No-Limit Holdem (Part 2)

By Wesley R. Young

No-limit holdem used to only be offered in tournament settings, but has recently started being offered in many card rooms as a regular ring game.

Most no-limit ring games have a set buy-in and offer the opportunity to buy back into the game if you are unfortunate enough to lose all of your chips. No-limit ring games can be very profitable for solid poker players. My recommendations for you when you start playing in no-limit ring games is to play extremely tight when first sitting down and only play your very best hands until you get a feel for the table and your opponents. No-limit gives the solid players an opportunity to use everything in their arsenal such as bluffing, pot odds, solid game skills and psychology.

Because of the ability to place any size bet, you can manipulate pot odds to make your opponents pay too high of a price to draw to their hand or make the price low enough that it is correct for them to call when you want them to. This alone can make no-limit one of the most profitable games you can find and makes the understanding of the correct use of pot odds imperative to anyone hoping to be a successful poker player.

If you are going to be a lifetime winner at no-limit holdem, you must become a solid, tight/aggressive player. You must rarely call. Winning players tend to raise or fold. Bear in mind that because of the betting limits involved in playing no-limit, mistakes are magnified. Every time you force an opponent to make a decision, they have the opportunity to make a mistake. By calling, you are the only one who can make a mistake. If you raise, then your opponent is forced to make a decision, and hopefully a mistake. This doesn’t mean that you should never just call, it just means that as you gain experience you will find yourself playing this way because this aggressive style of play when combined with tight starting hand requirements will mean that you are rarely behind at the beginning of a hand and you allow your opponents many opportunities to make mistakes.

In closing, here are a few quick pointers to help you while learning to play no-limit. The first time that you look down to see pocket aces while playing no-limit holdem, your first instinct will probably be to move all-in. In a typical game, this will win you the pot, but it will likely only be the blinds as everyone else will probably fold. When you have a great starting hand such as AA, KK, AK or QQ your goal should be to raise enough to make all but one or two opponents fold. Then if you are re-raised before the flop you can move all-in. Winning the most pots in a session is nice, but winning the most money is what’s important.