Over the past few months, I have been playing quite a bit of high-limit hold'em ($60-$120 and higher). There are some significant differences between play at this level and lower levels. If you are planning to move up to this level, keep in mind some important adjustments. If not, some of these ideas also may be profitably incorporated into your low- or middle-limit game.
1. Get the money in: You need to be willing to call, bet, or raise if you think it is warranted. On the Internet, there was an interesting debate between a poker writer and a world-class player. The writer argued that you should think of the chips and bets as money, and relate them to winning or losing a car payment or a house payment. The world-class player insisted that you must view your bets simply as chips, and not let the stakes per se unduly influence your play. I agree with the player. Approaching the game any other way will result in your failing to get full value out of your good hands and getting pushed off pots you should have won. If you cannot detach yourself from the stakes and make objective decisions, don't play high-limit poker.
2. Learn to play shorthanded: Frankly, I dislike shorthanded play. I don't like putting up all those blinds and having to play lots of hands. It creates huge fluctuations. But shorthanded play is a fact of life at the higher limits. In middle- and lower-limit games, you can avoid shorthanded play because of the larger player population and the greater number of games available. Last year, I played more than 1,000 hours of middle-limit poker, and probably did not spend more than 10 hours playing with six or fewer players. This year, about 60 of the 200 hours I have spent at the higher limits have been in games with fewer than five players. At the higher limits, there is normally not more than one table spreading the game you want. Furthermore, while the cardroom may have a list, many players will not leave a full game until they see the bigger game already in progress. So, you frequently have to play shorthanded for a time until other players fill up your game. Sometimes that may take a couple of hours. If you wait until a game is full before getting on the waiting list, you may have to wait a long time, or the game may never get started because everyone else is thinking the way you are. Even though it is hard to find shorthanded games at lower stakes, you must do so before moving up. One idea, mentioned by a friend, would be to play in some inexpensive one-table satellite tournaments. The point is that you don't want to learn to play shorthanded while being forced to make all of the other adjustments.
3. Winning without the best hand: A good friend of mine is a highly successful low-limit player here in Vegas. He averages about one and a half big bets per hour. I asked him how much of his earn he can attribute to bluffing. He thought that if he never bluffed, he could still average better than one big bet per hour. To be a winning player at the lower limits, the most important factors are knowing what a good hand is and avoiding traps. Bluffing and deception play a role, but the major pots are almost always won by the best hand. The reason is that there is a strong correlation between the hands players have and the hands they are representing with their betting. This correlation weakens as you move up in limits. You rarely see a bluff reraise or a bluff check-raise in lower-limit games. You see them all the time in the bigger games. Many low- and middle-limit games are "best-hand" games. In these games, you either start out with the best hand and have it hold up or you draw out by the river. Bets and raises get called, and many hands are shown down. But in higher-limit games, many hands are not shown down, and the last guy to bet or raise gets the pot.
Since most pots are raised, high-limit games are often heads up after the flop. Players at this level are capable of making big laydowns if they think they are beat. If you just "play solid," waiting for premium hands and big draws, you will struggle to break even. In the meantime, your opponents will be winning pots. It is imperative in these big games to try to ascertain what your opponent might have and how likely he is to release his hand based on his previous betting actions, the board, and so forth. You have to think well beyond just what your hand is and what your "outs" are. You need to keep in mind that your opponent's actions are not always constrained by his hand. You need to do things like throwing in an occasional raise, thereby representing a made hand and making your opponent count his outs. You will be surprised how often he folds. The semibluff is a useful tool at all levels of poker, but it becomes a critical skill at the higher limits.
4. Fourth-street raising: In low- and middle-limit games, a raise on fourth street, where the prices double, almost always means a big, made hand (frequently two pair or better). So, a typical betting pattern is something like this: Player A raises from early position and gets called by Player B. The flop arrives, Player A bets, and Player B calls. The turn arrives, Player A bets, Player B raises, and Player A reluctantly calls. The river arrives, Player A checks, Player B bets, and Player A makes a crying call. Player B turned a second pair running down Player A's top pair, top kicker, or Player A's overpair. In a high limit-game, you frequently see the same pattern, except that Player B now checks it down at the river. Player A wins because Player B had something like top pair with a worse kicker, and picked up a draw on the turn only to bust out at the river. Player B checked the river because he had something to show down and knew that Player A, having called his turn raise, would call at the river with a better hand.
