When I Was A Donk With Jimmy Fricke

In this new series, Card Player asks top pros to rewind back to their humble beginnings and provide insights regarding the mistakes, leaks, and deficiencies that they had to overcome in order to improve their games.

Jimmy Fricke is one of the most popular players on the tournament circuit today. The Mahomet, Illinois, pro (known as “gobboboy” in the online poker world) is known for his friendly smile and fierce play on the felt. He broke out in 2007, finishing second to Gus Hansen in the Aussie Millions main event and has since racked up more than $1.6 million in tournament earnings. Here, Fricke discusses his mistakes when he was first making the transition from limit hold’em to no-limit hold’em tournaments and what he’s learned since.

“I started out with limit hold’em, and although I think there are some benefits to coming from that background, the transition to no-limit hold’em tournaments can be difficult, especially with all of the habits that limit players have.

“Personally, I had some trouble with bet-sizing early on. You’d think that limit players would frequently under bet their hands, but it’s actually the opposite. It’s much harder in limit hold’em to protect your hand, so to overcompensate, you often see them over betting in no-limit tournaments. The end result is that they lose far too much when they are behind and wind up folding out slightly worse hands when they are looking for value.

“My biggest problem was folding. I just couldn’t do it. In limit, it is often correct to call a player down once the action has reached the turn, especially with a decent hand like top pair. That’s obviously a recipe for disaster in no limit tournaments, since the bets you’ll be facing on the turn and river are much larger.

“As my knowledge of the game increased and I began to use more advanced plays, I began to think that all of my opponents were doing the same. I would go nuts with top pair, convincing myself that they were just trying to get me off my hand. After running into stronger hands over and over and busting early, I finally learned the concept of pot control. I even went so far as taping a note above my computer monitor that just said ‘fold’ to remind me that I didn’t have to win every pot.

“I do think that a limit hold’em background can be good for tournament players, however. The average limit hold’em player is very aggressive. He’s more likely to bet his draws and continue after a preflop raise, which is good. The only problem is that limit players tend to turn into calling stations when they are played back at. Now I know that if I’m played back at, there is nothing wrong with folding. The paranoia that everyone is trying to mess with me is still there, but now I can fight the urge to punt off my chips.”