From Fixed Limit to No Limit
Introduction
In this article
- Differences between betting styles, pre-flop and post-flop play
- The relevance of top pair, variable bets, stack sizes and position
- What influence tracking software stats have
- How big is the expected profit?
When playing Fixed Limit you are used to placing small bets up to and on the flop, and big bets (2 small bets = 1 big bet) on the turn and river. This particular betting behaviour means that certain moves have become habitual, as the given odds are usually the same and only vary depending on the number of opponents. As a result, pre-flop play can be depicted in charts that help you play an optimal game, as you can't make any mistakes when it comes to the odds.
This regulated betting behaviour also clearly comes into effect in post-flop play of course. It's practically impossible to drive out a flush draw on the flop, as this draw almost always has the right odds. The same goes for the turn. On the other hand, you are aware of the fact that a hand that has assumed showdown value costs you a maximum of 2,5 big bets in a heads-up game if you're playing way ahead/way behind.
Mathematically speaking, many mistakes can be avoided here, and so you can come close to playing an almost optimal game (definitely preflop, but also postflop). This is the big difference compared to No Limit Hold'em.
When playing No Limit Hold'em all these points cease to apply, as there are no regulated bet sizes. This means that every one of your opponents is free to bet as much as he wants (this also means he can go all-in at any time). So your opponent can change the odds –both pre-flop and post-flop– in his favour. The following explains the consequences of this, as well as what further points you should take into consideration.
Basic differences
It's hard to say in which format it's easier to beat a fish, and depends on your skills in the different game formats. But consider the advantages if a fish joins your table:
- It's easier to isolate him by using variable bet sizes
- You can rid him of his entire stack with one hand
- You can force him to make lots of mistakes
Use the opportunities you get to always give your weak opponent the wrong odds or use hard value betting with strong hands. Calling stations are particularly suitable for these measures. You don't need to use a lot of tricks, but you can force your opponent to pay much too high a price for his possibly weak hand, by making high value bets. You can't do this when playing Fixed Limit! You can use a maximum of 2.5 big bets post-flop as value bets in Fixed Limit, as long as your opponent only calls down.
Profit expectation is very hard to evaluate. It is generally said that if you've mastered a format, the profit you can expect to make is about the same. But due to fishiness and the number of available tables, which are discussed in more detail below, the expectation for No Limit is probably a little higher actually.
What about variance? It's not very easy to answer this question, because it depends on how you look at it. If you consider how often you really win with the strongest hand pre-flop or on the flop, then Fixed Limit definitely has more variance.
This is related to the fact that you can't protect your hands sufficiently and so you will be drawn out on relatively often. When playing No Limit, on the other hand, you can often invest a lot of money with some very narrow decisions.
It is, for example, quite possible to lose more than 5 stacks (500 big blinds) in one session, without you having made a big mistake. So if you take big blinds into account when looking at variance, you will find that you can attain bigger swings when playing No Limit.
This is definitely a relatively big advantage in No Limit. The selection of tables – especially at the higher limits – is considerably nicer in No Limit than in the Fixed Limit area. You can find plenty of tables – at the higher limits too – at any time of the day.
Additionally, the amount of fish decreases considerably at the high limits in the Fixed Limit area. A game doesn't become really profitable until at least one fish, who will often make exactly those mistakes that bring in money for you, is playing at the table.
There are also plenty of opportunities at the highest limits, whereas you'll really have to look for these when playing Fixed Limit. This has to do with the fact that the No Limit game is publicly the best-known format. In other words: many new players who pay a fee and want to get started at the higher limits immediately, prefer to play the format that they know from the adverts or from TV series.
Having stats on your opponent represents a huge advantage of course. It means you won't have to look at every played hand and internalise it. You'll be able to just look at the corresponding values from time to time as and when you need them for a reason. But there is one crucial difference in the analysis of statistics. In Fixed Limit you can analyse whether an opponent is playing strong over the long term by looking at certain values. For example:
- If the VPIP is too high, your opponent is making a lot of mistakes over the long term because he plays marginal hands too often and doesn't possess the necessary equity for the showdown.
- If the PFR is too low, your opponent is making a lot of mistakes over the long term because he is not extracting enough value with his supposed strong hands while he is ahead.
- If the "Went to Showdown" value is too high, your opponent is going to the showdown with weak hands too often
- ...
You can continue this list as you wish. You can't draw the same general conclusions from these values when it comes to No Limit, however. A player with the values 13/10 (VPIP/PFR) can be just as successful a player as one with 40/35 or even 40/10, as long as his post-flop play is accordingly adapted.
