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Low Limit Holdem

Whenever they hit the real money tables for the first time, rookies usually go for low limit and/or micro limit Texas Holdem. Texas Holdem it is because that is the game pretty much everyone knows how to play or learns first and low limit because they want to go easy on the money. In both respects they are right to do so. Texas Holdem is the game where they’re most likely to bump into fish like themselves whom they can play on an equal footing, and more precisely, they’ll find these opponents at the low and micro tables. On the other hand, going easy on the bankroll when a rookie, is never a bad idea. After all, what you’re most likely to be doing in your first few days of real money play is to pay tuition. Why not keep that to a minimum then?

What exactly should a rookie be on the lookout for when playing low limit then, and which parts of the game should he place more stress on? First of all, it often happens to beginners that as soon as they move on to real money, they come across even bigger fish than they are. Thus, they sometimes manage to walk away with some serious dough right after their very first real money session. (serious dough in low-limit terms, of course). That’ll make them badly want to come back for more. They might score another win or two at the table, but then they suddenly lose almost everything they’ve won that far. This is usually the stage when most players will become disillusioned. Being beaten at their best is not exactly something that will encourage a person to keep on playing. Especially right after he was beginning to assume maybe he could be the next Doyle Brunson after all.

Few players manage to get past this stage, and even fewer manage to completely rebound from the blow they’ve taken. You need to know however, that variance is just as much part of online poker as the flop, turn and river are. You have to have a bankroll capable of absorbing this variance – when you move on to higher limits – and you have to have a state of mind that enables you to deal with these situations.

For the time being though, all you can do is try to avoid this wild variance as much as you can. The way to do it is not to commit on marginal hands. Many new players however, have problems with hands that should rake in some easy profit. They fail to grasp the idea behind the preflop raise and consider every preflop raiser a bully.

The reasoning behind the preflop raise is the following: better players know they are huge underdogs when faced with a whole bunch of opponents (against the whole group they are) so what they’re trying to achieve is to cut that group down to size a bit. That’s what the preflop action is meant to achieve. On top of that, it has the potential of gathering some really welcome dead money into the pot. Dead money is what players who fold after the flop post before it. That dead money will turn postflop play into a positive EV one for all players sticking around.

Now that you know what the preflop raise is for, maybe you won’t feel intimidated, next time you are faced with it.

Other than that, a preflop raise is also part of the “strong blinds” play which is of utmost importance in Low Limit Holdem. Players attack blinds and they try to lose as little as possible when they’re in the blinds. You should also understand that this is what low limit poker ultimately comes down to.

Get these basics right first and worry about advanced stuff like rakeback and proper postflop action later.