What, you think that limit Texas Hold’em is easy do you? Just because you only have a tiny percentage of your buy in at risk at any one time you think that this is a game for boys and not men! If no limit hold’em is the “Cadillac of Poker” then is limit hold’em a clapped out second hand car?

Well let me tell you right here and now that anyone who thinks along these lines is massively wrong. Limit hold’em is a game that requires you to see flops and this is where the most skill is in any form of poker. Many players who start out playing no limit hold’em cannot play good post flop poker because they simply do not get enough practice. But let me tell you another more subtle and equally dangerous problem with limit hold’em. This is a problem that few people talk about and is rarely discussed in any book.

This is how limit hold’em plays with your mind. Some of you will no doubt have read numerous books advising you of how many big bets you need as a potential bankroll. Most books start the bidding at 300 and go all the way up to 500 and even 1000 depending on your skill level and type of opposition. Why do you think the books tell you this? Simple, because you will need them that’s why!

Maybe not straight away, maybe not tomorrow, next week or even next month but if you play long enough then you will need them. The problem many novices face is that they read this stuff and then still have no experience of going through a bad run and even worse, they don’t really understand what a bad run actually is.

They have a bad day online and lose 40 big bets and some think that their entire world is caving in. But it is one thing to theoretically read about a bad run in some book but it is something else to play through one. When that horrible run of 50 big bets that you thought must be due for turning around suddenly turns into 100 and then 150 then if you have never experienced this type of run before, it will seriously mess with your mind believe me. Well I have news for you, take that 150 big bet loss that you thought was the run from hell and then double it and see how you feel then?

That’s right, most full time or semi- professional players have endured swings of 300 big bets at some stage. These runs are bad enough for experienced players to handle but for novices or for someone who has never experienced one, it will be perhaps the biggest and toughest test that you will ever go through in your poker life.

Well let me tell you something else, most players never live to see the other side of that storm. They mentally self destruct along the way and the exact point in which that happens depends on how tough and resilient the player is and how soon they encountered the run. You start off with a few beats and you start to frown. Then you get beat by a two outer on the river followed by some player rivering a gutshot draw that he never should have played and now you are slightly upset.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Author – “Winning Cash Game Poker”

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