NL vs structured betting games

[drunkguy]

I find NL games to be much easier than structured limit games, especially with poor to average players, for a couple of reasons...

1. much more likely that your opponent makes an error...it takes a lot of mental energy to determine things like pots odds when the betting is not fixed. This leads to people calling when they shouldn't raising too much, raising too little, etc.

2. when you have the better hand you can often take full advantage of it by betting into it more heavily. With structured games, your winnings are often limited by pot size.

3. Other players telegraph their hands much more frequently, because you can take into account bet size. With structured games, the only decisions are check/fold, call, or raise. With NL, the amount that is bet often gives you a good idea of your opponents hand (with less advanced players at least)

4. Much easier to bluff average players out of pots in NL, if you have the guts. It's harder to push someone around when you can only raise "1 bet".

5. Almost all the good poker literature out there deals with structured games. Using the structured games strategy in NL without making adjustments can lead to errors.

Of course, bankroll considerations can be a hindrance with NL games. Anyone else have thoughts on this? I'd be interested to see what others think...

 

[theswami]

For good players, NL is far superior to Limit for all the reasons in your post.

My problem with NL is that I have to play tighter which takes a bit of the fun out of the game.

Played my first live NL ring game over the weekend at Borgata in AC.

1/2 blinds and 60-300 buy-in. What a great game!!! Laid a couple of beats on folks, took a bunch of beats but only one that really made me a shortish stack.

Had QJ clubs in late position and raise like 5 callers...Flop comes KT9 with KT suited clubs...flopped the nut straight and a flush draw with an open stright-flush draw to the mortal nuts (royal).

There was a bet into the pot...a couple of callers and I raised with two callers and one or two guys dropping out. Turn comes T...one guy bets the other raises...I shove it all-in...original bettor folds and one guy calls and shows T9 for the boat.....I've got two outs, 9 clubs and ace clubs but neither come and end up losing at least 200+ on that hand.

The game Was a blast.

 

[Jdogg]

I think the limit and the NL bets both have their merits. Like you said dg, you can bluff out the weak ones with NL, but vice versa and if you're getting low on chips and have a better than average hand...it can suck. I agree with swami that its always cool to see a pot get bumped up, have a strong hand or bluff, and watch the first one or two bettors drop out. The more that fall the better.