This all came from The Bible, also known as "Winning Low Limit Hold 'Em":
So when I switched to NL, I followed the same sort of rules: play tight. Don't fall in love with AK, suited or otherwise. Show down quality hands.
However, there's a lot more to winning NL than showing down quality hands. Here's a recent hand that illustrated the power of the out-of-position check-raise in no-limit:
I hold 99 on the button. It's folded to me and I raise to 3x the big blind. The small blind, a good winning player, flat calls me.
The flop is:
3♣ 4♦ 5♠
He checks, I make a decent sized bet, and he makes a big raise. I asked for time and thought about this, then called. The turn was a king, he bet out, and I folded.
Later I found out he held 22 for a pair-plus-straight-draw combination. I was way ahead and got bluffed out.
In low-stakes limit, it's an automatic call on the check-raise. He could easily have A5 or even some ridiculous trash hand that flopped a draw (J6o comes to mind). Even if he has two pair with a hand like 54 (which would be a weak but possible call in the blinds), you can still catch a running pair or a third nine. And plenty of players would check raise just because they think you probably have AT and missed the flop completely.
In no-limit, you might not want to get involved with this hand too deeply. The caller's range is smaller. It's probably a small pair, 22 through 88, or else two big cards that aren't strong enough to be raising (AJ, KQ). Anything bigger is worth a re-raise in this situation. So there's a 3/7 chance he flopped a set.
If he doesn't have the set, there's a 2/7 chance he has a pair plus an open-ended straight draw.
If he has two overcards, it's very hard to read the board on the turn. The king was a bad card; an ace would be worse, for completing the straight or making a higher pair. A queen or jack wouldn't bother me nearly as much.
In fixed-limit, there's no way I could let this hand go. I might even re-raise the flop, depending on the player. But I certainly wouldn't fold the turn.
In no-limit, we were quickly reaching the commitment threshold for this pot. If I re-raised the flop, or called the turn bet, we were probably getting all in. Even if I had got all in ahead here, my opponent had a number of outs: any ace, any six or any deuce.
The roundabout point I'm making: in low-stakes fixed limit games, the check-raise there would never win you the pot. It might slow down an opponent. But because hand reading is more difficult in limit (I think), you wouldn't be able to put your opponent on a small pair here, and you'd stick with your nines to the showdown and probably win the pot.
I'm still trying to incorporate these tricks into my play. Adjusting from fixed-limit, I'm too used to straight-ahead value-betting: check-raising with top-pair, betting two pair on the river, betting hard with big hands like flushes. No-limit takes more finesse than that, and also more aggression with less-than-premium hands.
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