Limit or No Limit. That is the question.
As so many players progress from the play money ranks of online poker to playing for real money they are inevitably faced with one question:
Limit or No Limit?
There are pros and cons to each and an argument can be made for either one however, it also greatly depends on your current skill level. We will look at the transition from the outlook of a typical online player that learned the game playing for play money. We will call him "Fred" and follow his journey from the play money ranks at Full Tilt Poker to starting out at the .50/1.00 Limit HoldEm tables and also the .25/.50 No Limit tables.
Fred started out three months ago at the play money tables. He was an honest student of the game wanting to learn the ins and outs of Texas HoldEm. He was quickly frustrated at the lack of common sense or logical play at these tables but he perservered. After his 90 day trial period he was convinced that he liked the game enough and understood the game enough to deposit $200.00 into his Full Tilt account. He quickly made his way to a .25/.50 No Limit HoldEm table and just as quickly went broke. "Wow, only 20 minutes in and I'm down $50.00. This sucks a royal flush", thought Fred. He figured there had to be a better way to get a feel for the game at the real money level. He just didn't know the right steps to take, lucky for Fred he found a friendly player online that gave him some tips.
His friend had been through a similar experience years before and was able to offer some very good tips on how to make the transition from play money to real money without breaking the bank. Those tips included:
1. Never play over your head. If you only have $200.00 in your bankroll there is no need to play in a 1/2 No Limit game with a $200.00 buy in. You could easily lose your ace high flush to a Full House!
2. Learn the mechanics of the game playing limit poker before graduating to No Limit. It's not as flashy or exiciting and it's not what you see on TV but it will teach you patience and the finer points of the game.
3. Are you playing as a professional or playing for fun? Let's face it, very few of us will ever become a celebrity poker player on TV. Play for fun and to make your bankroll LAST, not get rich on the next hand! Set goals to win 5% of your bankroll during each session, this is a fair goal and can come with patient play. 5% of $200.00 is only $10.00 and you can easily win that amount playing limit poker at the lower levels.
In short, take the time to learn the game playing limit before moving to No Limit. You'll learn the building blocks of the game to progress to No Limit later on. Next week we will talk about the finer points of limit poker including Howard Lederer's "double edged sword" theory.
Limit or No Limit?
There are pros and cons to each and an argument can be made for either one however, it also greatly depends on your current skill level. We will look at the transition from the outlook of a typical online player that learned the game playing for play money. We will call him "Fred" and follow his journey from the play money ranks at Full Tilt Poker to starting out at the .50/1.00 Limit HoldEm tables and also the .25/.50 No Limit tables.
Fred started out three months ago at the play money tables. He was an honest student of the game wanting to learn the ins and outs of Texas HoldEm. He was quickly frustrated at the lack of common sense or logical play at these tables but he perservered. After his 90 day trial period he was convinced that he liked the game enough and understood the game enough to deposit $200.00 into his Full Tilt account. He quickly made his way to a .25/.50 No Limit HoldEm table and just as quickly went broke. "Wow, only 20 minutes in and I'm down $50.00. This sucks a royal flush", thought Fred. He figured there had to be a better way to get a feel for the game at the real money level. He just didn't know the right steps to take, lucky for Fred he found a friendly player online that gave him some tips.
His friend had been through a similar experience years before and was able to offer some very good tips on how to make the transition from play money to real money without breaking the bank. Those tips included:
1. Never play over your head. If you only have $200.00 in your bankroll there is no need to play in a 1/2 No Limit game with a $200.00 buy in. You could easily lose your ace high flush to a Full House!
2. Learn the mechanics of the game playing limit poker before graduating to No Limit. It's not as flashy or exiciting and it's not what you see on TV but it will teach you patience and the finer points of the game.
3. Are you playing as a professional or playing for fun? Let's face it, very few of us will ever become a celebrity poker player on TV. Play for fun and to make your bankroll LAST, not get rich on the next hand! Set goals to win 5% of your bankroll during each session, this is a fair goal and can come with patient play. 5% of $200.00 is only $10.00 and you can easily win that amount playing limit poker at the lower levels.
In short, take the time to learn the game playing limit before moving to No Limit. You'll learn the building blocks of the game to progress to No Limit later on. Next week we will talk about the finer points of limit poker including Howard Lederer's "double edged sword" theory.
posted by Bill @ 6:08 PM
