quizzes on this topic specifically (that of equity and putting your money in with the favorite):
https://www.cardschat.com/showthread.php?t=65652
https://www.cardschat.com/showthread.php?t=65738

if you are betting with 3 ppl in though, you're betting with keeping in mind that you need 1 of them to follow to the river if you make your flush?

No, but you are presuming that YOU will stay in to the river (which you just about always will).

I'd invest $25 in Small Stakes Hold'em by Ed Miller if I were you. I'd recommend that book to anyone.

is that the only one youd reccomend? pretty much the only reading ive done is of articles by you

Oh, er. I recommend tons of books, but off the top of my head:

• Small Stakes Hold'em (Miller/Sklansky/Malmuth) - this will whip your game in shape.
• Theory of Poker (Sklansky). This will make you understand poker.
• Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players (Sklansky/Malmuth). This is more solid hold'em. SSHE is aimed at loose games where people play poorly, but HPFAP will presumably last all the way up to $40/$80. I wouldn't know - I'm at $2/$4 myself

Furthermore, get PokerTracker if you haven't already. Use CardsChat affiliate link, and it will help pay for the new RAM that Nick installed.

After that, focus on getting the basics of preflop play down. SSHE will help with that. Don't get too fancy, stick with the good hands and raise when you have the better of it. Preflop play isn't difficult, but it's frequently screwed up.

If you play solidly preflop, and you're not a complete idiot once the flop hits, you should be at least break-even at this point at the microlimit tables (< $.50/$1). Then work on getting a couple of thousands hands of experience coupled with working on understanding the books you bought.

As a bonus tip, an exercise:

After each session, find a hand you played that you think is a good example of a concept that you've read about in one of the books (semibluff, value betting, bluff stopping, bluff inducing, etc.) and post it in the Hand Analysis forum and ask for opinions. "My raise on the flop was for value, since..." or "I checked on the river to induce a bluff." Let others analyze the hand for you and tell you if you've got the concept right.

And, as always, any questions you have, post away.

Edit: And flattery will get you a long way.