Three Days to Better No-Limit - Chris "Fox" Wallace

Many of you have already read my article Three Days to Better Hold Em, and since I have been playing mostly no-limit cash games this last month or two I thought a version dedicated specifically to no-limit games might be useful. If you haven't read the previous article yet I suggest you go through those three days first, though it isn't absolutely necessary.

Day One - Today you will play more hands than you ever have before. You'll play 65o under the gun and you'll play QTs to small raise. You learn to be a loose aggressive player, and you will learn how to beat opponents who play this way as well. You'll learn how to play well after the flop, which most players only have a vague understanding of, and you'll get more comfortable playing later into hands.

You will want to move down to a much lower level than you usually play, because you are going to be playing so many hands that you could lose a lot of money while you are getting used to the style. I personally did this exercise at the $50 NL tables on Full tilt and Party Poker, but if your bankroll is small you may want to move down to the nickel and dime games.

Your goal is to see as many flops as possible. You'll play any hand that is not raised, and with any suited connectors, small pairs or one-gap hands you'll call a 4x raise quite happily. You'll defend your blinds and you will bust some people with some very weak starting hands. Get used to being called a donkey, because you will hear a lot of it today, but at the end of the day I wouldn't be surprised at all if you are making money.

Most Hold Em players think they are experts, and that playing bad hands preflop is just for fools. Many players will never give you credit for a weak starting hand, and those are your prey today. You should look for players who are lecturing the table on how to play properly and the players who get mad at you for playing trash hands are exactly the players you will be able to break.

For some reference on how to whip the "professors" (and how not to be one yourself) see my article "Why the Donkey is Whipping You" on pocketfives.com or here on pokerfox.net.

The key to this day is implied odds, and finding the players who will give you all of their chips if you flop a monster. Calling a raise with J2o won't yield the right implied odds against anyone, but in later position with no raise you will still see a cheap flop with it. You'll be loose, but you won't be stupid. You'll fold most of your hands on the flop, but when you have a reasonable draw you'll be happy to chase it if the price isn't too high, and you'll learn to buy pots when your opponents show weakness.

When someone calls you a donkey for sucking out on their KK with 85s just tell them you're sorry and that you've never played before. They'll probably believe you. And remember to raise more or be able to get away from your KK the next time you are playing a very loose player instead of losing your stack when they out flop you.

Day Two - Today you won't even play the no-limit cash games you are training for. Instead you will be playing micro-limit heads up sit and go tournaments until your face turns blue. Looking for tendencies in opponents is much easier when every hand you play is against the same opponent, and today you will be finding as many of those tendencies as you can.

My first recommendation is that you read our article here on the site about heads up sit and go tournaments and learn all you can about beating heads up tournaments. As you start playing the SNG's you will want to pay close attention to your opponents tendencies and find the chinks in their armor. You'll worry only about your opponent's style, and your own style won't matter at all because you won't have one.

Start out each SNG by being very aggressive and see how your opponent reacts when the blinds are small. Look for anything that your opponent tends to read as a bluff and raises or calls, or any pattern that convinces your opponent to fold. While the blinds are small for the first few rounds you should be concentrating on finding out as much as you can about your opponent. By the time you reach the middle blind levels you should be fully adjusted to your opponents tendencies.

If your opponent folds too often then you will be raising his blinds and buying pots from him and you will know to get out of the way any time he raises unless you have a VERY strong hand. If instead your opponent has decided to be aggressive with you then you will be looking for a real hand and reraising him often. If you have an opponent who will be aggressive on every round then you'll be waiting for a big hand and letting him bet it for you every round. Whatever mistakes they make you will abuse.

Play $5 SNG's until you are winning the majority of them easily and you understand why you are winning them. If you adjust quickly to this exercise you should even make money today. Once you have mastered this exercise your game in short handed situations will be stronger and your ability to adjust to various styles will be much improved.

Day Three - Today you'll be learning about math. I know it doesn't sound like fun, but if you have the right attitude it might be. Pot odds are important for this exercise, so you may want to read Hatfield's article on pot odds or review the pot odds section of your favorite poker book. If you are considering a bluff think about how often it may succeed and what kind of odds you are getting on your bluff. For example a $10 bet into a $20 pot only needs to succeed more than 1/3rd of the time to be successful. A pot sized bet needs to succeed more than half the time.

If you are considering calling a bet, especially on the river, you'll use the same calculation. If you are considering calling a $10 bet into a $30 pot you need to be correct more than 1/4th of the time. When thinking about semi-bluffs look at them the same way, but add in the odds of hitting your hand as well.

"But I can't think about all this math every time I play." you may say to yourself. You're right. And if you work hard for one day during this exercise you won't need to think so much. Most of this math is simple as well as intuitive, and a little work will make it second nature for you. By the end of a day of paying attention to the math involved with each decision you won't have to think so much about the math and you'll have a much better basis for making some of your big decisions for the rest of your poker career.