the differences between limit and no limit are HUGE. First off, if you play your made hands correctly there will be far less chasing, unless they have a solid draw (or good odds to draw to). People with hands like 2 overs, or inside straights can no longer afford to hang around for a cheap bet. Secondly there will be significantly more bluffing, both pre flop and post flop, because its easier to get away with (one extra bet isnt much of a bluff). There are SIGNIFICANTLY less bad beats, bc unless players are complete idiots (and there r alot out there) they wont be able to call the large bets while sticking around for their miracle.
If you limp into a pot, dont be committed if someone raises to call a raise (as you often are in limit due to pot odds). Position becomes more important; there will be more stealing from the later positions with raises of 3-4x the BB traditonally.
Play your preflop big hands big (unless you are comfortable enough to know when and how to trap effectively). Reraise when you have the cards, and dont be afraid to push it in when you have the cards.... but realize you wanna be the one doing the pushing, not calling another players all in (unless u have the nuts or close)
Be aware that there will be many preflop all ins especially as blinds increase and short stacks emerge. Understand what cards they may hold....a short stack is liable to push it all in with any ace, any pair, or two pictures cards if they are very short. Try to get involved with stacks that are smaller than you....or if you find yourself short stacks, then try to attack stacks that your all in could do damage do and make them the new short stack if they lose.
If you sense weakness exploit it. If you make a bet on the flop and you sense weakness, make a larger bet on the turn...your opponent still faces a even bigger threat of a river bet if he calls this one. (of course make sure youve got the read and arent being trapped)
You'll also need to learn appropiate betting strategies (specifically how much to bet and when) You'll be altering these bets according to the size of the pot (or sometimes when the blind are high compare to the stack sizes, according to your chip stack)
With little NL experience Id recommend playing realitively conservative... but play a tight aggressive game. If you have a decent hand in late position go for the steal if there isnt any or very little players in the pot (beware of 1st or 2nd position limp ins...they often are waiting for someone to reraise and then they will push in a big reraise...often this means AA,KK, and maybe sometimes QQ and AKs)
If you enter pots with a raise and have a relatively small amount of callers and its checked around to you, fire a bet of half the pot regardless of what you have, this is small enough not to damage you that much but large enough to get the callers to fold if they missed.
Also sustaining strength is more important. You can NOT consistantly check call your way to $$ in NL (and you shouldnt in Limit either) If you fire a bet and receive a call and then check the next street. Your opponent is likely to make a larger bet after your check showed weakness (unless he is on a strong draw and wants a free card....even then he may try and pick it up) The decisions are a lot harder because you arent playing for one bet, you are potentially playing for your entire stack.
Hope this helps GL in the tourny
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