Winning In Live No-Limit Games

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Most live $1-$2, $1-$3, and $2-$5 players focus on the big pots. They want to see flops, hit hands, and stack opponents holding second-best hands. This focus, unfortunately, does not promote long-term, consistent winning. The problem with it is obvious once you think about it. Everyone else is trying to do the same thing! For every time you win a big pot with a better kicker or a bigger flush, you’re likely to lose one to an opponent who has you pipped. Over time you’re taking two steps forward, two steps back, and not really getting anywhere.

The key to winning in live no-limit games is to focus on using position to build and steal medium-sized pots. Now before I get the “This won’t work in my game,” emails, know that I’m not talking about every live no-limit game on the planet. I’m not talking about your Thursday night game in the back of Jimmy’s bar in Billings, Montana where all seven of you put your $40 in blind every hand and see who wins. Obviously you’re not building or stealing any pots in that game. I am talking about many live games spread in card rooms across the United States from California and Nevada to Mississippi and Atlantic City.

With the disclaimer out of the way, here is a key observation about many live games: They are loose preflop. In a $2-$5 game, for instance, four or five players will gladly pay $25 to see a flop. And often one player will pay $50 or $60 without needing a particularly strong hand to do it. Here is another key observation: Most pots don’t go to showdown. Players are generally willing to give up on a pot in the face of strong betting unless they have an extraordinarily strong hand.

In other words, players are building nice-sized pots with weak hands, and then giving up on these pots because their hands are weak. This presents a terrific opportunity. You build the pot with a preflop raise, and then you steal it after the flop as long as no one hits the board too hard. Sometimes someone will hit the flop hard and you’ll lose a couple of bluff bets. But you can also hit a flop hard and be the one winning a big pot. In between big lossess and wins, you’ll be slurping up a steady diet of medium-sized pots that no one else is willing to fight for.

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