An Oldie But a Goodie...

Just was browsing the archives at 9-2 Offsuit, and I found an article about moving from Limit to NL--an article I should have read 6 months ago...

From sexypanda over at 2+2:

Moving to NL from Limit

--Adjust your thinking about preflop hands, a lot. Big unsuited cards go way down in value and will make costly second-best hands. Small pairs go up in value. If AKo is your only unsuited playable hand you wouldn’t be far wrong. Add AQo but for god’s sake be careful with it.

--Pairs are great — sets are how you will make money. If the game is not too aggressive you can get away with playing any pair from any position. (Given that you’re going to be playing quite a deep-stacked NL game, you should possibly start to worry about set-over-set when you have bottom set and it’s getting a lot of action. But generally sets are a goldmine.

--Having just said that you can disregard position with the baby pocket pairs, position is really important in NL. Big pairs and big suited cards only up front (small pairs as well if you can get away with it). As it gets to later positions, start to add in medium suited connectors like JTs, then later still you can add small suited connectors and one-gappers, plus the little suited aces. Learn about the 5-10 rule: basically you should only feel comfortable calling a raise with one of these drawing hands if it’s for less than 5% of the effective stack size (which is the minimum of yours and his).

--Don’t go broke in an unraised pot and promise yourself you won’t go all-in with only TPTK. This is not absolutely correct for all circumstances but if you stick to this rule you will thank me later.

--If you get an opportunity to push all-in with AA preflop then don’t be afraid to do so. (E.g., you raise with AA and get a significant reraise, or you hold AA in late position and there’s been a big raise.)

--On the flop if you hold a truly great draw (e.g., open-ended straight flush draw, nut flush draw with top pair) then feel free to raise a significant bettor all-in. You do not want to see a blank on the turn and have to face a big bet for the right to see one more card.

--Have a standard preflop raising amount: 4 x the big blind plus 1 BB more per limper is good. Don’t bet more with better hands and less with worse hands, for obvious reasons.

--Have a default postflop betting amount too (although there will be strategic reasons to vary this occasionally). I suggest 2/3 of the pot.

--Be prepared to bet when you have a hand like TPTK and happily fold it to a raise (they are usually not putting a play on you but are saying they can beat TPTK), but also to bet just the same when you have a set and then go all-in when that bet is raised. It’s important to always bet like you mean it, even though sometimes you are fearful and desperately want everyone to fold (e.g., a top pair medium kicker situation) or desperately want to be raised so you can go all-in (e.g., you have the nuts).

--Remember that flush draws won’t have great implied odds, as when the flush comes it’s obvious and people won’t call a big bet. So be sure you really do have the current pot odds to call a flush draw. Straight draws, especially double gutshot straight draws, are much better in this regard.

--Again, don’t go broke in an unraised pot. Remember that if it wasn’t raised some people could have anything at all.

--And one more time: don’t go all-in when your TPTK gets raised. Good aggressive limit players have learned to go to the felt with TPTK more often than not, but this habit is going to kill you in NL.

--And generally don’t be the one calling all-in: you want to be the bettor as then you have fold equity (although maybe not much in a loose game).

Great stuff, all involved. It deserved to be resurrected.