Poker News

Have you spent any time watching the Travel Channel’s World Poker Tour or the World Series of Poker? If you have I am sure you’ve heard Mike Sexton refer to No Limit Hold-Em as the “Cadillac of Poker”. Will someone, anyone, including Mr. Sexton, explain just how that moniker was attached to No Limit Hold-Em.

Better yet, what does it refer to? Does it refer to a skill or talent set, the most money paid to enter, the most widely played tournament or ring game, or does it simply mean the largest purse? When shopping for electronics or appliances when a salesmen states “and this is the Cadillac of VCR’s” I expect it to be the best in every sense. I expect it to out perform every other make and model, I expect it to have all the latest bells and whistles, to be the most sought after and usually expect it to cost the most.

Is No Limit Hold-Em the most sought after poker game in a casino? I agree that Hold-Em has replaced stud and is the most popularly spread and played form of poker. There is a vast difference between the no limit version and the limit version, with pot limit somewhere in the middle. The skill set required to master each version is as different as is the betting structure. I’ll have more to say on that one later. Casinos are now experiencing a greater demand for No Limit Hold-Em tournaments but their mainstay in ring games is still limit Hold-Em. The most likely reason for this is that in a tournament your loss is limited to your buy in.

Is it the most expensive? Entry fees for daily or weekly, no limit tournaments generally do command a premium over limit events. In major tournament the largest buy in events are associated with no limit. I wonder what would happen if a major Casino staged a $50,000 buy in, $5,000,000 purse, pot limit event. Do you think it would draw at least a 1,000 participants? How about if they had qualifying satellites? What about if the final table was staged as a network TV broadcast event? The real question here is whether the purse is driving the buy in or the buy in driving the purse?

What about skill? Does it require more skill to play No Limit Hold-Em then limit or pot limit? Does it require years of learning which hands to play and how to read your opponents? Not to take anything away from Chris Moneymaker, he single handedly went on to disprove all those old theories. It does not take many years of practice to master the game. He also was sadly knocked out in the first round of this year’s event. Before TV and before the spread of satellites, there were a handful of players who would ante up $10,000 of their own money to enter the World Series of Poker’s main event. At the final table you could almost expect to see some of the same faces year after year. Winning back-to-back events or winning the event multiple times created legends. That is rapidly not becoming the case. More and more players are now entering the larger events by winning a seat via the satellite route. This is not only happening in brick and mortar rooms but at an astounding and increasing rate on the Internet. This year’s final table consisted of relatively unknowns. There were only two professional players at the table. I seriously doubt if we will ever see another truly great multiple champion legend.

It is difficult for a proficient $40-80 player to win as consistently in a $2-4 limit game. This is also true in the reverse. I don’t know anyone who would stake the average $2-4 player in a $40-80 game. There are many reasons for this. Lets take a look at two, starting hand selection and reading your opponents. The lower the limit the greater the number of hands a player will enter a pot with. This may be attributable to the player’s level of knowledge or simply a desire for more action. When players at the table play more hands, the number of players seeing the flop increases. This translates into more player chasing draws. The experienced, more knowledgeable, higher limit player will have a difficult time putting his opponents on hands. This leads to judgment errors in establishing the value of their own hand. An extreme example will best show this point. Seat 2 in the big blind has pocket deuces, seat three has AK suited, seat 7 has KK and the button has AA. The pot is raised by the AK, re-raised by the KK and re-raised by the AA. The 22 calls, simply because he already has money in the pot. The flop comes AK2 and the pot is capped. The turn brings another 2 and the pot is capped again.No matter what the river brings there will at least be a bet and a raise. Assuming the AK and KK have folded, no one will put the player with 22 on four deuces. After all, how could he possibly call three raises pre flop?

Does luck play a part in no limit? You bet. Here is a hand I actually played. It was the first hand after the re-buy period ended. I was in second chip position, a single chip below the chip leader. Each of us had about five times more chips than the next person. I looked down and saw two red Aces and immediately bet 25% of my chips from the button after several limpers. The chip leader calls from the small blind. The flop is uneventful with two spades and a heart. The chip leader and I both go all in. The turn and river bring another spade each and I lose to my opponent ace high flush! Was it luck or skill? In pot limit and more so in limit you are protected against such a fate as you typically do not have to make an all and out decision. You can come back and play to overcome a bad beat.

In my opinion, based on the last two paragraphs alone, it takes far greater skill to play a limit game than no limit. It requires even more skill to play a pot limit game then a limit or no limit game. There you must combine the skill set from both extremes. So why don’t we see more pot limit games? That can be fodder for another article, lets just say it requires more dealer skill and slows the number of hands dealt per hour.

Email me with your view as to which form of poker and limit version requires the most skill. I will assemble the responses and report them back to you.

Filed under: Poker News