Pot Limit Hold Em Strategy

Pot Limit Hold em is similar in nature to No Limit Texas Hold em in that the cards and the hand plays out the same, yet the game strategy is very different. The cause for the different strategy with Pot Limit Hold em lies within the betting structure. The simple change in betting limits means a complete strategy change and way of approaching the game.

Great No Limit players often are very poor Pot Limit Hold Em players because they do not make the proper strategy adjustments in terms of betting, as well as determining which hands to fold and which hands to play. The uniqueness of Pot Limit Hold Em is that the strategy includes a mixture of Limit Hold Em strategy and No Limit Hold Em Strategy.

Betting

Betting the Pot is standard in Pot Limit Hold Em. When a player flops top pair or better, betting the pot is the standard play. The pot sized bet is the largest bet a player can make. In No Limit, betting a third to three quarters of the pot is the more standard betting play. In Pot Limit, betting the pot is a necessity to get the proper value from hands. Building the pot with pot-sized bets is the best way to do this. While in No Limit, a player can go “all in” at any time and get all the value he can from his hand, it is obviously not possible to do this in Pot Limit Hold Em.

Drawing Hands

Since the opponents are going to make pot sized bets when they flop a hand, playing draws is going to become very unprofitable post flop in some situations. While a hand such as a flush draw or open-ended straight draw needs odds of about 4-1 in order for it to be profitable to chase, a player will only be getting 2-1 odds when facing a pot sized bet in a heads up situation. Therefore, hands like suited connectors are going to go down in value – unless in multi way pots.

Other hands with implied odds however, like small pairs become very profitable to play. The reason they are profitable is that players will either flop a set and are paid off or miss and fold. Suited Connectors do not work this

way, as most likely a player will flop a draw or miss. Suited connectors are best played in cheap multi-way pots where the player has relative position on the aggressor.