Limit HoldEm Tournament Strategy

I recommend taking the time to fit some Limit Hold’em Multi Table Tournaments (MTTs) into your schedule; they can be very profitable. The competition at the low stakes limit tournaments is especially weak. This article specifically discusses the daily Limit MTT (4:15am) on Cake Poker; however the strategy discussed is applicable to any low stakes, Limit MTT. Also, it can be a nice change of pace, and a great way to get a refresher, on some basic Hold’em MTT concepts.

There are a few small, Limit Hold’em MTTs on Cake Poker to choose from. I am most familiar with the $5 + $0.50 MTT that runs daily at 4:15pm EST. I first discovered this tournament, back when I was a No Limit specialist and had very limited knowledge on limit poker. I definitely recommend this tourney for players who are new to Limit Poker with a tournament structure. The buy in is low, and the field is small, a great tourney to get your feet wet.

The structure is fairly standard, you start with 1500 chips; blinds go up every ten minutes and rise gradually. Also, antes are never used. Recently, the turnouts have been in the range of 30 to 40 players. The tourney usually lasts about two hours, (average time for the tourneys I played was 2 hrs 12 minutes) and most often pays the top 5. The majority of the players that enter this tourney are very poor Limit MTT players.

There are two main types of poor players; maniacs and calling stations. The most common group consists of players who are way too loose on every street and way too passive (calling stations). Rarely bluff these players. A three-barrel will work sometimes, but is usually too risky unless you get a big stack. You can outplay and steal from them sometimes late in a tourney as well. It is most important to value bet them any chance you get. These are the players that make this tourney so easy; your hands almost always get paid off, and they are easy to read. It can be easy to tilt in Limit Hold’em tourneys because a lot of pots are won by someone “catching up” on the river. It is very important to stay off tilt if one of them catches up to you on a long shot draw. Remember, if you still have chips left, it is going to be easier to double up than usual.

The other type of losing player consists of the maniacs, who are way too loose and aggressive. These players are usually interested in trying to get a big stack or be one of the first players knocked out, so they are constantly betting and raising. The best way to handle these players when they are at your table is to play very tight, make sure you have strong hands when you go up against them. You should find situations where trapping will be very effective, however, you will still need to be aggressive at times, because he may recognize you as being a tight player, and use less aggression against you than he would other opponents.

Also, it is common to have someone at the table who says something like this, during this tournament “Darn it, I thought this was a No Limit Tourney.” Or “I’m never playing this Limit tourney again. And some players, who lose a big pot early, will basically give up and turn into a maniac.

The last type of opponent you will come across could be described as TAG, they are usually pretty good competition. There are a few regulars in this tourney and also a few players who are NL MTT/SNG winning players (I discovered this by using sharkscope), but not that many. There are many similarities in the strategies used to beat these games, so these players should be identified, and you may be able to get a good read on them.

When I discovered this tournament, I had never played a Limit Hold’em MTT or SNG. I decided to use a very similar strategy that I use in No Limit MTTs. It worked and I got incredibly lucky, I won the first four of them that I entered. I have won 2 of the 20 I have played, since then and find it very easy to make it in the money. The strategy I lay out in this article definitely works.

The overall strategy is to play extremely tight and aggressive when I feel I have the best hand. For most of the tourney, I play an extremely tight style. In the beginning, I stuck to the premium hands. The key is to conserve chips during the first few levels. If you are fortunate enough to pick up a hand you are going to be paid off by at least one person, so just bet it out. The most important thing is to learn your opponents, find out which ones you can steal from. Late in the game you can steal a lot of blinds by raising preflop and taking it down right there due to your tight image. Also, if you get called pre-flop, your continuation bets on the flop and turn are often very successful. This is because so many of your opponents play a loose passive strategy and only play the cards, and will give up on the flop or turn, once the blinds get big. Other than that just play solid poker, use the basic concepts you have learned playing Limit Ring or NL MTTs/SNGs.

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