Winning Low-Limit Holdem

For the last ten years, Winning Low Limit Hold'em has been the reference standard introduction to Texas Hold'em. Experienced hold'em players give this book.
Table of contents

Now that you understand that the more people there are in a hand, the stronger your hand needs to be to be an expected winner, we will discuss how you will go about playing hands that will most often give you a hand that you need in order to have the best hand at the table the most often. Here is what we will do. Instead of JUST trying to barely have the minimum statistical best hand for the situation, like bottom pair against one opponent, or two pair against a bunch of opponents, we will instead make it more fun.

We want to have a hand that is very likely to make top pair top kicker, or if its just one opponent, just a hand that is likely to make top pair, and good but not top kicker will be acceptable.


  • Betting Rounds;
  • Winning Low Limit Hold'em by Lee Jones?
  • Death of a Flibbertigibbet.
  • Über den Umgang mit und unter Verliebten (German Edition).
  • Christian Science: Spiritual Awakening;
  • Couple on the Run?
  • Schoonmaker Explains How A Flawed Way Of Thinking Affects Your Poker Game.

What hands do we want? The idea is this. Every once in a while they will have you outkicked, or simply hit a monster flop, or draw out on you, but in the long run, having top pair good kicker against 1 to 3 loose opponents will net you a lot of money.

Winning Low Limit Hold'em

This is why you will only play hands that are likely to hit top pair good kicker or an overpair to the board , and that is why I told you to play the hands that I mentioned above. If you look at them, EITHER card in all of those hands has a very good chance of being the top card on the board if it hits, so unlike king 2, where only ONE of the two cards has a good chance of making top pair on the board, a hand like King Queen has two different cards that are likely to hit the top pair on the board, plus the other card is a big card as well, meaning you will outkick you opponents the vast majority of the time when you hit your pair.

At a tight table, or a table where your opponents are strong players, you cannot really play A Q, A J, A 10, K Q, K J, K 10, because the times when you plow your way to the river and then some with you top pair but merely good kicker only to find yourself staring at their top pair top kicker will neutralize all the profit you are making off the dolts who paid you off with hands weaker than top pair good kicker.

This is why it is much better to play at a loose table, with a bunch of bad players than one with a bunch of tight good players. In the one with bad players, they will always pay you off with inferior hands to you top pair good kicker in this situation, as well as hands that beat your hand, but the vast majority of the time your top pair good kicker against 1 to 3 opponents will be the best hand, so you will MAKE money over time. Okay well that is the idea behind the strategies you should use when you are seeing a flop with 3 or less opponents.

Beating Low Stakes Limit Hold’em

Now if you have played low limit holdem for any reasonable amount of time you probably already know that at most tables you wont be seeing a flop with between 1 and 3 opponents, you will instead be seeing a flop with between 4 and 8 opponents, probably around 6 opponents on average. That is why this section is the most important section of the entire article, since it deals with both by far the most common situation in low stakes limit holdem, but also often the most profitable situations in low stakes limit holdem.

Just as before, we want to have a hand on the flop that, given the number of people who saw the flop with us, is likely to by far be the best hand on AVERAGE. In this case that is not going to be so easy to do like it was before. Against only a couple opponents, it was easy. Pick a couple of big cards. See a flop, and if you hit one of them, you will have the best hand on that flop the majority of the time.

When you have more like 6 opponents, instead of just 1 or 2 opponents, it gets trickier, because you will want to have a lot better than just top pair good kicker. Instead you will want either a set, a straight or a flush, or better.

You might be shocked that I want you to have such a strong hand. Why not just two pair? You remember earlier I said that on the flop having two pair is enough to statistically have the best hand even with a bunch of opponents. Well that is true, but there are two problems. This way we wont be putting in raises and reraises with hands that are just barely probably the best hand but maybe not.

The second and more important reason why I want you to have at LEAST a set on the flop, or a draw to the straight or the flush is that although two pair might have been the best hand statistically speaking on the flop, your opponents are NOT immune to picking up DRAWS on that flop, so you want a hand that can usually survive not just the flop, but also the turn and the river. This is why you want to play hands that are most likely to give you a set, or a straight draw, or a flush draw, or a straight or a flush on the flop, and of course if you only have 4 opponents, you will need a bit less of a hand than if you have 8 opponents, for instance against 4 opponents, any straight or flush where you are using both of your two hole cards to complete the straight or flush is a very very strong hand, but against 8 opponents, you will instead want to simply have the nuts, or a draw to it, rather than a non-nut straight or flush.

Okay so now lets look at some of the hands we want for this situation. We want any pocket pair, and suited connector, any suited ace, and if the table is especially passive preflop rarely any raises preflop even suited gapped connectors. The idea is that these hands are the ones that are the most likely to give you a set or a flush or a straight or a draw to a straight or to a flush, and those are the types of hands we want to make, so that is why these are the starting hands we want to play.

