Why You Shouldn’t Play No Limit Hold ‘Em … Yet.

It’s the game they play on TV and, now, in frat houses across the nation – No Limit Texas Holdem. It’s the “Cadillac of poker,” so if I’m just starting, that’s the game I should play, right? Uh-huh, uh-huh … no. not under any circumstances.

While NL is certainly more glamorous, exciting, and better suited for appeasing our natural greediness than limit, here are 5 reasons why, no matter how tempting it seems, you should learn and conquer limit first.

1) It is much harder to play NL well and much easier to play it terribly. Limit is essentially a game of math, no limit a game of math, psychology and timing. Psychology and timing are obviously involved at the higher end of limit games, but at the low end, it’s pretty much just math.

2) Mistakes are far more painful in NL. Make a bad call in limit and you lose one, maybe 2 big bets. In NL, one bad call can erase your earnings for the week. As a new-is player, YOU WILL MAKE MISTAKES. Play limit and ‘limit’ their impact. Ahaha, get it? Terrible, I know.

3) You cannot handle the swings. I mean this in both the financial and emotional sense. Financially, a small bankroll cannot handle the swings of even low-stakes NL tables. Even playing $25 or $50 buy-ins can get really expensive to a $1000 bankroll. Emotionally, NL is a very uneven game. You will win, a lot, in clumps, and believe you are king awesome of Poker Mountain. You will lose it all and more the next day. this wreaks havoc with a developing player’s confidence and interest in the game, and can breed seriously unhealthy, ineffective habits from overly loose calling to addiction [broad range there, I know].

4) You try finding 3 good books on no limit. I dare you. There just aren’t enough resources for a new player.

5) With just a little skill and patience, you can make money playing limit. Making money is good. Enough said

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