Top of the pots

	Unless we restore pot-limit to its rightful place alongside no-limit, it’s hard to see how the real skill in poker can regain its place

If you want to play tournament pot-limit hold’em, the first problem you’ll have is finding an event to play in. Look online first. Every site has no-limit tourneys 24/7, but try finding the pot-limit version and you’ll have a struggle on your hands. Live, it’s the same story. In 2006, there were maybe 50 poker festivals in the UK, comprising some 250 events, but you’d be lucky to find more than a dozen pot-limit tourneys among them.

So maybe it’s just at the higher levels that they play it? Well, no, not really. 2007 sees four major series running in the UK and Europe: the hugely successful EPT, now in season three; the brand new but instantly successful GUKPT; the fledgling GBPT; and the more affordable APAT. How many of them offer pot-limit events? Approximately none, is the answer.

The long game

You see, pot-limit is akin to Test Match cricket, while no-limit is more like the crash-bang-wallop of the one day game. That’s not to say no-limit is inferior, not at all. But you can structure a no-limit event to take as little or as long as you want, whereas pot-limit requires more time to build to a climax. And that brings us to the crux of the matter – pot-limit, it can be argued, is a game where the better players succeed, because it requires participants to ‘play down the streets’, seeing flops, turns and rivers. And playing all five streets is something the no-limit boys find increasingly alien.

I’ll go further – and let’s really stoke the fires of controversy now. No-limit can be brutal – it’s a game where us lesser mortals can survive by the use of brawn and muscle. Push in and hope, and if the poker gods are so inclined, you’ll either not get called, or your hand might just hold up in a battle of the brave. But if you want to triumph in pot-limit, well, forget muscle, at least in the early levels, because folks will not be pushed off hands anywhere near so easily.

I am sure there are some readers who, by now, are wondering where I’m going with this. Let me tell you. Our love affair with no-limit is taking much of the skill out of our game. If we want European poker to be the best, if we want to bring home a bunch of WSOP bracelets every year, then we need to give players the chance to play the game at a higher skill level. Unless we restore pot-limit to its deserved spot alongside no-limit, instead of being its neglected sibling, it’s hard to see how the real skill in poker – the ability to out-play opponents rather than out-muscle them – can regain its rightful place.

Sizing up

In pot-limit, bet sizing is an art form. You have to smile when, in major no-limit tournaments with blinds at 25/50, and maybe two limpers, some bright spark opens the betting with a raise to 500. Why so much? Fear of playing flops is the cause of these guys betting way over the odds – they simply don’t want to play down the streets, because they can’t!

First up, early doors, don’t be thinking you are going get rid of anyone with a pot-sized bet, because you are not. Watch players like Dave Colclough or Mickey Wernick – these guys are in their element in pot-limit. Mr Bet Big can’t get rid of these guys now, as at 25/50 a pot-sized bet from first to speak is only 175. With a deep starting stack that means plenty of callers and action. And do the Colcloughs and Wernicks always bet the pot? No way. They consider their options, confident in the knowledge that some wise guy, scared of being outplayed, cannot simply ‘push’ hand after hand.

So let’s say you’re in the early stages of a pot-limit hold’em tournament. Blinds are 25/50, you have a 10k starting stack and fi nd pocket 8s in early position. You might be inclined to raise up in early position and make it a full-pot raise (175), but you’d probably get four callers. Why so many? Because in pot-limit, early in the comp, players are entitled to call for such amounts.

The flop comes A-Q-3 rainbow and with three players still to act, how much do you like your 8-8 now? With this in mind, you need to think alternatives, options – think wider. Maybe you should be looking to limp-raise with this? Limp, get three callers and a late position raiser. Now you can put a proper bet in, as you have engineered a situation where you can bet properly, and put your opportunistic raiser to the test. If he re-pops it now, well, we know where we are.

It’s a family affair

Expect to see many family pots – that’s the way the tournament develops in the early stages, with every man and his dog in every pot. And now you can sense the difference. It’s tricky, but tremendous fun and good practice in the art of dodging bullets. You’re going to see a lot of ‘calling stations’ in pot-limit, god bless ’em, and in the early stages, a decent player is going to reap rich rewards by careful flop play.

Position remains crucial, but even more so if you raise it up and get check-raised – now you do have a problem, because someone has used the multi-way pot as a lever to gear up his bet size for him. Obviously that can happen in no-limit as well, but in pot-limit we see pot-building done in a more subtle way.

One last thing. Please don’t keep asking the dealer, ‘how much to bet the pot?’ Either say, ‘I bet the pot’, or, better still, keep track of the pot size. Nothing will make you look wetter round the ears than to keep asking ‘What’s the max I can bet?’ I’d wager Dave Colclough has never asked that question in his life. He knows exactly what a pot bet is, on any street, and so should you if you are even half-serious about the game. If that’s too difficult, well maybe an easier game would be more up your street. There’s plenty of no-limit around you know…