Poker News

Low Limit Aggression

My guess is that 99 percent of today’s poker players watch those poker tournaments on TV. The other 1 percent don’t have TV’s! We have tournaments for Hollywood actors, soap opera stars and race car drivers. We also have a ton of reruns of the World Series of Poker, the WPT, and new challenge matches keep popping up everywhere. Is it any wonder that the texture of our game is changing?

What is changing is the mood of the players. There appears to be a lot more aggression and the pots seem to be getting bigger. That’s simply because they have seen these celebrities play Texas Hold’em on TV, and don’t understand the difference between limit games and no limit games. They don’t realize that the hand values differ drastically playing no limit against 1 or 2 players, as compared to the same hand against 5 to 8 players in a limit game.

Me? My skill level in no-limit is, at best , fair, but I believe I can hold my own against the best in limit Hold’em. I am not enough of a gambler to risk all on a small pair when the board has three overcards in no limit. When the board has a possible straight or flush, and my pocket pairs have not hit, I run like a scared rabbit! In limit poker, however, there’s a good chance I’ll call you down in case you’re bluffing, and I rarely let a “loose cannon” have his way in low limit games.

I believe that most players, in a 5/10 or lower limit game, will not allow you to steal a pot very often; you will get called. So the only thing you can possibly accomplish by your aggressive raising in limit poker is to build a pot. If you lose the pot, all you did was multiply your loss and build a pot for someone else. Even if you have pocket aces, you will lose most of the time against 4 or more players in the pot.

So why gamble so much with those kinds of odds? Raising in a limit game will not keep people out; on the contrary, some will call because they feel the pot odds make it favorable to do so.

A lady friend of mine says that if her pocket pairs are going to lose, then people will have to pay dearly to outdraw her. In other words, she is going to defend them to the end. She loses most of the time, but when I point that out to her it’s like talking to a blank wall! She doesn’t care; she is going to go broke protecting her hand, regardless of the consequences. Of course, if a person like that gets on a rush, she’ll make a lot more money. But if her hands don’t hold up, she’ll go broke a lot quicker. The odds favor the other people.

If I raise pre-flop with a nice hand and I have lots of callers, I always assume that one of them has a hand with the potential to beat mine. I stop betting and raising unless I hit something, or the board doesn’t look dangerous. Yes, I don’t win many huge pots, but I make up for that by not LOSING huge pots! Can you see the wisdom in that? I hate extreme chip fluctuations, don’t you?

I was at The Rising Dragon Casino in Tacoma the other day, playing in a 3/6 Hold’em. I watched in amazement as my friend, Tony, went from all in to $400 and back, several times over an 8 hour period. He eventually lost it all, but while he was in the game, he sure made it lively! He dragged others down with him as the night went on, but the smart ones, the patient ones, walked off with all the chips.

I believe that this new aggression generally does not give you positive expectations in low limit Hold’em. On the contrary, you will usually lose much more than you should. The additional money you lost on those hands would have served you well in waiting for a real rush to start. I believe in Selective Aggression, but if you’re there to have fun and be the action guy with an unlimited bankroll, then, go at it and “Cap It” all night long. Hopefully, I’ll be waiting for you at the other end of the table!

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