12-14-04, LearnTexasHoldem:

No Limit Holdem Advice

Question: Hi im a 21yr old student from australia, sydney. I started off playing no-limit at home games with friends and usually do well. I have read everything on your site and many others and feel i have a good understanding of poker.

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I am focusing now on low-limit because i have been playing at star city casino. I started with a bankroll of $2000. I play the 5/10 table and usually buy in with $300. I have played about 5 times and i have lost 5 times. On 1 or 2 occasions i can look back and say i made some poor plays eg. playing the sucker straight and being beaten by a top straight. On other occasions i flop the nut straight only the be beaten by a full house on turn and river. I know ur site says that it is bad luck and that these players will pay me off in the long run but i just cant seem to win.

Im at a stage where im very confused, i cant see any big wholes in my game, i usualy only play premium hands in early position and call with drawing hands in the back. Have i been unlucky 5 times? im not sure. BUt i need some advice as to where to go from here. i feel im a decent player but i just cant win. any advice you could give me to get me out of this losing streak would be greatly appreciated. I only have $500 left lol

Thanks in advance

Dave

Answer: Thanks for the question Dave. First of, don't lose your last $500 playing at the 5/10 limit. $2000 for a $5/10 No Limit Game isn't that much. I would suggest starting off at a smaller blind structure that you can beat consistently. Only move up limits when your bank roll is large and you can consistently beat the lower limit.

Also, just because you don't see any holes in your game doesn't mean there aren't any. You may be too inexperienced to notice what is happening (which isn't anything to be ashamed of). It isn't a good idea to just assume when you losing that is because you were unlucky; that doesn't leave you with any options other than to just put more money in. Everyone has slumps in poker and the key is to recognize when it is or isn't your play.

No Limit Holdem is a game of mistakes. You want to try your hardest to avoid situations where you'll get trapped and lose a lot of chips. The hands that you mentioned are classic examples. In Holdem, and especially No Limit Holdem, you don't make your money by trying to catch bluffs. Notice the examples you gave above, most likely the people bet a significant amount of chips on the river when you had the inferior hand.

The only way you could win is if the person didn't have a larger hand. Be very careful with none nut hands in No Limit. And when in doubt, don't risk all your chips if you don't have the best hand. It isn't worth losing all your chips guessing as to whether someone has you beat or not. Those are called marginal situations and your goal is to minimize those in you game because you can't help but make mistakes.

So the two pieces of advice again are to play a smaller limit that your bank roll is really comfortable at and then also try to avoid trapping hands -- just let them have those. You won't even break even by trying to figure out if they "really have it" or not. This philosophy goes along with the idea that in any key no limit pot, you don't want to be the caller.

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