Limit V No Limit

No poker played last night but poker content after the football stuff.

I did get to see Rangers bitter rivals lose 5-0 in a qualifier for the Champions League against a team of Slovakian nobodies.Sweet. That was their biggest ever European defeat and Gordon Strachans first game in charge. "Out of Europe in July,You're out of Europe in July".
They even mentioned the guy that managed the Texas Rangers for just 1 game in '77 and wondered if Strachan would last longer! Us Bluenoses will be starting our "Strachan must stay"
campaign shortly....

I read http://www.gcox25.blogspot.com/ and discovered that The Texas Rangers play in Red,White and Blue too.Fine colours Mr Cox."We love the Rangers we do,Oh Rangers we love you".

Enjoyed the rest of my night too.Mark and Bucky came up for a night on the Play Station and I tried not to mention the football score to Mark more than 30 or 40 times per hour :-)

Ok back to the poker and reading about some of Juices experiences ( http://pokerandglory.blogspot.com/) playing limit poker I thought I'd write about why I prefer No Limit.

I've tried limit a few times and I don't like it much.NL gives you much more information to go on and allows a hand to be properly protected allowing you to really punish the fish.I found my experience of limit holdem to be a frustrating one.Playing NL you should always raise by the same amount preflop but so many players will give clues to their hand by raising a lot more with AA,KK and less with the other premuim hands that it makes them easy to read.

You don't get 6 or 7 callers along for the ride when you raise enough in NL.The trick is to get the balance right between building the pot and allowing too many players in to outdraw you.
The best hand always seems to win at Limit but at No limit you can represent having hit your flop and bet out and take it down with nothing.( always best to leave yourself outs though).Sometimes I like to give players the odds to draw after the flop then tempt them into making mistakes if it misses by raising big on the turn.

Its also easier to make more money from other players on tilt with NL.Of course there are still nights when fish will call large raises with weak hands and get lucky on the flop and obviously the variance will be much higher at NL but overall if your going to play Nofoldem Holdem it must be easier to make money at NL.

The main reason NL is better than Limit though is the buzz of winning a big pot.Now I realise that we're all supposed leave our emotions behind when playing poker but very little beats that feeling you get when you win a big pot and see several opponents sitting out because you've taken all their money.( see June 23rd "Winning Night" post for my best example.) Its real heart thumping stuff to put all your money in with the best hand and hope it holds up and its even worse/better when your bluffing.

I never "tap the aquarium" and although its bad for the bankroll its also a great feeling when the whole table leaves because they can't handle your play.Maybe one day I can make that happen at $1 nl and not just .25.

At .25nl there are so many players with shortstacks just looking for action that a patient player should make money most of the time.At Pokerroom many 10 seat .25nl tables have % flop seen in the 50's!! $1nl is more realistic with flop % seen usually nearer 30% and much more respect for raises and bets and much bigger pots.

Just noticed that when I looked at my June posts that my profile/archive/ links are in the right place but currently they are still on holiday at the bottom right hand side of the page.
Hopefully blogspot will reply to my email soon and I can sort it.

Ok back to grinning madly at all my celt*c supporting workmates.............