Know your Limit

By Ben Blaschke
13 January 2009

THE recent poker explosion that followed Chris Moneymaker’s remarkable win at the 2003 World Series of Poker (and, locally, Joe Hachem’s success at the same event two years later), No Limit Hold ‘Em has become the game everyone wants to play.
In-fact, for many newcomers to the poker world it’s the only game they’ve played.
Yet not so long ago it was Fixed Limit Hold ‘Em tables that occupied most Casinos and where most of today’s pros cut their teeth.
Not surprisingly then, inexperienced players trying their luck at Fixed Limit for the first time generally fail to understand the subtleties of this format and soon find themselves spewing chips.
Sure, the fundamentals are the same as No Limit yet it’s amazing what strange things people will do when they know their opponent can’t raise them all-in.
The two most common mistakes I see in Fixed Limit are players consistently calling out of the blinds; and players calling with any two suited cards.
Their reasoning is that it doesn’t cost them much to take a flop and see if they can at least hit some sort of draw.
The problem is, what happens when you hold J-2 of hearts and the flop comes down J-8-4 rainbow? Do you continue with the hand? If you do and an opponent also hold a Jack then you are basically drawing to three outs (if not drawing dead already).
And what of the flush draw?
The odds of making a flush by the river is 14.6 to one and will usually cost at least a few bets to get there.
Let’s say you chase a flush six times without success and finally complete on your seventh attempt – that’s a lot of money wasted in search of your hand with little likelihood you’ll be paid off even when you do hit.
The fact is that your starting hand selection is even more important in Fixed Limit than No Limit because it is more likely that your opponents will not only call a pre-flop raise but also call you down all the way to the river with any pair or any draw.
When you’re in the blinds, you should be going out of your way NOT to get involved in a hand. Occasionally you will be priced in with a drawing hand in a multi-way pot and that’s fine, but don’t go calling raises with speculative hands such as K-J or suited connectors.
In early position you should only be opening with your premium hands – Aces through 10s plus A-K and A-Q suited.
In middle position you can add in a few more hands – most suited pictures can play well – but save your drawing hands for when you’re approaching the button.
Position, as always, is crucial and will allow you to make correct decisions on later streets with as much information as possible available to you.
The good news, of course, is that when you do make a big hand playing Fixed Limit you will almost certainly get paid off so bet your big draws and, for the most part, don’t bother slow-playing your made hands.
Even by following these simple rules you’ll be amazed how many opponents will start to throw their chips your way.