Because of the greater betting possibilities on later streets, pre-flop mistakes don't necessarily indicate whether someone is playing well over the long term. There are also many players who play more passive and try to take as many hands as possible to the showdown. You can't automatically say that a high WTS value is always to be evaluated negatively here either.
You can usually win more StrategyPoints (of course this varies from platform to platform) when playing Fixed Limit, insofar as you project this onto the number of played hands. On the other hand, you have to take decisions on the turn and river that demand more concentration because of the "showdown bound" factor in Fixed Limit games. This means that No Limit gives you the possibility to play a few tables more, which in turn means you can catch up to Fixed Limit in terms of StrategyPoints.
Differences in pre-flop play
There are several charts available for pre-flop play in Fixed Limit games. These charts show you whether the chances your starting hand has technically demand a fold, call or raise. In No Limit it is unfortunately not possible to indicate this in a chart. There are many reasons for this.
Dynamics are a decisive factor in the No Limit game. That is to say, many factors play a role, and thus have to be taken into consideration when making a pre-flop decision. These are, for example:
- Your position
- Type and number of opponents
- Opponents' post-flop play
- Opponents' stack sizes
- Estimation of implied odds and/or danger of domination
- Your image based on the game at the table so far
- ...
There are several other factors that could be named here. But you should concentrate on the ones mentioned above, as these are considered most important.
The equity of a hand is primarily decisive. If you're holding a better hand than your opponent, you should try to get money into the pot and make the player with the worse hand pay.
In Fixed Limit games this procedure is not very difficult. The charts show you which hands to raise from which position. Especially hands like broadways (AK/AQ/AJ/KQ/KJ) have good equity and can be played aggressive from the flop onwards if hit. The same goes for hands like (AX/KX) from a later position. This gives rise to two things:
- You have low implied odds
- You have low reverse implied odds
In other words: it's hard to still make a lot of profit on future streets with a hand that is more likely a draw. You can't lose that much with a hand like a top pair either, however.
This is different in No Limit games. You don't pay much preflop, but there is the possibility that you win or lose an entire stack postflop. So a hand that could be a draw has much more value here. A hand like ATo, however, is dangerous, as you'll have to play for a big pot too often postflop. This is where you're dealing with reverse implied odds, because you can assume that you'll pay out a better hand on an A high board more often than extract value against a worse hand.
A scenario that is impossible in Fixed Limit: pre-flop all-in. In No Limit games, however, you can decide whether you want to place 100 big blinds or even more of your complete stack in the middle before the flop. Doing this with premium hands is likely to bring in the highest profit of course. This means aces or kings, but also hands like AK and QQ (though of course it's theoretically possible with all hands). It should be obvious that variance can increase considerably through this.
But it begs the question: why go all-in at all?
On the one hand, you want to get your opponent to put money in the pot and so commit a mistake when you're holding the assumed strongest hand preflop. Of course it's not ideal to already have to put all your money in the middle with hands like AK and QQ preflop. But often you'll have no other choice. If you get a 3bet, you won't be able to tell much about the strength of your opponent's hand. In most cases you'll have the best hand, which is why you're the favourite and so you 4bet. If your opponent then pushes, you can make the mathematically correct call on your opponent's range of AK, QQ+ with your AK or QQ.
Differences in post-flop play
When the argument is put forward that there are better opportunities to bluff in No Limit than there are in Fixed Limit it tends to cause a heated discussion. Of course there are plenty of opportunities to bluff in Fixed Limit, but you should be aware of the fact that the fold equity is basically not very high because the bets are relatively small in comparison to the pot.
A bluff is mainly used to make a better hand fold. A better hand has usually hit something, however, and will generally not have any problem with going to the showdown and simply calling down. So there is relatively little leeway for bluffs.
In No Limit there is still enough leeway post-flop to really get better hands to fold by bluffing. Of course the previously mentioned factor "variable bet sizes" plays a decisive role here too, as you give the opponent odds with which he shouldn't really call when he's holding a marginal made hand.
The ground rule that you shouldn't lose your entire stack with a top pair/top kicker in No Limit Hold'em was used for a long time. But it's not correct. There are very few "standards", but you will be ahead relatively often with a overpair or even an top pair.
It becomes more of a problem with hands like AJ/AT or KQ/KJ. The problem here is that there will be too few worse hands paying out. These hands will very often be dominated, however, i.e. you'll be playing against a hand that might have a better kicker. It will also be very hard for you to fold. That's why it's very important in No Limit to play these hands with caution. In Fixed Limit you usually go to the showdown with a top pair, but this is not standard procedure in No Limit games.
