The Variations of Limit Shootouts

Jimmy Fricke was already making a name for himself with his online poker success, but what the online community knew soon became more common knowledge after Fricke burst onto the live action scene with his second place finish at the 2007 Aussie Millions. Second, that is, to poker legend Gus Hansen.



Now finally old enough to compete in live games in the United States, Fricke is playing in his first World Series of Poker. He already has two cashes – in the Omaha Eight or Better and in the $3,000 No Limit Hold'em – for winnings of over $30,000.



Fricke will add to that total after winning his table in round one play of the $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout tournament. He is already guaranteed over $5,000 for that result, and remains in play in round two. He spoke with Card Player magazine in between rounds of the shootout event.





Cameron Yoos: This is a tournament that features two significant variations – it's limit, and it's shootout. How do you go about preparing for something so fundamentally different from the regular game of No-Limit?



Jimmy Fricke: Drink black coffee is a big thing. The rounds take a long time. You just have to be sound fundamentally in limit hold'em. People who don't know how to play poker can do pretty well in no limit hold'em tournaments, because once you get shortstacked there really isn't much to it. A lot of it is all-in or fold, especially in the shootout because you can't accumulate chips. All the chips that are ever going to be are at the table.



In limit hold'em you have to be good, because you can be playing the same style of poker almost the whole way through. And you have to be good at shorthanded, because it's not like a normal tournament where you get 10 people at a table the whole time. Limit hold'em, once you get shorthanded, is all about aggression. I'm an aggressive player, and I still play limit hold'em quite a bit, and that's the sort of thing I have used.



CY: Is it almost like a switch goes on? Patient when it's a full table, and aggressive when it gets shorthanded?



JF: It's like a cash game. You're sitting around waiting for spots, rather than trying to make something happen. But once you get to say, six-handed, or five-handed, and people have about 10 bets in front of them, you have to start going pedal to the medal, raising more from late position, being more aggressive.



The number one mistake a lot of people make is they don't get the best amount of value from their good hands. A lot of people check behind on the river with a really strong hand that they could have gotten an extra bet from their opponent with, because they are terrified that something changed the board. Limit hold'em, you can value bet third pair really easily. You can value bet ace-high. Because you know your opponent is calling light.



And people make all sorts of hopeless bluffs. There are things in limit hold'em, bluffs in limit hold'em, that just don't work. Like trying to get someone to fold preflop in limit hold'em, once they've entered the pot. It doesn't happen.



CY: It's always been my experience, in limit cash games, that you can't protect your hand. Doesn't that factor into tournament play?



JF: But who said protecting your hand is just about getting people to fold to one more bet? It's not like that. You can check-raise people out of pots easily. If it's a three-way pot, and I want to get you out because I think you have overcards and will call one bet, I'll check-raise my bottom pair. Because if I think it's good against this guy, I'll get you to fold and I'll be heads-up against the other guy.



People peel with overcards so much in limit hold'em, that you can basically value-bet any pair on the flop. If I'm playing heads-up against someone, and they raise the button and I flop bottom pair, I have the nuts until they tell me otherwise. Because you're going to see every street, it's not like you have to make the decision if your hand is good right then. See what you're opponent is doing.



It's not like I'm telling you to start raising, raising, raising with bottom pair to see where you're at. But you can assume your hand is good in a lot of situations because good, aggressive players know you're not going to flop a pair too often.



CY: Are you noticing a difference in how players play against you, now that you are out there and known a little bit more? You're at a table with nine strangers, but they know you.



JF: I think a lot of them don't know me. They have no idea who I am. They just think I'm some young, aggressive Internet player. There are some who know who I am, but even then, they are so set in their ways, it's not like just knowing who I am is going to change the way they play against me. There are some people who will watch you play a cash game, and they'll watch you play for four hours, folding every single hand, and they'll be like, "man you're the tightest guy ever. I haven't seen you play a pot". And then they'll cold call your raise with garbage. "I thought you had ace-king".



People don't adjust their play enough, and I think a shootout tournament is great for playing against those people because it's constantly changing. Chip counts are constantly changing, the number of players constantly change, how deep the stacks are constantly change. It's really good for people who can adjust.



CY: Do you have a preference between limit shootouts and no limit shootouts?



JF: I haven't played a no limit shootout at the WSOP yet. I like this tournament, but you know, I like any tournament in which I am doing well. If I bust out in the first hour, I wouldn't have had fun.



But shootouts are my favourite kind of tournament, because I don't like playing heads-up very often. Heads-up is just so swingy, it seems like you're flipping a coin when you get down to that level. Especially heads up in limit hold'em because it becomes so much about the cards that you get. In no limit hold'em, if the stacks are deep, the better player is going to win a lot. But in limit hold'em shootout, or heads up, in limit hold'em in general, any player can run good in the short-run. I ran very good in my first heads-up match to win. I believe I was the better player, but it very easily could have gone the other way.

Card Player Live Player Database – Jimmy Fricke