Now how do we want to play these hands? Well we want to play all of them the same way preflop, in the exact opposite fashion of the hands we played against 1 to 3 opponents. Unlike the big cards we were playing against 1 to 3 opponents where we would raise preflop, knowing that there was a good roughly 1 in 3 chance that we would hit the requirement of top pair good kicker in order to go on with the hand, and thus not fear putting in some added money before the unknown flop, since the flop would be appetizing a good portion of the time, we are now playing cards that have only a slim chance of making the required strength to fill our appetites.

For example hitting a set or better on the flop only happens about once in 8. So what we want to do is simply call before the flop with any of the hands I mentioned above, the pocket pairs, suited connectors, suited aces, and suited gapped connectors and fold everything else. Those hands are simply not strong enough against such a large number of opponents. Well it turns out that you only really need to worry about position if you table is aggressive before the flop. If your tables rarely ever raises before the flop, you do not need to worry about folding 7 8 suited in early position, and only playing it in late position, because it is unlikely that anyone will raise between the time that you limp in and the time that the big blind double taps his index finger on the felt.

At a table where this is a siginificant amount of raising before the flop, position will matter, because you do not know whether it will be raised after you limp in, so the more opponents there are to act after you, the more likely it is that someone will raise after you limp in, and the more strongly you are going to have to consider folding the marginal hands that you want to play against a large number of opponents, like suited gapped connectors and such.

Now say that there was a man operating the curtain and he would let you get out of your car and peek around the curtain to see if the bridge was there or not. Only the house would win. When I say that, some people go ballistic. The answer is simple: He makes stupid bets. My friend loses much more than me because I know how to play.


  • Kingdom by Force Vol. I.
  • Poker Strategy With Alan Schoonmaker: Why You Can't Beat Low Limit Games - Poker News?
  • Beating Low Stakes Limit Hold'em - PocketFives?
  • 7 Tips for Winning in Limit Holdem.

I could hardly keep from laughing. He must lose because craps is unbeatable. Third, analyzing and adjusting to costs is very hard work.

Fixed Limit Hold’em Tips

The correct decision depends upon the situation, but we should add: You must be much better than your opponents to cover the huge costs. Choose seats with the biggest edge. Frequently reevaluate your edge: If the game or your play has changed, do you have a large enough edge to beat this game with these players and costs now? Factor your costs into every decision. Future articles will describe my crude, but fairly effective, methods. For information about seminars and webinars, go to propokerseminars.

Henny 4 years ago.

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Mike56 over 1 year ago. Low limit holdem is a drawing game playing correct is seldom the right play. Top pair like ak off on a board of a with 5 players in doesn't make you a huge favorite. Don't get me wrong it's a nice flop, but the turn changes everything and everyone will call your bet of 3 or 4. You need to reevaluate the way you would play your hand if you had a gut shot on the turn or picked up the flush draw. If it were me id call.. If the table is tight bet it up people will fold to weak draws and you can pick up the pot like a nl game.

Position is everything in low limit sometimes in a wild table if everyone checks to me on the flop or bets say I just call,or I will check top pair top kick. It disguises my hand and if the turn comes a weird blank I bet or raise knowing the true odds now. The key to achieving a consistent win rate is to leave when you up more than 80 bucks.

You must buy in deep say bucks deal with the variance and play a ton of hands for cheap when you can.

Poker Strategy With Alan Schoonmaker: Why You Can't Beat Low Limit Games

The hands you play must be f house hands and nut flush draws and sometimes 52 off etc.. Your biggest pots won't be won with obvious top pairs they will be undetected over pairs,lucky 2 pair hits with aces vs a weaker 2 pair,full houses etc.. Mostly though the worse off your hand in a big pot the bigger the pot you can win sounds weird right?

You need a huge element of gamble to enter a capped pot with 52 off, but when the boards comes k rainbow you can bet,check and get lucky to win that massive pot to the nuts!! Hardly ever do you flop say a set of jacks on a obvious straight or flush board and happen to pair up the river for the boat it happens and it's great when it does and it will be the biggest pot, however good draws and strong over pairs are king in low limit and often betting for value with only one solid pair is bad because that guy with middle pair of 6 trips up on the river quite often and will call because he's a station!

The flush will kill good players with only one measly pair this is why you big cards need to be suited and on the board to continue. On boards of aa-j when everyone checks you can pick up small bluffs or when the river comes 10 on a kjq10 you can bet and pick up some small pots,but This is far and few between.

You can have qq and the flop can come and a guy with a5 can hit the 5 on the river for trips happens all the time! Checking is a far superior way to have less frustration on your made hands. You win less,you lose less and the game continues. Sure you give him a chance to hit that k-a when he holds k-5 or whatever but you still end up only paying 6 or 8 on the river if he has it or tries to steal. Really only pocket aces should be bet up because one card can't beat you and your a huge favorite.

From years of experience though I have mastered this game and what is necessary is to be a donkey with an edge! Sometimes you need to keep calling or raising on flops like when you suspect your main opponent has over pairs and you hold a3 suited and you only hold the 3 by doing this you can be the guy to river him with trips.. PP are great in low limit they hold up when people miss draws you can call to the river and when you flop sets your often gold.