20-40 Limit Poker Strategy
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In Limit Hold'em, it's crucial to understand the importance of a single bet, and how the bet affects you and your long-term results.
If you double the blinds from now on, from 5/10 to 10/20 to 20/40, then the blinds are sizable, resulting in a swift, but not chaotic game. If you want more action, you can drop some of the blind level. You could go from 5/10 to 10/20, then instead of 20/40, skip straight to 40/80. The following hand actually occurred in a 20/40 cash game at a live casino that a student of mine played in. Isn’t limit poker fun? Poker Strategy Nov 22. Kill games are used in limit poker (and sometimes pot limit), but straddles can occur frequently in no limit, limit, and pot limit games. In a kill game, when the kill conditions occur, the winning player posts what looks like a straddle, double the big in full kill games, a bit less in half kill games, and the betting limits subsequently.
Players who primarily understand No-Limit online poker may completely miss out on the concept of how important a single big bet is in Limit poker.
In a game of No-Limit, playing 200+ big blinds deep, a single big bet is relatively insignificant to the total amount of chips at risk to be gained or lost.
No-Limit is a game of outplaying your opponent - maximizing your wins, minimizing your losses. You play for stacks, and look for opportunities to put your opponent to a decision for all of his chips.
In Limit Hold'em poker you play the fine odds and work at exploiting the meager statistical advantages.
Your Goal in Limit Hold'em Poker
Your goal in the long run is to win in the neighborhood of between one and three big bets per hour at the game you play. With an impressive margin of victory being so scant, your game has to be consistent, vigilant and mathematically sound.
For every one bet you give up due to a mistake, you must win two back before seeing a profit. That means every error you commit makes it twice as difficult to make money at the game. A poorly played hand in No-Limit can cost you your entire stack, while a well-played hand can double up your stack.
A poorly played hand in Limit can equate to losing multiple bets. If you're playing on a win rate of one bet per hour, this single misplayed hand can cost you multiple hours of your time. Working half a session for free is never a good time.
The Turn in Limit Holdem is Crucial
With the turn and river betting rounds using the higher betting limit, these betting rounds become the most valuable rounds in a Limit Hold'em game. A single bet on the turn is equal to two bets on the flop; this obvious information becomes valuable when figuring how to play your hand.
For simplicity's sake, let's say you're first in position and flop the absolute, un-counterfeitable nuts. Your only goal in this hand is to build as large a pot as possible. You're heads-up, and your opponent has bet out the flop probably with a pair, or a hand strong enough to want to see the river.
Your opponent is good enough that once you raise he will have an idea that you may have something strong. You are as sure as you can be that after you raise your opponent will shut down into check-call mode. To make the most money, you want to hold out until the turn to make your raise.
Here's a chart of total bets made from raising the flop and having your opponent check-call you to showdown afterward:
| Street | Total Big Bets from Both Players |
| Flop | 2 |
| Turn | 2 |
| River | 2 |
Total Bets: 6
In the same scenario, you call your opponent's flop bet, and raise them on the turn. They call, and check-call the river:
| Street | Total Big Bets from Both Players |
| Flop | 1 |
| Turn | 4 |
| River | 2 |
Total Bets: 7
By waiting until the turn to make your single raise, you've gained yourself one full big bet. As you can see in the following chart, waiting to raise until the river yields the same result as the turn:
| Street | Total Big Bets from Both Players |
| Flop | 1 |
| Turn | 2 |
| River | 4 |
Total Bets: 7
The obvious advantage to making the raise on the turn is forcing your opponent to pay more to see a river. Since it's rare to have a hand on the flop or turn that's impossible to beat, letting your opponent see a free or cheap river is not always in your best interest.
How to 3-Bet in Limit Holdem
If your goal in every hand of Limit Hold'em is to maximize your big bets, it's important to take a look at three-betting. Just as waiting until the turn to raise makes you money, so does three-betting. The difference is that the increase in betting size geometrically increases the difference in big bets, depending on when you make the move.
In this first chart you're three-betting the flop, assuming that you're out of position, open betting and being raised. As soon as you three-bet, your opponent stops raising, and only calls from that point on.
20-40 Limit Poker Strategy Real Money
| Street | Total Big Bets from Both Players |
| Flop | 3 |
| Turn | 2 |
| River | 2 |
Total Bets: 7
As you can see, three-betting the flop only earned you the same amount of money as a simple raise on the turn would have. You now have a much more aggressive player sitting across from you, but you're not making any more money. Waiting until the turn solves that problem:
| Street | Total Big Bets from Both Players |
| Flop | 2 |
| Turn | 6 |
| River | 2 |
Total Bets: 10
By waiting until the turn to three-bet, you've earned three more big bets than you would have had you three-bet the flop. It's the little differences like this that allow good poker players to be consistent winners in Limit games.
The difficulty with Limit poker is finding the line in maximizing your big-bet winnings, while reducing the odds of your opponents' drawing against you. Pumping a pot in a manner which gives your opponent better odds hurts you more than it helps you.
You need to understand the goal of your opponent before you can formulate a plan to reach your own goals. Always remember that even though a single bet seems insignificant, it should never be bet or called away mindlessly. You need to make every play for a reason, and focus on conserving your losses. Every dollar saved is a dollar earned.