Unlike the fixed bet sizes in Fixed Limit, which come in the form of small or big bets, you can bet as much as you like at any point of the game in No Limit. This enables you to go all-in pre-flop as described earlier, and also gives you the opportunity to create the pot odds for your opponent every time.
If you bet the pot, for example, you are giving your opponent pot odds of 2 to 1. If you just bet two-thirds of the pot size, your opponent will have odds of 2,5 to 1. If you decide to place a bet which is half the pot size, you will be giving your opponent the opportunity to call with odds of 3 to 1. Variable bets of this kind can't be made in Fixed Limit games.
The action described above results in another important factor: protection of your own hand. By using the previously mentioned variable bet sizes it is easier to get your opponent to make mistakes and call a draw with the wrong odds.
This possibility hardly ever exists in Fixed Limit. If you bet a top pair on the flop and turn, for example, your opponent will almost always be able to call you profitably with a possible straight and/or flush draw. Even though it is obvious that you are trying to protect your hand by betting and are getting money into the pot with the better hand, your opponent is not making a mistake by calling. When playing No Limit, however, you can really protect your hand by placing high bets, so that your opponent would be making an expensive mistake by calling down.
Position is essentially an important factor in Hold'em. But in No Limit it plays an even more important role. You need to pay attention to aspects like pot control and protection. We already discussed protection, but pot control is also very important. You are able to control the size of the pot depending on the strength of your hand, and this works considerably better in position of course.
While you are able to play a line like bet/call flop, call down (way ahead/way behind) in Fixed Limit games, you can't in No Limit. Under normal circumstances you'd go all-in on the river with this sequence, which is something you'd normally want to avoid with a medium strength hand. But what this example demonstrates is that you won't have many alternatives without position. That's why position in No Limit Hold'em is one of the most important factors by far.
Because of the fixed bet sizes, the stack you or your opponents possess has relatively little influence in Fixed Limit. In No Limit, however, the relative stack size is a very important factor. "Relative" means that you can play for the smaller of the two stacks as a maximum. This needs to be taken into account from the start of the game, as you should play differently according to the different stack sizes. You can roughly divide the stacks into four categories:
- Shortstacks (15-30 Big Blinds)
- Midstacks (~ 50 Big Blinds)
- Full stacks (~ 100 Big Blinds)
- Deep stacks (125+ Big Blinds)
You should also be aware here that you will not have great implied odds against players with small stacks, but will need hands that have good equity. The bigger the effective stack, however the more leeway you will have after the flop and the more profit you can expect to make on future streets from then on.
In Fixed Limit you can take an average hand like a weak top pair or even a middle pair to the showdown with possibly no problem whatsoever. In No Limit this is not nearly as easy.
A "light call down“ is usually not recommended, as it will clearly cost you more than 2 big bets. The way ahead/way behind principle is also present in No Limit, but needs to be used with care.
In Fixed Limit, way ahead/way behind means you are basically willing to use check/call up until the river. In No Limit you can't just keep calling your opponent down without thinking, however, as you will rarely know what the odds look like.
If the pot is the size of 8 big bets on the river in a Fixed Limit game for example, you will know that check/call will cost you a big bet and so you'd (only) have to be ahead in one of eight cases. In No Limit, on the other hand, the pot might be $8 on the river for example. If your opponent now bets $1 the same will apply as in the Fixed Limit example. But if he bets the pot ($8) you would have to be ahead one time out of three cases. So you need to weigh up this possibility depending on the opponent.
As a result of the points named above, you will see the showdown considerably more often in a Fixed Limit game than in a No Limit game. This is of course especially important to your game, as you have to assume that you'll have to be ahead often enough once you've got to the showdown.
In the No Limit game, on the other hand, you won't go to the showdown that often, which means you will make your opponents fold by giving them worse odds on the previous streets or you will have more opportunities to take advantage of bluffs and will be able to win the hand without going to the showdown.
So what's better? On the one hand you have to weigh up how often you'll be ahead in the Fixed Limit game, because you'll usually have no other choice but to go to the showdown, as the odds for a made hand are usually attractive on the final streets as well. In No Limit, however, the player with the best hand will not always win. You have more possibilities to win the hand unimproved here.
Conclusion
You've now learned the rough differences between the two formats. Of course it's important that you know what you get the most fun out of. If you prefer to play one format or even notice that it seems to suit you better for whatever reason, then that is the format you should play.
It is also advisable to gather experience in both formats. It doesn't do a Fixed Limit player any harm to occasionally play a No Limit session. The same goes for the opposite situation of course. Be open, try to discover new ways of playing and new perspectives and then see whether you are able to implement these in your preferred poker format.
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