Making the Switch, Part V: Checking to Be Sure

I've had the best success of my (short) career so far playing low-stakes no-limit. But I wasn't completely sure no-limit was my game. To make sure, I got out Ed Miller's "Small Stakes Hold 'Em." I brushed up on the limit skills, learned a few new ideas, and hit the .25/.50 tables. I played full-ring, 6-max and shorthanded.

I got killed. I lost over 120 big bets in just over a day. That's not just variance - that's a long-term losing streak. Some of it was bad play and tilt. Some of it was the sick, insane beats we all associate with limit poker. Here's my favorite:

---

I hold AA. I raise in early position, and get re-raised (!) by one of the blinds. I cap and the flop is:

4♠ 3♣ 3♥

I consider that a great flop to aces. If he has an overpair, he's trapped with almost no outs. I don't see him re-raising with 44 or 33. I check-raise and he 3-bets me! Perfect.

The turn is:

K ♣

There's a small chance he has KK and hit a set, but I can't really slow down now. We go at it again on this street.

River:

K♦

Are you kidding me? He turns over AK and rakes the pot. According to Ed Miller's Equity Calculator, I was an 82:1 favorite on the flop. And yet I got called on every street and lost. His only outs were running kings, and he stayed in to hit them.

---

Of course, beats happen in NL. But you'd have to think hard about calling a big bet with AK on a 443 board. There was no thinking here, and that's why it's frustrating.

It seems I'm just a better player at NL. I can win long-term at low-stakes NL, and I can't at limit.

This is good news, since I started in limit cash games and it took a long time to grind up a bankroll (not sure how I did it, actually). It turns out I'm just not that good at limit. I've won more than 1000 big blinds playing NL in the past month, and I clearly can't match that at the limit tables.

I'm glad I checked. You have to know your game, and some people are savants at one or the other (limit or big-bet). I'm no savant, but I'm pretty sure NL is where my edge is.