Here is an example provided by a friend of mine who is one of the top pros in the Bellagio $30-$60 game. You open with a raise from late position with the A
10
. Only the big blind calls. The flop is A 7
6
, giving you top pair. The big blind checks, you bet, and he now raises. Based on what you know about the big blind, you figure to be in trouble, but plan on calling all the way. So, you call. The turn is the 8, giving you a gutshot-straight draw along with your top pair. Your opponent bets. In a typical high-limit game, you should raise and plan on checking it down if he calls and a blank comes on the river.
So, why the raise on fourth street in this high-limit game? Because your opponent may fold and you have outs if he doesn't. The turn raise allows you to win the pot outright a certain percentage of the time; it allows you to win more money if you hit your hand; and it gets you a cheap showdown, thereby preventing your opponent from bluffing you out at the river. This is a common tactic in the bigger games that is rarely seen in the smaller ones.
5. Late-position play: There is a lot more "isolation raising" from late position in the bigger games. A guy limps in from early or middle position, and it is folded to the cutoff or the button. Many high-limit players will routinely raise with any hand they would play in this situation. They are trying to drive out the other players to get heads up with position over the limper. They do this because they realize that someone who open-limps probably has a medium pair, a suited connector, or two big cards. They know that the flop will usually miss the limper. If the limper has a pocket pair, he will rarely flop a set, and overcards to his pocket pair will usually show up. He can often be bet out of the hand at some point, since he will be concerned about playing two outs. If the limper has a suited connector or two big cards, he will flop a pair only about a third of the time, and most flops will miss him, making him vulnerable to being bet out of the hand. Now, combining this with the possibility that the raiser may hit something on the flop makes isolation raising very profitable. High-limit players are much more aware of this than middle-limit players. As a high-limit player, this is something you must do more often. Of course, you should not always make these raises, but if used discreetly, it is a ploy that can be employed profitably.
6. Early-position play: Because of more raising, fewer players taking a flop, and the extensive use of isolation raising, you need to play early position a little differently than in a middle-limit game. You need to limp less and either raise or fold more often. Early-position play is not always raise or fold, but I think your tendency should be to either open with a raise or fold. A detailed discussion of specifics is beyond the scope of this column, but you will observe that many of the successful high-limit players frequently either raise or fold from early position as opposed to open-limping.
7. Playing too tight: The vast majority of losing players play too many hands and go too far with their hands. However, I know of a couple of middle-limit pros who attempt to "take shots" at the bigger games. Their approach is: play very tightly, avoid stealing the blinds, limit flop play to top pair or a big draw, avoid semibluff raises, take lots of free cards in heads-up situations, get out quickly if popped on the turn (unless they have a solid hand), and avoid making close value bets at the river. While this strategy might work for a single, short session, it is a long-term recipe for disaster. What happens is that the other players at the table soon learn to push them around, getting them off hands and out of pots in which they had a positive equity. They rarely get paid off on their good hands.
8. Learn to play against good players: A few years ago at a poker seminar, a noted authority was asked: "What is the single most important attribute of a winning player?" He answered: "Game selection." Many successful middle-limit "grinders" make a living by simply selecting games with bad players. If a game gets bad, they simply switch games. These players frequently have a large selection of games from which to choose. Some of the top $30-$60 pros at Bellagio keep their chips racked and their names always on the transfer list. This gives them maximum flexibility in moving around from game to game. The problem is that at the higher limits, there is usually only one game being spread. When there are multiple games at a given limit, they are usually "must-move" games. This means that a typical game for a high-limit player will usually consist of other good players. The real money in high-limit games comes from the one or two bad players who happen to be in the game. When there are no bad players in the game, you have to play against good players until some bad ones arrive. Many of the hours you play in high-limit games will be against only good players. Therefore, you need to learn how to play against them so that you won't lose a lot of money. Your primary method of beating a bad player is to simply bludgeon him with a better hand. But against good players, you need to steal your fair share of pots, semibluff a lot, make isolation raises, and so forth. Since you will be playing many hands heads up against the same players, things like tells, psychology, reading hands, and so forth become critically important.
Editor's note: Jim Brier has co-authored a new book with Bob Ciaffone entitled Middle Limit Holdem Poker. It is available through Card Player.