Strategy differences between spread limit and no limit?

[threeducks]

Hi - I am a 6/12 limit player that used to play NL. I see spread limit games at the Bay 101 that have a max bet size of $200.

Spread limit $5-$200 buyin and blinds 2,2,5 I think.

It seems to me that the play is different. I will take some time and watch the tables next visit but meanwhile does someone have any thoughts on the different strategy?

You have $600, and the other players have about the same ($400-$700).

What I mean is that say you are MP with QQ and the pot is open EP to $20 (blinds are 2,2,5), you are next and you go to $60, the next player cold calls $60 and it is folded back to the orginal bettor - the pot has $140.

In spread limit EP can go $240 in which case all the chips will be in the middle sooner or later. Because you need to call $200 and the pot is $360 to you. But that does not close the betting since you are in the middle. The player behind can now raise $200 more since the pot has $560 and he needs to call $200. He might like his hand and raise another $200 as a trap play. The the original opener is most likley to re-raise $200 and so forth until the chip are in the middle.

If you now reraise to $400 it is $400 to the next player but the pot has $760.

I hope I got the numbers right.

In no-limit it goes open $20, raise to $60, call $60, re-raise $300 - that changes things since you can push your stack with KK if you want and fold QQ if you want.

So, my question is does the strategy change in this kind of a game where the raises are limited to a max of $200?

This looks like a popular game?

Thanks very much for your kind understanding.

[ReptileHouse]

There's some good historical discussion of the 5-150 spread limit game at CAZ in the B&M forum. There was also a nice article about the game in the 2+2 magazine a few months ago. Very worth reading.

Short version: Pre-flop and flop tend to play like a passive NL game. Turn and river are more like a limit game. You get excellent value from players who don't understand how the game transitions from one to the other. For example, NL players tend to overestimate implied odds for draws early in the hand and give way too much respect to max bets late in the hand. Limit players are often completely lost with regards to bet sizing and will price you in for all sorts of draws and will chase when you give them really bad odds. In both cases, it's the same issue. The players don't understand how the odds game changes through the course of a big hand. If you do, you can manipulate things in your favor.

That's just generalizations, of course, and what I've experienced in the 5-150 game. Grain of salt and all that.