A couple of nights ago, a colleague of mine that played poker (found that out recently!) took me to a local card room to check out the games there. We were talking about the games he used to play all afternoon, so I was really looking forward to playing there.
When we got there in the evening, the place was packed. More than 20 tables, with 7 or 8 people waiting lists. It was great. At least until I finally got a seat, got 65s on my first hand and flopped trips, tried to re-raise the guy who bet in front of me 4x his raise, and found that it was a LIMIT game! No wonder their lowest stakes were $3/$6. Tried to adjust to the game, but man, it was tough. After playing no limit exclusively, playing limit games make you feel handicapped. The differences may seem slight to the inexperienced, but when you have played both, you know that’s not true.
First off, the blind structure is different. On a $3/$6 table, small blinds are $1, and big blinds are $3 (yeah, weird right?). You can’t raise more than 1xBB each raise. So say the game start off with UTG calling, UTG+1 folding, and another two callers before action is on to you in late position, you can only raise another BB. That means on a $3/$6 table, you can only make a raise to $6 (a min raise). Imagine only being able to min raise every time you want to raise. So what does the $6 in the stakes mean? It means that on the turn, the minimum bet is $6. The river minimum bet is also $6. And you can only min raise if you want to raise. I just had to repeat that. It needs to sink in…
How is that significant? It simply means that most of the time, if there are several callers in front of you, the pot odds become so good that it really doesn’t matter what you have. You’re almost obligated to call if you have anything decent at all! That’s pre-flop. And say there’s some one who wants to raise in late position with AA, and there are 4 callers in front of him, not a single one of the four in front will fold to his raise, simply because it’s only going to be a min raise. It will take a limp, raise, re-raise (and sometimes, not even then) to kick limpers out.
All that’s fine if you have a monster. Say you have aces and flop a set. Man, that’s when you have all the money flowing in cause you can only bet the minimum, raise the minimum, and the pot odds are so good that every one else will call with a decent draw or pair. The sick thing is that you can get out flopped, out rivered so often it makes you wanna rip your hair out. There was a hand where I had pocket 4s under the gun, I limped, and there were 4 callers behind me. Big blind raised (min raise) and everyone else flat called (obviously). Flop came Q64, and I made my set. BB raised, I re-raised (min raise again), and got three callers behind, including the big blind. Turn comes a J, and big blind checks. I bet and once again, got 3 callers. River came a T, and big blind checks to me, I bet, two guys fold, and big blind raises (min raise). I flat call, and guess what he shows me? Pocket tens. Ridiculous.
After playing a while though, I find there’s a method to all this madness. Limit games are not about bluffing. At least, you’re going to find it really really hard to make bluffs. Limit games are about making a hand, then milking as much out of it as you possibly can. This really reminds me of the no limit cash games I frequent, where players generally are loose enough to call down raises pre-flop with horrible positions and sub par hands just to “see the flop” and then pay huge amounts (that don’t add up in profitability) to draw on gut-shots. In any case, the real skill involved here is the milking. You need to be skilled enough to get the maximum value you can from your made hands, and you need to be able to lay down your made hands if you suspect a better hand so you lose less. This is different from no limit games cause sometimes, the pot odds are so good you’re almost obligated to call down if it was a no limit game.
This experience was interesting to say the least, and while I lost half my buy in, I found that it taught me yet another valuable lesson in poker. Namely, playing poker isn’t just about calling down with good pot odds. These marginal calls cost money, and the money adds up. Poker is about having several factors, i.e. pot odds, accurate reads, outs etc. add up to make a decision profitable.
Wish I took a few pictures of the place. I probably will, the next time I get to a new poker room. Look out for them. Till next time, do NOT call down with marginal hands! Or do, if you’re as lucky as the set tens guy…
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