A lot of people say how no-limit Texas Hold’em is the ultimate form of poker. Well I for one am not overly sure about that for several reasons. Over the past few years then the new breed of online poker player has basically solved limit hold’em at the higher levels. This means that the high stakes limit games are very rare on the ground now. One would say that this means that the game is easier to break down. This is probably true to an extent as many of the decisions in limit are far easier than they would be in no-limit given the same hand example.
However there are many situations that would be tougher in limit than no-limit but I think that it is fairly straight forward to say that no-limit places certain demands onto a player that limit does not. But the sheer fact of the matter that limit hold’em is a solved game at the higher levels means that making money at those levels is now very tough. This is now drifting down into the middle stakes levels where the players at $20-$40 through $50-$100 are very strong.
The knock on effect of this if we go further down the pecking order is that players at levels like $3-$6 through $10-$20 can now be good also. So it doesn’t leave an awful lot left for players at this form of poker to be honest. But for me this is where limit hold’em is tougher to beat now than no-limit and this makes the game perhaps the ultimate Holy Grail of poker in many ways. This same level of solving has now transferred to NLHE and the high-stakes action isn’t as great as what it has been in recent years and the good years may be few and far between for people who have been used to making seven figure wins.
There were some big name casualties in the nosebleed games in 2010 and if these providers dry up then it may just signal the end of the nosebleeds in online poker. But in limit hold’em then you must play post flop poker and play post flop poker constantly. The nature of the game dictates that you will see flops, turns, rivers and showdowns in far greater frequency. A poor player in limit will suffer death by a thousand cuts unlike in no-limit. Of course the limit games are better from a business proposition for the poker sites because they produce more rake. Quite often in no limit hold’em then a pre-flop raise will take the pot down or a pre-flop re-raise. So players often never go beyond the pre-flop betting round.
This can be accentuated by players coming from tournament poker where the stack sizes often dictate that the best play is often to go all in with a shove. So it is certainly not conclusive which is the tougher game as I have known many players who played successfully at no-limit who failed to make money at limit!