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Many poker players now start out by playing no-limit hold’em and this lesson is intended for those looking to make the transition to fixed-limit hold’em. We’ll focus on differences between the two games. While the betting rules are the main difference between the two formats, there are many other strategic differences.
In its most rudimentary form the main difference between the two is that implied odds drive no-limit and in limit making or saving an extra big bet is what separates good players from their mediocre brethren. One might make the analogy of the first game being similar to a roller coaster and the second a carrousel. While some enjoy the thrill of speed, others prefer the comfort of the merry-go-round.
For those who have never really embraced limit play and look down upon it, rest assured that there are many pros that make six figure incomes playing limit hold’em without the roller coaster thrashing to their bankrolls that can accompany no-limit play.
The Key Strategic Differences
The following list of differences between the two forms of hold’em should give you an idea of what to pay attention to if you’re switching from no-limit hold’em
Starting Hands
While many unsuited big card starting hands are regularly and correctly played in limit, those same hands can get a player into a heap of trouble in no-limit. Hands such as AQ or KQ can be played aggressively in limit but they can be a disaster in the making in no-limit, especially if the stacks are deep.
Ability / Inability to Manipulate Pot Odds
This difference is obvious but worth noting. Many poker players who play both games will, on occasion, complain at the tables while playing limit that they cannot protect their hands due to the structured betting. Of course these same players, when turning over a losing hand, do not praise the game for allowing them not to have lost their entire stack.
There still are times when a bet and/or a raise can impact the odds offered opponents in limit and accomplished players are always aware of this dynamic.
The Odds
Certainly the knowledge and proper use of odds has a place in both limit and no-limit play. Due to the heightened emphasis on implied odds, no-limit players can many times continue a hand with the worst of it and ultimately prevail and profit handsomely. In limit play, pot odds take on a much more critical role and relying too heavily on implied odds to justify chasing a draw becomes a major downfall of certain players.
Limit is a more mechanical and structured game and adhering to the odds is a must to succeed.
Information
Players need to understand that while one can bet as much as he likes in no-limit, the size of his bets give away information to his opponents as to the strength of his holding. It is for this reason many no-limit players like to keep their bet sizing constant, to avoid giving too much information away. Of course when they play like this – they are playing like limit players. Ironic, don’t you think?
Protecting Your Hand
In no-limit one attempts to manipulate the pot odds to make it ‘incorrect’ for opponents to proceed with draws. Limit players need to focus to the times when being aggressive in an attempt to ‘thin the field’ will work and when knowing all reasonable hands will call your bet anyway. Then your bet/raise will only build a pot that will make it correct for opponents to play.
In limit play pot odds are critical, as implied odds do not take on the emphasis they do in no-limit. Players that fail to make adjustments based upon both the odds they are receiving as well as the odds their opponents are being offered by the pot will not fare well in limit play.
Bluffing
While many believe that bluffing in limit play is a fool’s errand, there is no question that a well timed bluff can work. While bluffs have a much better chance of success in no-limit play, you need to understand that the cost of failure in no-limit can be much higher.
Over the years limit gurus, such as David Sklansky, have advocated that in limit play losing a bet on the end is okay but losing the pot is a disaster. This dictum has led a legion of players to lose a lot of bets on the end and has lost favor in the current limit thinking. Today’s accomplished limit players are not as quick to pay off on the river fearing being bluffed out. This, of course, would indicate that there may well be more opportunities for river bluffs in today’s limit hold’em.
Just know your players, understand the image you have been projecting, assess the board and put yourself in their shoes to evaluate if your bluff is believable.
Stack Sizes
The size of your stack and also your opponents’ has a much greater importance in no-limit versus limit play. Playing with or against a deep stack in no-limit can make significant differences to your strategy. The threat that is evident by the amount of money behind a bet is much larger in no-limit. However it still exists in limit play. In addition, the amount of money a player has on the table also helps create an intimidating presence which can help create positive results in either form of the game.
The Goal
There should be consensus that the single most popular goal of playing poker is to accumulate more chips than you started with. However, in no-limit players are constantly on the lookout for opportunities to double up or take an opponent’s entire stack. In limit play, the accepted guideline for middle limits is to earn one big bet an hour over time. Individual sessions can spike wildly in either direction but a winning player, whether a dedicated amateur or professional, who keeps accurate records will be able to chart this one big bet an hour earn rate.
Conclusion
While the two games look very much the same on the surface they are very different. This will become even more apparent as your progress through our lessons on limit hold’em.
Many players tend to play just one of the hold’em variations, usually being the one they initially learned. There are many others that feel comfortable playing either format. There are then those that can excel at both formats and they are forces to be reckoned with. You should strive to be in this third class of players because they are truly poker players. This third group usually feels right at home with other poker variations such as stud, Omaha, razz and all the different formats. They are truly poker players not just hold’em players.
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By Tom 'TIME' Leonard
20-40 Limit Poker Strategy Blackjack
Tom has been writing about poker since 1994 and has played across the USA for over 40 years, playing every game in almost every card room in Atlantic City, California and Las Vegas.