Ace Speaks Hold'em: No-Limit Versus Limit - An In-Depth Analysis, Part IV: Differences and Adjustments; the Danger of 'Automatic' Calls in No-Limit

In the first three columns of this series, I provided some concrete and sometimes controversial advice on preflop play in no-limit hold'em. I talked about specific starting hands, and analyzed their strengths and weaknesses in regard to their position in the betting. I also took a closer look at proper betting and raising strategy, and the reasoning behind it.



In this column, I will focus on some more key aspects of no-limit hold'em that may cause serious trouble for those of you who, like me, come from a limit hold'em background. So, without further ado, I will start my analysis by discussing the different calling requirements for big-bet play.



Learn to Avoid Calls That are Sometimes 'Automatic' in Limit Hold'em

If, in limit hold'em, you call one small bet before the flop and someone raises behind you, it is almost always correct to call that one additional bet, even if you hold what is considered to be a "problem hand," two semibig offsuit cards that look good but may actually be dominated by the raiser's hand. There are two main reasons why you should avoid making these calls in no-limit hold'em:



1. You are probably getting much worse odds to call that raise in no-limit than in limit. While in limit you would probably have to call one more small bet in a pot that contains six, eight, or even 10 small bets, in no-limit you may have to call an additional four or five small bets in an only slightly bigger pot. In limit, you are often getting such a good price by calling the raise that it is usually the proper strategy, but in no-limit, you may not be getting the correct price to call. This is especially so because you will be out of position for the rest of the hand, which means that you may not be maximizing your profits in case you flop a good hand because your opponent always has the advantage of acting after you, and you now may lose a lot more money with the second-best hand than your opponent would lose if he ended up with the second-best hand. In fact, in no-limit, someone may outplay you because of his position alone, because he is able to use the information that you have provided to make the best possible decision; for instance, he may bluff you out when your body language and/or your betting decisions in the hand suggest that you may be weak. All in all, big-bet poker puts an even bigger premium on position than limit does, which means that you should at all times try to avoid being out of position with a marginal hand – especially when you are up against a good or experienced player who knows how to take advantage of his position and the information you have given him.



Rolf's Rule No. 6:

Playing a good hand from out of position against a mediocre player is usually a dicey proposition at best. Playing a mediocre hand from out of position against a good player is just plain suicide.

2. The cost of being wrong is much more expensive in no-limit than in limit. Let's say that in limit hold'em you do the obvious and call that one additional bet with your problem hand, and then you flop top pair. If your opponent has top pair with a better kicker or an overpair to the board, you are probably going to lose some six to eight small bets if you cannot release your hand at any stage. But the final pot will probably be anywhere from 18 to 30 small bets, meaning that your loss is actually not that huge in relation to the total size of the pot. What's more, you may get lucky at some stage in the hand (for example, by hitting your kicker on the turn or on the river), so you may actually win the pot or split it – despite having started with the worst hand. In no-limit, you may well lose your entire stack in the process. This means that the cost of being wrong is much more severe than in limit – and, conversely, the premium on being right is much higher. This is especially true if you are playing in a deep-money game, in which people have fairly large stacks in relation to the blinds. Online, games are often played with relatively shallow money, so after just one or two raises, people are all in. This means that the implied odds/negative implied odds issue discussed above is a bit less of an issue than in brick-and-mortar (b&m) casinos. In b&m casinos, the maximum buy-in is often a little higher than on the Internet, and quite a few b&m casinos don't have a cap on the buy-in at all. In these cases, the things discussed above are of paramount importance, and players who do not take them into account will probably find that not only will they have trouble beating the games, but, in all but the very softest games, they will get creamed.



I will illustrate this with an example: Let's take a matchup of the A A against the K J on a flop K 8 4; in other words, top pair versus an overpair. Card Player's "Texas Hold'em Calculator" shows that the aces are a very clear favorite to win: 81.6 percent to 18.4 percent. Now, in limit poker, when you go all the way to the river with your top pair and have to invest something like three more big bets in a total pot of about 10 big bets to reach the showdown, you lose just a little bit of money on average, simply because the pot odds you are getting are only slightly worse than your actual drawing odds. But in no-limit poker, it may well cost you something like 45 more big bets to reach the river – in a total pot of about 100 big bets. Now, knowing that your expected return in this 100 big-bet pot is just 18.4 big bets, you are losing no less than 26.6 big bets on this hand!



So, again, if you are wrong in no-limit, you are often very wrong, and if you are right, you are often very right. This is even more so because in no-limit hold'em, big pots are often contested heads up, unlike limit hold'em, which has quite a few three- or four-way pots. With the limited size of the bet in limit compared to the total size of the pot, this means that even with hands that are clearly trailing, the odds are often there to call. This is not so in no-limit. In no-limit, a decent hand like top pair can easily bust you for all your money, while in limit, you may actually get the proper odds to take this hand to the river. It is important to take this into account. Those who come from a limit background and make the automatic play of going all the way to the river with top pair even when one or two opponents have shown tremendous strength will have to change their mindsets very quickly if they want to become successful in no-limit.



Rolf's Rule No. 7:

No-limit hold'em puts a premium on being right, and will punish you severely for every time that you are wrong. Because the odds are not there, as they are in limit, the people who often take a bit the worst of it will now take way the worst of it.

This is Part IV in a 14-part series on limit and no-limit hold'em. This series was created especially for Card Player Europe. The accompanying Expert Hold'em DVDs on this subject can be obtained through http://www.expertholdem.com/ and Rolf's site, http://www.rolfslotboom.com/.