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Switching From No Limit Holdem to Limit Holdem

Players switch from NL to limit for a variety of reasons – some players may just not like the bankroll swings that come with NL; some (like myself) may have taken a prop job where the only game that pays is limit; others may find that limit is just the game that suits their skills and temperament the best. Whatever the reason, when you move from one game to the other, there are a number of leaks you’re going to have to correct asap – strategies that work great in NL but will bleed your bank in limit play. Here are a few things to look out for:

1) Overvaluing pocket pairs and lower suited connectors: Hands like 44 and 7s6s are hands you no doubt learned to love in NL and to call with preflop regularly, even against a raise [actually, especially against a raise]. However, calling these hands preflop with any regularity in limit will create a huge gaping void in your bankroll. You need to return to fundamentals on these hands – only give a call in middle to late position with a lot of callers in front.

3) Playing draws too hard: betting and raising draws aggressively will pick you up a lot of pots in NL, but in your standard loose limit game you’re going to give up that edge. Be more inclined to take the free card for a draw against a large field than to bet the draw hard the whole way. Obviously if the table is just laying down everything to your bets, then by all means, fire away – but if you’re getting called down a large percentage of the time, you need to stop pushing the draws so hard. Remember, the key to betting draws profitably is the assumption that sometimes you will just pick up the pot right there – something that’s more likely to happen in NL than limit.

3) Overestimating the power of the call: I know that a call seems like just about the weakest move in poker, but in NL [to the observant opponent anyhow], a flat call can be far more terrifying than a raise. If you play a lot of NL you know that calling on the flop or turn with position will often cause your opponent to check the next round – and this knowledge allows you to play some marginal flop hands [middle pair, etc] and then use your position to try for a steal on the turn or river if your opponent shows real weakness. The problem is, calls just aren’t scary in limit, but as a regular NL player you may have become accustomed to calling some marginal hands on the flop with the knowledge that your opponent may back off in later rounds and you can steal or check the hand down. This tendency can be a serious leak in limit.

4) Overplaying your blinds: You have a little more freedom in NL to play loose on your blinds for a variety of reasons: it’s easier to pick up a pot on the flop with nothing in NL, out of position checks on the flop don’t automatically cause the opponents behind you to bet in NL so you often see turns and rivers for cheap or free, and, most importantly, your risk to reward ratio in NL is radically different from limit. All of these things generally contribute to a looseness on the blinds in NL [for instance, calling suited 2 gaps on the BB against a UTG raise] that would be death in limit. Calling loose in the blinds is a problem for most limit players anyhow, but those switching from NL are going to have an even harder time with this one.

NL and limit are wildly different games, more so than a lot of newer players realize. The ideas above only scratch the surface of the adjustments you need to make when switching from one to the other and represent the start of a discussion we’ll continue in a later article.

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