going from limit to no limit

hey guys, i've been getting into no limit for the past month and a half. i had been playing limit for the past year and am a pretty good tight player. i was sick of making 1 bb an hour playing .50-1 tables and i read this site and was enticed to play no limit. i realize i have to change to become more aggressive and now i can punish those more who draw out on me, but with the info on this site of the starting hands its much like limit hold em and i feel like i'm a tight conservative player when everyone else is playing every hand. when i do get one of the starting hands and bet aggresivley people fold. are you supposed to play only those starting hands or can you play a lot more hands if you can just limp in? i'm sick of losing my entire bank roll in one night.

Originally Posted by projectb36

hey guys, i've been getting into no limit for the past month and a half. i had been playing limit for the past year and am a pretty good tight player. i was sick of making 1 bb an hour playing .50-1 tables and i read this site and was enticed to play no limit. i realize i have to change to become more aggressive and now i can punish those more who draw out on me, but with the info on this site of the starting hands its much like limit hold em and i feel like i'm a tight conservative player when everyone else is playing every hand. when i do get one of the starting hands and bet aggresivley people fold. are you supposed to play only those starting hands or can you play a lot more hands if you can just limp in? i'm sick of losing my entire bank roll in one night.

i'm more of an sng player, so keep that in mind...

the hand guidelines here at ftr are a great starting point. on a full (9 or 10 player table) table, i tend to play even tighter and position is critical.

you should be doing very little limping in - if you're playing, you should be betting/raising. if you limp, and then hit your hand, you'll likely have all kinds of crazy (T5 suited, 34, etc) drawers in with you.

also, if you limp in, and do hit the flop, you have no idea what other people might be holding.

also #2, if you raise preflop and miss the flop, but it looks like the kind of flop that players that would have called your preflop raise also missed, you can frequently buy the pot on the respect you earned from raising preflop if you're either first in, or it's checked to you (i did this 3 times last night with AK when i missed the flop).

also #3, bet to ruin a drawers pot odds. if they're going to hit their hand 1 out of 4 times, make them pay for the times they don't hit it. punish them for chasing - and don't give them good pot odds to keep drawing.

finally, if everyone folds when you raise preflop, leave the table. there's a great post by fnord on finding the right table on this site - do a search on "table selection". what i like in a table: 'lots of limpers, not much preflop raising, a few people that chase, a couple of tigher players, and no giant stacks.

play solid hands, play them hard, and if you just win the blinds, at least you didn't get outdrawn.

thanks, also i learned from playing limit holdem how to use pot odds off a chart that uses ratios like 5 to 1 if you have so many outs and compare it to the pot odds your getting. i don't quite understand the percentages on the chart posted on this site. is there an easy way to convert it to ratios, i'm sure you just divide somethign by one or some easy thing like that. i have matt hilgers book on internet texas holdem and am using the outs chart from him and i leanred to use it, but i like this sites better because it has the chances of making it on the fourth st , then for the river. any help?

35% of turning a four flush into a flush with 2 cards to come

(100%-35%)=65% of not making your flush

(65%/35%)=1.86

1.86:1 Underdog of making the flush

Here's an easy trick that works for some of the common outs scenarios. Subtract your number of outs from 13. The result is the approximate odds you need to call for the next card.

outs......odds
5............8:1
6............7:1
7............6:1
8............5:1
9............4:1

It breaks down a beyond this range, but these are the most common scenarios.

With two cards to come, you can get close by dividing the odds by two. Note that those odds only apply in all-in situations. If you'll almost certainly face a turn bet, you need to factor that bet in as well when making your decision.

I think better when dealing with percentages.

What I use is this approximation:

# of outs on flop x 4 = % of hitting on turn or river

# of outs on turn x 2 = % of hitting on the river

So with an open ended straight draw, you have 8 outs. 8 x 4 = 32% chance at hitting your draw after the flop, and 8 x 2 = 16% chance after the turn.

FTR's charts say its 31.5% after the flop and 17.4% after the turn.

Its not exact, but its close enough for me.

The reason I like using odds rather than percentages is that in live play, there is no number to look at to know the pot size. It's easier to count big bets and small bets.