No-limit expectation

[Kevin J]

Being primarily a limit hold'em player, I know very little about expectations in pot and no-limit games. I've heard that no-limit is much more lucrative for the better player and I have no problem believing that. My question is HOW much more lucrative? Will you arrive at an hourly expectation as in limit poker? Other than the quality of players, how else do you assess your edge? Stack sizes? I wouldn't think the blinds determine how big the game plays as much as what people are willing to buy in the game for (unlike Pot-limit where the blind structure matters a great deal). Any accurate info on this would be appreciated. Thanks.

[tewall]

There have been no posts on this topic, which you could search through in the archives. One I found, and would have posted the link here if I knew how is titled
"Hourly rate in no limit."

[Lunamondo]

Looking from the blinds it's anywhere from 100 or 200% to some 500 or 1000% comparable, at nl-holdem. Big bet poker has the extra feature that the bet size matters create an additional skill aspect, and because of the optional bigger bets the average players get beaten for more.

[Kevin J]

"There have been no posts on this topic,..."

I assume you meant there ARE posts on this topic. Any idea how long ago? That would give me a place to start. Thanks.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

I find no limit MUCH easier to win at than limit, with some clarifications.

1) for winning hundreds of dollars, there aren't many no limit games that really allow for this. the reason is that no limit games tend to be too small. You can make more per hour at 10-20 holdem (or other 10-20 game) than you can at $50 or $100 no limit*

2) here's where the * comes into play. The standard deviation at no limit is MUCH smaller than at limit, as long as you play fairly well. You also need a much smaller bankroll to play no limit than you do to play limit, in order to bring in the same hourly rate (tho I'm not quite sure what rate that actually IS).

3) The actual expected value per hour is hard for me to estimate, since I don't keep records for online play. I would estimate that I double my buy-in at least 50% of the time tho, with less frequent tripling or better. Sometimes I have a mediocre session and win or lose little. rarely, I lose money at no limit, very rarely getting busted more than once. These are guesses, not hard figures, and assume that I play several hours, not five minutes! Overall, when I am having a losing streak, I switch to no limit, where really I rarely lose, or at least lose very much. If I had only $100-$200 total bankroll, I would play no limit with it. This assumes tho that I play no limit pretty well.

4) I find things not to be all that much different with pot limit compared to no limit. Pot limit might be slightly better if you're working with a REAL small amount of money. The general standard deviation and EV/hour should remain pretty close to no limit tho. the probable reason for this is that people play equally bad at both games, thus your edge won't be much different.

al

[dogsballs]

tewall,

to put a link in when you're composing your post, click on "URL" in the Graemlins/UBB code area, then copy/paste teh web address into the box that appears. The second box is just what text you want to appear in your post for the link - as opposed to just having the web site address...eg you could type "tewall's link to the thread". Always worth previewing your post to make sure it appears and works correctly.

[tewall]

[tewall]

Given I gave you the title for a post, saying there weren't any certainly doesn't make sense. I meant there were numerous ones. The title of the one I gave was "Hourly rate in no limit." and the date was 1/16/04 I think. If you search, you'll be able to find quite a few.