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Ok, so we’ve gone over the definition of Limit and No Limit and betting
structures, but the difference between the two games is much more than
betting structure. The whole game is played differently; just watch a game
of professionals in each structure and you’ll see what I mean. Let’s have
a look at what these differences mean in play: First off, bluffing in
limit games is totally different. As a matter of fact, I would go as far
as to say that in a low limit structured game, bluffing is almost
pointless. Why? Because you can’t scare someone out of the pot with the
small maximum permissible raises! That’s for No Limit games, where a
player with a large chip count can force a smaller stacked opponent to
consider risking his entire stack and life in the game. That’s the kind of
bluff that makes an opponent fold a hand. Representing a strong hand is a
common tactic, and it is obviously much more effective in No Limit,
because you can force an opponent to bet his entire stack on the premise
that you’re lying about the strength of your hand. In Limit, he would only
be forced to bet a small percentage to get a read on you, and often in low
limits, it’s almost worth the call for pure recognizance.
A successful approach in limit games also requires a different touch-
aggression is usually the order of the day. With a good hand you can force
the issue in Limit games, because there isn’t much choice to make when
deciding upon the size of the raise. So, a good hand, depending on how
much strength opponents have shown, usually is played harder than it would
be in a parallel No Limit game. By contrast, No Limit is all about the T
word- Trapping. When you’ve got a monster in any play, the goal is to
extract the maximum amount of chips from your opponents, and in No Limit,
this can require more creativity. Feigning weakness, and slowplaying is
what it may take to trap an opponent with a marginal hand, with the
ultimate goal of having them believe their hand is stronger. At that
point, it’s possible to force them to commit their entire stack to the
pot. As you can imagine, this may be effective in Limit games as well, but
the maximum commitment you can get out of them is quite small by
comparison.
Pot Odds also take on a different meaning between the two games;
actually it goes to the heart of the difference. In a limit game, if you
have a reasonable draw and it’s a fairly low limit game, there is almost
no raise possible that makes pot odds really unattractive. In No Limit,
you can force players out of draws with large raises, because the pot odds
look a lot less favourable with a huge raise outstanding. While there
are lots of differences in how you play the game depending on the betting
structure, these should give you a good start in tuning your game to suit
the limit of the table.
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