Everyone these days is more or less aware of the basic differences between limit Texas Hold’em and No limit Texas Hold’em. However there are many subtle differences that really make these two forms of poker very different from each other. For example, when you play limit hold’em then you are basically trying to win entire pots. If a player wins more than their fair share of pots in pkv games in limit play then they are beating the game as a rule.
However in no-limit Texas hold’em then winning pots is not as critical and to highlight what I mean then I am going to quote an extreme but highly relevant example. Let us say that a no-limit player plays 50 pots at the NL100 level. Let us also say that this player raised and stole the blinds in 49 out of those 50 pots and won the $1.50 in blind money when everyone folded.
This equates to $73.50 in money won but let us also say that in one of those pots this player made a huge mistake and lost 100 big blinds which means $100. So despite winning a colossal 49 pots out of 50 for a strike rate of 98%, the player has actually lost $26.50 over the space of those 50 hands. This fact of no-limit Texas Hold’em means that it is perhaps the toughest form of poker in which to try and extract money.
A player can look and even feel like a good player for long periods of time until they make a mistake and come crashing back down to earth with a bang. This one example of Texas Hold’em played in the no-limit format highlights just why winning pots is not as critical in this form of poker. You are not really winning average sized pots in no-limit. Even if you look at the site lobby and see an average pot size then this does not really mean a lot in no-limit. You could win a $1.50 pot one minute and then lose a $50 pot the next.
Pots are far more generic in size in limit Texas Hold’em play as a rule and if you play 100 hands in a 10 handed game and the average pot size is 6 big bets then if you do not win your fair share of pots then you are going to struggle to overcome the costs of the blinds and all of the pots that you play and lose. This is even more so in limit Texas Hold’em when you play six handed or shorter.
If you do not win your fair share of pots and battle for the pots that you are in then you will stand absolutely no chance at this form of poker. So the differences between limit Texas Hold’em and its no limit counterpart are very deep and profound and a thorough understanding of each form of poker is an absolute must. In my opinion, expertise cannot really be achieved in poker unless you have a thorough grounding in all forms of Texas Hold’em
People often do not realise that gambling is a thing done for entertainment and not as a job. However good you might be, it cannot be a full time job, it will turn into an addiction which will not only cost the person his life through his savings but also ruin the life of his loved ones.
