Two Plus Two Newer Archives - Limit Hold 'Em Crash Course?

I can't drive fifty-five. CSC's epic min bet post.

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1. Double up or go home There is no place for this mentality in Limit MTTs. From the moment you sit down, you've got to be playing solid poker. In the early part of the tourney, treat it exactly like a cash game. Limp if you have a limping hand, fold if the pots been raise, re-raise if you have a premium.

2. Pick your opponents. Just as in NL, there is stealing and restealing going on in the mid stages of the tourney. Just as in NL, if you pick the right opponent you can steal with inferior hands. Pick the guy who is aggressive but has shown that he doesn't go to the showdown with NE2.

3. Watch your stack When evaluating your stack, do so in terms of hands you can play through to the finish. That's one raise PF, a flop bet, turn bet, and river bet. 3.5Big Bets, or 7Big Blinds equals an "L" of 1. When you have an L of 1, the next hand you play, you are committing yourself to. When your L is btwn 1 and 1.5, you can make a decision to toss, but you still want to play it like you are committed. When your L is btwn 1.5 and 2.5, be very selective with your hands. This is the time when you have the chips to be able to wait for a nice double up hand. A blind steal will only net you .2L, but a standard, failed continuation bluff will cost you .7L.

4. The power of the short stack When your L is below .5, you are in the enviable position of being able to double or triple up with really bad hands. This is when you need to be able to determine your hand equity and just throw your chips in and hope for the best. The BB pretty much has to call you, and often there will be another player in there who smells blood. It is easier to double up as a short stack in Limit than in NL. In NL, they still have to have a hand to call a 4BB push. In L, the siren's song of "it is only one little bet" convinces the BB or others to get in there with a hand inferior to yours. And once they catch bottom pair (and sometimes even if they wiff completely) they'll pay you off in full.

5. Late game big stack As a big stack, you get to see flops and make correct decisions on them. Raise those blinds with decent hands (76s is decent) and see a flop. The best part about Limit is that you get to play flops. And turns. And rivers. You have to be a great post-flop player. As a big stack, you get to bust people who must desperately fast-play second-button or steal the blinds from those players who can't really afford to call you. You can afford to make those questionable gutshot semibluffs on 4th street. You can call down with ace-high (OCCASSIONALLY!!!! and when you think ace-high is good) to "prove" that you are a calling station.

6.Bluffing There is much more bluffing in limit than you might think. In the early levels, don't even think about it. But in the later levels, a good turn bluff represents 2Big Bets, and you can often force someone to fold here. Again, pick your opponents well. NL players often complain that you can't bluff in L, but it isn't true. They are, instead, picking the poor players to bluff into. Poor players call down with far less. Good players can even fold TP. Also, you have much more FE in tourney Limit than you do in Cash Limit. At least, late in the tourney this is true.

7.HU play The button is SB, UTG is BB. If you are the button, you want to be raising 80-90% of your hands. Playing in position is so very important in SH or HU limit. UTG, be calling much more often than raising, but be much more willing to fold. You want all the big hands to take place with you have the button. In SH play, it is often correct to let the big stack run over the table when he has position. If you have position on him, feel free to raise/reraise/or call. In SH play, bad hands have more value after the flop. Remember this so that you bluff a little less, call down a little more, and raise PF much more. If you all have stacks to work with, play a lot of flops. Remember that 4th and 5th streets are the money streets, so make those borderline value bets there because you won't reach those streets with a hand that often. Fold on 4th, not 5th.

I did this all off the top of my head, I'm sure I'm missing some good talking points. Limit is a very different game. Obviously you have to know how to play it to play these MTTs. I'm not including basic limit HE advice. You'll need to go to other forums for that. I'm hoping that more people will chime in here and we'll get a nice thread going.

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