Limit Texas Hold’em Poker Strategy – Part 1

Limit Hold’em is not as popular as it once was, but is still a widely played Hold’em variant. Patience, hand-reading and maths are at the heart of limit Hold’em and even if you are a No Limit junkie, learning to play a strong limit game can strengthen these areas of your No Limit game immensely.

In part 1 of this two part strategy guide, let’s look at some of the key areas of Limit Strategy.

Hand Selection

In No Limit many hands are playable as even a weak pre-flop hand can be valuable when it connects with the flop and is paid off with big bets post-flop. In Limit this is less the case, as it is harder to win pots with bluffs and harder to get big payoffs for the odd times when speculative hands connect with the flop.

Because of this, whilst learning the game at least, you should start by playing a strong base of premium starting hands. AK, AQ, TT+ should be your core set of hands and you should generally raise or 3-bet these hands when the action comes round to you. These hands will win their fair share of pots and if you pursue a ruthlessly selective and aggressive game with these sorts of starting hands, you will begin to show a profit.

Suited connector-type hands are not as valuable as in No Limit, however these hands still have merit and if it looks like you will be involved in a multiway pot then these hands start to become more worthwhile hands to play as the pot starts to give you a better price and your likelihood of a good payout increases.

Pot Odds and Hand-Reading

Pot odds are a very important part of limit poker. You should know the probability of making your hand and combined with your reading of what your opponent holds, determine whether you are getting a good price.

It is also important to consider what sorts of hands your opponent might hold, based on his preflop action, in order to make accurate guesses at how many outs you have to improve.

Example:-

$2/$4 game(blinds $1/$2) :

You are dealt Ah Ks in the cut off. It is called for $2 from middle position and you raise to $4. The blinds fold  and MP calls. (Pot size – $11)

The flop comes Qs Tc 4d. Middle position bets out $2.  

Here you have a gutshot to the nut straight and two overcards. Your opponent is representing a queen and unless he is very loose, if he has a queen, it is likely he has either a jack or a king with it, reducing some of your outs. The number of clean outs then is likely 3-4 for the nut straight, whilst an ace or king might also be good, meaning you have a further 3-6 outs to improve. If you suggest that on average you will have around 8 outs to improve this is likely to be fairly accurate.

There is also a chance he is betting out on the come with a hand like Ks Jd or could simply be betting a smallish pair in a bid to blow overcards out of the pot.

Advice?

Well you are getting $13:2 (6.5:1)on the call and assuming you have eight outs to improve, your odds of improving on the turn are approximately 8:45 or just better than 1:6. So immediately you have the right price to draw and can call.

A more advanced strategy might see you raise the flop which has a number of benefits. Firstly, you might win the pot here and now, given you have shown aggression pre-flop and aggression on the flop suggesting a big hand.

Also you charge drawing hands such as K:J to put in further money whilst you are ahead. Additionally you might buy yourself a free card on the more expensive turn. If your opponent has a hand like Qs Jc and calls the raise, he may well check the turn and now you can also check behind, seeing the river card for a total of $4 whereas you would have likely had to call a further $4 on the turn if you had just flat called as he would have continued to bet his queen – a saving of $2.

In Part 2 we will look at some different techniques to advance your limit game.