Learning No-limit hold 'em poker

No-limit hold 'em Poker is not what most people initially expect it to be. They would like to see a more predictable game where the best starting hands win. It is more true with people who have been playing other games like chess. But no-limit is a very different game. Due to Poker on TV and multi-million dollar prizes, no limit is the most popular variant of poker played (online and offline). Its not easy to find a $1-$2 limit hold 'em game.


No-limit hold 'em is a totally different game compared to limit hold 'em. Most books will have to start somewhere and hence would start with an over-simplified version. Some even simplify it to a single table to remember! New players who follow all the "good advice" will soon realize that things are not going as they expected. At the same time you can see that some players who do not know any theory (but have a "feel" for the game) make more money.


I like to think of poker as the combination of 3 things. Cards (hole cards & board), Chip stack (money on table, bankroll, etc) and Opponents' tendencies.
Among these, probably cards are the easiest to explain. There are a set of card combinations, winning percentages, odds, outs and so on that keeps repeating. It is a lot easier to explain these concepts (that are already complex enough for a beginner), if you ignore the effect of stack sizes and opponent dispositions. Thats what most books do.

Even by following these "rules", the winnings keep fluctuating, mostly leaving the player, more or less even. Most players blame that on luck and continue.
Some experienced players advise beginners to play according to these "rules" because thats what they expect everyone to do. Things go terribly wrong when someone disrupts this "understanding". But the "good theoretical players" would console each other and blame it on a foolish player who does not know how he is supposed to play, and got lucky.

This game is about winning more money, not winning more hands. Winning more hands may not win you more money. In No-limit you are playing to take all the chips of the opponent(s). This changes the list of things a player has to consider to be a long term winner. Chips stacks and opponents' tendencies become all the more important. It does not matter if you lose (small) with pocket Aces, if you win big with 56 suited! So you can see pros playing all kind of hands in different ways and still winning. They don't seem to follow any rules!

Most books just explain about "short stacks" and "big stacks" briefly, because stack sizes add another order of complexity to the game. It will take some time for a player to get a feel of how others' stacks affect his winnings. Then, to top it all, the human factor adds yet another order of complexity to the whole game!!!

Phil Helmuth (11 WSOP poker bracelet winner) says that, "No-limit hold 'em is 30% about cards and 70% about players".


Most people play poker for fun and would not want to put in all the mental effort to make good decisions. The basic math and observation required itself is too much for most recreational players, let alone fine tuning their calculations for human factors. So they either just rely on luck and learn to live with the losses by playing low limits OR learn it, by feel & experience or from books & experience.


No matter how you get there, if you want to be a long term winner in no limit hold 'em, you will have to understand pot building, effect of chip stacks and understand players. Eventually everybody will get good and bad cards. If you consistently make more money, than what others would with winning hands, and lose less money than what others would when you are beaten, you will make a profit.

More on how to do these in a later post...