Online NL Starting hands, how do they differ from limit???

[wdbaker]

Hi,
I've been playing limit for a while and holding my own online. Moving to NL cause getting bored. What do you see as the main differences in starting hands etc...

Playing NL Party $25 with .25/.50 blinds

thanks in advance, yes I know they have an NL PL forum but I like you guys better, besides I think the best NL players hang hear most of the time [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Hung]

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thanks in advance, yes I know they have an NL PL forum but I like you guys better, besides I think the best NL players hang hear most of the time [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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Yes I know, that's why I hang arround here. LOL WAHAAH. Just kidding of course.
What's your nick. Say hi when you see naruto. That's me. Keep smiling when I take your pot [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]
The differences in starting hands... In NL you can play any two cards. Because of the implied odds. Did you saw my posts with 72? I won a huge pot. But I've to admit that the guy was a little fishy. Nobody would call with just pair of Q's
Anyway, you know what Brunson says? Don't play the cards, but play the person. If you know what the other guy is holding it doesn't matter what you have.

[RollaJ]

You can play any 2 cards, but you will end up losing in th elong run. That being said you can raise with sh1t cards every once in a while (as S&M said, so that people dont walk all over you when rags flop). Every so often Ill raise with small suited cards and suited one gappers, and Ill usually show it if I win. Id say my favorite hand is 5-3s in NL, sometimes Ill raise, sometimes Ill fold, sometimes Ill limp, but a hand like that is easy to get away from when you miss and easy to take someones stack when you hit hard (2 pair, trip, str8....flush can be trouble so play cautiously). In general you want to play hands that can make the nuts, or give you a strong pair with a top kicker... weak kickers can kill you in the game. And as Hung said, reading people, even online is the biggest skill you can learn. You can't "look into their souls", but there are ways to figure out what someone has (Ill leave that up to you to learn on your own....... cant give away all the strategy [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img])

[Jon Matthews]

A few of the high card combinations are dominated and lose their value in NL, things like AJ, KJ, KQ, JQ - also whether they are suited or offsuit makes less difference - K3s is much less valuable in NL than in limit as if you flop a flush draw, the good players will deny you odds to chase whereas this is near impossible in limit.

AA and KK become much more powerful as you can get all in before the flop in NL with them.

Just a few examples, only the tip of the iceberg...

Jon

[crockpot]

there are two schools of thought on this.

if you want to play cautiously, your starting hand strategy should be dangerously close to *gasp* what phil hellmuth recommends in his book. the point is that you want to make a hand you can feel confident about pushing, which is hard to do with less than AQ unless you hit a longshot straight, two pair or flush. even AQ is a fold if anyone has shown strength, and the small pairs should be folded to big raises preflop that aren't giving you good odds to hit a set and double through. as your position improves you can play any suited ace in an unraised multiway pot hoping for a lot of luck.

the other school of thought is that any two cards can win. this is definitely dangerous, especially against players who don't like to fold. position is a really important consideration if you're going to do this; make sure you act last. it is true that if you hit two pair you can often double your money; but two pair is a vulnerable hand and is often beaten if the big money goes in, even on an uncoordinated board.

either way, mixing up your game by occasionally raising preflop on a hand like a suited connector is quite useful for your image. the problem is that it can end up being much more expensive to show down your hand than in limit, but once you do you should see some increased action.

i definitely recommend you stick to the tight strategy, perhaps loosening it up a little, before trying to win playing every hand.

[BoBaLuEy]

In no-limit, hands like ATo, AJo, KJo, KTo, QTo, and such can get you in veyr big trouble with kickers. Also, in limit, your pot odds are usually pretty good, but your implied odds arent much more, while in no-limit, your implied odds are very high, with usually not very good pot odds. This makes playing deceptively much more of a priority. In limit, if you KJ loses to KQ, you might lose 2-4 big bets or something along those lines, while in no-limit, you might be losing half your stack or more. Pocket pairs are also a lot better because a lot more pots will be heads-up. So, basically, I'd say hands that are higher in value are, pocket pairs, AK, AQ, KQ. The "trouble" hands would definitely be AJ, AT, KJ, QJ...etc.