Limit Hold'em Is Dying, It's Time To Become Bi-Poker

It’s nowhere near dead yet, but the signs are on the wall. Yes, there are still pockets where medium-to-high limit hold’em is played. Some states don’t allow big-bet poker, forcing their cardrooms to spread fixed limit and spread limit. And California still has a significant limit hold’em base. But massive markets like Florida opened up with barely a limit hold’em game in sight and those that do exist are low-limit. Most major Las Vegas cardrooms don’t spread limit above $10-$20, and the WSOP at the Rio didn’t even get one regular limit hold’em game during the entire series this year. Most of the “new blood” in poker is playing no-limit, while the limit players are moving on to different grounds or quitting the game.

All this is very saddening to me. Limit hold’em has been the nucleus of my poker career for the last 41 years. Fifteen years ago it was difficult to find a no-limit game. Then Internet gaming revived big-bet poker, taking over the marketplace. The poker world has seen some dramatic changes in the last 15 years, and those who perceive only the past and the present will get swallowed up by the future. We all must adapt to the changes in our world.

And so I’m going to begin a new chapter in my life and seriously take up no-limit. I want to put another arrow in my quiver to adjust to the times. It will allow me to play in many other Vegas venues, give me much greater game-selection opportunities, and put me in tune with poker’s future. That said, it’s going to take time and effort to develop that new arrow. I’ve played some no-limit, mostly online, but never seriously studied the game. I’m conceptually sound at poker, and the basic poker concepts don’t change. But the nuances, the feel, and the ability to read situations are different. Those are things I’ll need to absorb in order to become an effective no-limit player. My regular readers know that I emphasize reading and adjusting to players and situations, and I believe that transferring these skills will be my most important and difficult task.

As I embark on my quest, I’m going to share my educational strategies, and any wisdom I acquire with you so that we can all learn together. I believe I’m going to be successful in my mission. In my 20s and 30s I played for 16 years with poker as my only support, acquired over 65,000 hours of poker experience, underwent tens of thousands of study hours, and I’m nobody’s fool in any poker game. I understand my strengths and my limitations.

Malcolm Gladwell maintains that you must study/experience something for 10,000 hours to become an expert. I’m going to significantly shorten that by using my and others’ past experiences. It’s much easier to utilize other intelligent people’s conclusions than develop them myself. Among my greatest strengths are my brilliant friends: I’ve conferred with some of the best poker minds, I know whose information I can trust, and whose is suspect. I’m going to use those contacts, both in the books they have written and my ability to contact them personally. Nothing I state will be for promotional purposes. All recommendations will be based strictly on merit, my honest opinion of their information.

I‘m conservative and know enough about the poker world to not get caught out of my element in a game where my opponents understand the nuances, and I don’t. Any mistakes I make from being too conservative early are going to be minor, but looking to advance too far, too fast might be a very costly error. So, I’m going to start small and play $2-$5 to gather experience and ascertain where to go from there. Much of the current no-limit information is geared to playing sophisticated players, making the information unrelated to most games. The $2-$5 games in Vegas have a mix of low-level pros and tourists, a landscape that should be similar to most small games around the country, and make my information a good fit for most serious, but non world-class players.

My first book to read is going to be David Sklansky’s and Ed Miller’s No Limit Hold’em: Theory and Practice. I’ve skimmed it, but not seriously read it. And when I seriously read poker books, I approach them with a “study in depth” mentality, thinking about what each statement means. I have a lot of faith in Sklansky’s analyses and have had several luncheons with Ed Miller. He’s not just a great human, but an incredibly intelligent one with excellent poker knowledge. His other books are going to be part of our future as well. Another author I’m going to read will be Dan Harrington on cash games. From my brief contacts with him, I know he is a brilliant guy. I played $40-$80 limit with Dan at the Commerce many years ago, liked his game, and have been told by many players I respect that Dan is the “real deal” in all facets of poker. I’m also going to check out Nick Christenson, he’s someone else I’ve had some poker luncheons with and found him insightful. As I read these, I’ll review them with you and discuss the points I learned from them.

Additionally, I’m going to have to get in tune with the latest poker software. I remember when I was 19, with dreams of becoming a professional poker player, spending endless hours in Denny’s computing hand ranges with a yellow pad and calculator. I know of no one else who put in that kind of effort and it definitely gave me an edge. Nowadays, what took me two years to compute can be done in five minutes on a computer. And while that doesn’t seem fair to me now, it is another example of having to adjust to new realties. Part of our program is going to be analyzing the new poker programs and how to utilize them.

I don’t have to be successful in this endeavor. I know many good limit hold’em players who attempted to switch and failed. I think I’ll be different, and my experience and willingness to work hard will prevail. Time will answer that question. It is my hope that you join me in this endeavor as I share my experiences with you, and we can all learn together. We have much to learn. Poker, particularly no-limit, is a complicated game. I’ll still write columns about limit as well as give generic poker advice, but from now on my focus is going to be putting together a learn from scratch approach to no-limit.
Let’s see if we can kick some ass together! ♠

Roy Cooke played poker professionally for 16 years prior to becoming a successful Las Vegas Real Estate Broker/Salesman in 1989. Should you wish to any information about Real Estate matters-including purchase, sale or mortgage his office number is 702-396-6575 or Roy’s e-mail is [email protected]. His website is www.roycooke.com. You can also find him on Facebook or Twitter @RealRoyCooke