PokerWorks

If you've been a regular player of Limit Hold'em you may wonder what possible reason you could have for moving to No Limit Hold'em. Perhaps you're a winning Limit Hold'em player and not entirely comfortable with the 'all-in' scenarios that pop up from time to time in No Limit.

On the other hand, you may have been grinding away at Limit Hold'em for a while and have become a little bored with the inflexible betting on offer.

If you fit into either of these categories, the chances are that you've considered No Limit Hold'em, watched it on TV, on the internet or even played a little low stakes NL yourself. But, LHE and NLHE are two entirely different games that should be approached in different ways.

Lets take a look at how you should approach NLHE games, and what you can expect to occur.
In LHE, pre-flop raises are often met with many calls from a full ten handed table. The reason for this is value. When you double the bet and attract one caller, players after this caller and getting increasingly better odds for their call. If a raise is called by players immediately to the left of the aggressor, this can cause a 'domino effect', where six or seven players may call because of the value they are getting for their money. With seven players in a LHE pot, that's 7/1 for your bet. Great value.

In NLHE, things are a little different. A pre-flop raise is rarely double the big blind and when it is, it's met with great suspicion. So you can expect fewer people to see flops, as they are simply too expensive most of the time.
More bluffing occurs in NLHE than LHE. Players can simply be bullied out of pots by large bets. Many find this the main reason to avoid NLHE. In $2/$4 LHE, calling a $4 bet on the river with 2nd highest pair might be worthwhile sometimes. In $2/$4 NLHE, calling a pot bet of $60 on the river with 2nd highest pair is probably never worthwhile.
Caution should be the first thing on your mind in NLHE. It is easy to get sucked into chasing a draws in poker, chasing draws in NLHE can become an expensive business.

A tip for new NLHE players: Try to build up your stack by playing premium hands only. This, of course, means folding a lot of cards. If you're successful in increasing your stack with a tight strategy, loosen up a little and play, even raise, more marginal hands. Your opponents should respect your betting more and lay down hands they may normally call with.

No Limit Hold'em is the most popular form of poker in the world today. As one famous commentator says: “It takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master”