QA-Joanne wants to know more about Limit Tournament play
I just played my first Limit Tournament at the Pendleton Roundup and finished just 4 off the money. What strategy hints can you give for Limit tournaments? I think I’ve found my niche, and I think the drawing hands are more important than the high pair starters. Would you agree with that?
Limit tournaments are my favorite so I am glad you have discovered them. It is interesting that you say drawing hands are more important than high pairs in limit. It is actually the reverse. In no limit, when you play a drawing hand, a hand where you know you are not starting the best hand, like JT suited for example you can justify playing it because if you hit the hand hard you know you can get a huge payoff from your opponent (his whole stack). The pay off you might get in the future is called implied odds. In order to take a hand where we know we are starting from behind we need to have large implied odds to justify playing, to make it a money making hand.
So here is the problem, in limit the implied odds are, well, limited. Because the betting is structured we know that our opponent is never offering us their whole stack on a hand. They are only offering us at most a few bets. Because the implied odds are limited, you can’t justify starting from behind in most hands. So drawing hands go down in value, not up.
So here is the key to successful limit play: Be very selective in your starting hands but when you do choose to play, play your hands very aggressively. If you choose to play then come in raising. If someone has raised in front of you, reraise them. Really the only time you would just flat call is either out of the blinds or when multiple players are in the pot before you.
So remember: Play selectively, choose your hands wisely…but once you choose to play, play strong and fast.
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