Rudy Edwards

My trip to the WSOP, for the sidegame action, is rapidly approaching. In preparation, I've put in a good amount of work over the past few weeks learning how to play full ring NL hold 'em.

I began at "The Big House", which is my nickname for what is best described as an online poker commune comprised of my friends who were previously M:TG players. I sat down at a computer and began scouting low limit NL games on FTP. My first discovery was that I didn't even know what to look for when scouting NL games. All my previous experience in NL comes from live play, or from single table tournaments online, neither of which taught me how to scout this game at all.

It's actually very simple to scout limit poker, you look for players who play more than 30% of their hands (in full ring) the higher the percentage of hands they play, the worse they are. There are other things that matter, but they are subtle and deal more with how you play them rather than if you want to play them. No Limit is a whole different animal. If Phil Ivey were to sit down at a limit table full of guys like me, and play every unraised hand he was dealt, his post flop play would not likely make up for the money he was losing pre flop. The same is not true for no limit games. If Phil Ivey were to sit down in a game full of dudes like me, his post flop skill could probably overcome the pre flop losses involved with playing every unraised pot he saw.

Lesson #1 I've learned in my NL studies so far, a player's VOL is not as indicative of that player's skill level as it is in limit poker.

The fact is, that this lesson is probably truer at higher stakes than I'm currently playing (I'm starting at NL50) and down here a player's VOL is more indicative of his skill, if for no reason than the types of players whose post flop play makes higher VOL that profitable are not going to be stuck in the low limits for very long.

I played for a short while, with Justin, Aziz, and Don looking over my shoulder on occasion and giving me tips or advice. It's amazing how fast you can learn from a little dialogue with other gamers. NL isn't as different from Limit as I thought it was going to be. At it's core, it's a game of exposing people's weaknesses. You find people who are too loose, and raise their limps, or people who are too timid post flop, and continuation bet both of these types of players out of pots. Finally, the formulaic players have to get a little creative with, finding ways to get hands to stack them with for a reasonable price, and using your table image to bluff and semi bluff them off of scary boards.

This will all get a lot harder as I move up limits, and start playing more opponents who understand these things as a part of their own arsenal, and that they might be in mine. I still have to build a playbook from scratch, as my limit experience will not provide me the standard plays I need to have as my foundation for this game, but so far I love how cerebral this game is compared to limit poker.