No-Limit Hold’em Limpfests

These games can be extremely frustrating, but if you can handle the frustration and adjust well, they can be very profitable. Some purists insist, “Those games are not real no-limit hold’em,” and they certainly don’t resemble anything you’ll see on television, nor will you read about them in the textbooks. In fact, you will hardly ever see them online or in any live game with blinds larger than $1-$2.

But, they occur fairly often in casino and home games with $1-$2 blinds and maximum buy-ins of $200 to $300. This series of columns will describe these games, analyze their frustrations, and recommend ways to adjust to them.

General Characteristics
Many players are loose, passive, and oblivious. They want to have fun, and folding is boring. So, they will play cards that a smarter or more profit-oriented person would fold. Their starting hands can be astonishingly weak (even after a raise), and they will chase with nearly hopeless cards.

Six or more players will see many flops, usually for just $2. If someone open-raises, it will generally be to about $6, and many people will cold-call it. Raises after people have limped in are not much bigger, about $6-$12. Then, many limpers call the raise. Despite the small raises, the number of players causes many pots to become quite large.

Post-flop bets and raises are generally smaller than the textbooks recommend, sometimes less than a quarter of the pot. These players think in dollar terms, not the percentage of the pot. If six players are in for $7 each, someone might bet $10. Small post-flop bets and raises would encourage almost anyone to draw, and loose-passive players are chasers. After one calls, the others are priced in (or think they are), so they overcall.
Far more hands than usual go to the flop, turn, river, and showdown, often with several players. Occasionally, you will see even four players at the showdown, which almost never happens in “real” no-limit games.

Big bets usually mean big hands, top two pair or better. However, big bets will be called with weak hands, especially flush and open-end straight draws. Chasers don’t need good pot odds and may even be drawing dead, but ignorance and gambling urges outweigh expected value.

Check-raising is uncommon, as is bluffing. Large bluffs are fairly rare, and large check-raise bluffs are hardly ever made. Passive players don’t like to bluff, and others are reluctant to bluff because they are likely to be called.

The Frustrations
I once asked a friend, “Why did you quit that game?”

He angrily replied, “Because I got aces and kings cracked with garbage! And almost none of my other hands held up. I played perfectly, and lost two racks. Those idiots chased with anything. I just went all in on the flop with my pocket aces, got called by someone with a pair of kings and a 6 kicker, and he rivered a 6. I just couldn’t take any more. It’s like a $2-$4 limit game.”

Although I could understand his frustration, I disagreed with his decision (but didn’t tell him so). I just waited until he left, then changed tables into that game. If people are willing to put in their stacks with top pair, 6 kicker, I want to play against them.
But don’t join games like that unless you can handle the inevitable frustrations.

No matter how Carefully you observe the players or how well you play, you will certainly be frustrated by:
• Frequent bad beats
• Continual confusion

Frequent bad beats: The more people who chase, and the more loosely they call, the more bad beats you will get — period. In limpfests, you can’t avoid having more bad beats than in any other game. If they really bother you, or, worse yet, if they put you on tilt, avoid limpfests.

However, profit-oriented players know that bad beats are clear signs of a good game. You can’t get a bad beat unless the odds favor you, and that’s what winning poker is all about. If you get your money in often enough with the best of it, over the long term, you will certainly win.

Continual confusion: No matter how carefully you observe your opponents, regardless of your people- and card-reading gifts, you will often be confused. You can’t put people on hands, nor will you understand why they made various calls, bets, and raises. If you can’t handle this confusion, avoid limpfests.

Psychological Adjustments
Your first task is to change your attitude. If you don’t, you may win some money, but will still be frustrated. Worse yet, you may become so frustrated that you go on tilt and lose a lot of money. You may even end up playing like the donkeys you despise.
When I wrote The Psychology of Poker in 2000, hardly anyone played no-limit hold’em cash games, but many of its principles apply to all games — limit or no-limit, hold’em, stud, Omaha, and so on. The most important principle for loose-passive games is this: “Accept that the rules are different … The action is so different from most games that you must change your assumptions and strategy. If you just think and play the way that you normally do, you will probably win, but not as much as you should win, and you will probably become quite frustrated.” (Page 170. The next few paragraphs are based on the pages following that.)

You will lose with many hands that would normally win. That’s the bad news. Somebody is going to draw out on you again, and again, and again. There is nothing you can do to prevent it. You can raise, check-raise, or make any other moves, and they often will stay in there and catch those miracle cards. You will find it extremely frustrating, but …

The increased size of your winning pots will more than compensate you for your unexpected losses. That’s the good news. Sometimes your carefully selected hands will hold up, and you will win so much more than usual that your total profits will be much greater than in a normal game.

You will have to show down the best hand to win. You can’t bet or bluff them off their hands, no matter how bad they are.

You will usually need a better hand to win. It is very simple mathematics; the more hands there are, the better hand you need to win. Because so many people call, a lot more straights, flushes, and full houses will be made. You aren’t going to win very often with a pair of aces, or aces up, and even a set of aces will occasionally get beat.

It’s far from easy to accept that the rules are different. You naturally want to play the way that the textbooks recommend, but as the experts often say, “The correct play depends upon the situation.” Limpfests are so different from the games you have observed, read about, and played in that you can’t win without making huge adjustments. Future columns will get more specific.

Dr. Schoonmaker, [email protected], is the author of four poker books: The Psychology of Poker, Your Worst Poker Enemy, Your Best Poker Friend, and Poker Winners Are Different.