No Limit Texas Hold Em Poker has seen a huge rise of popularity over the past decade with poker players embracing both the large earning potential as well as the challenges this format of poker presents.

The technical difference between No Limit Texas Hold Em poker rules and those of the Limit Hold em Poker format is very basic.

With Limit Hold Em, the amount you can bet each turn is limited, while in No Limit Hold Em, you can bet as much as you want.

This small variation in poker rules opens the door for limitless use of human psychology in No Limit Hold Em, and therefore creates an entirely different, more human game as a result.

The Excitement of Betting It All and Winning Big

The Hold Em games broadcasted on ESPN and other sports networks are nearly always No Limit, because it is a much more fun game to watch as players try to outbluff or outmaneuver their opponents.

When you are playing Limit Hold Em, there is a limit to how much money you can potentially make per hand played.

This creates a more careful game requiring a solid Texas Hold Em poker strategy, precision and knowledge of pot odds to win big money in the long run.

This also lends more towards the poker player who is weak at heart!

In No Limit Hold Em Poker, the constant dream of the coup, the one-shot-kill, and the glory of doubling up always hover like a specter over the game.

With players betting all of their money by pushing all in or convincing other players to bet all of their money by slow playing a monster, skillful poker players are always looking for the elusive fish, or weak player, to prey on and trap.

This however also lends more towards the riskier type of Texas Hold Em player who loves action and loves to gamble.  This poker format is therefore a much more stressful game as bankroll fluctuations due to bad beats can take a toll on the unseasoned amateur.

Is No Limit Hold Em Poker For You?

In Limit poker there is one solid strategy to make money, bet when you have a good hand and fold when you have bad hands.

In contrast, in No Limit poker, there are two ways for you to win money.

One way is to get someone to keep calling your bets for lots of money in the pot at every betting round, and then beat them at the showdown on the merits that your hand is better than theirs.  This way you also get their money.

Two, get someone to put lots of money in the pot during the early rounds of betting, pre-flop or on the flop, and then convincing them on the turn or river that they suddenly don’t have a shot at winning.  This will make them fold and you ultimately get their money by taking down a big pot.

Now you can see how in No Limit poker, the fact that you know someone is passive and only willing to put in so much money into the pot can be of great advantage.  You can just raise an amount that you know puts them under pressure and they will be too weak to call.

If you are a very passive poker player, No Limit Hold Em Poker may not be the game for you.  This is especially true if you are used to playing the Limit Hold Em format.

The worst thing you can do is play a solid limit strategy in a No Limit Hold Em game, you will end up making small amounts of money while your skilled opponents make a large amount of money.

Eventually you will become the small stack at the table and when a player with a large stack faces a player with a small stack, the large-stack player can almost always win a war of attrition and convince an otherwise conservative player to make a bad move.

Any time you make a move based on weakness, fear or irrational hopes in No Limit Hold Em, you almost always lose big, because good players playing a solid No Limit Holdem Poker strategy will always prey on you.

Fewer Players To The Showdown

A full No Limit Texas Hold Em poker game initially consists of about nine players.

Of those nine, generally only about three will go in on a particular flop as players usually play a tight solid game, so as not to give anything away.

By the time the betting occurs on the turn the field is usually narrowed down to two players, with the third poker player folding if he doesn’t have a strong enough hand to hold up against two players.

No Limit Hold Em is such a psychological game that quite often players “go in” with a weak hand with the intention of trying to psyche their opponent into folding.

Knowing when your opponents are trying to push you around by forcing you to fold is just a part of the game that as a No Limit Hold Em poker player you will have to get used to.

The Ideal No Limit Poker Strategy

All in all the ideal strategy for No Limit Texas Hold Em Poker requires knowledge of your opponents playing styles, knowledge of pot odds, having the balls to make your plan around those odds, having a rough idea of your opponent’s hand as compared to your hand, and the guts to stick to this strategy.

This is known as a tight, aggressive style of poker play, you keep your cool until you have to or want to take a shot, then you take your shot with 100% confidence.

Obviously, No Limit Hold Em favors skillful and professional players who know what they’re doing over amateur players who are just looking to have fun.

Nevertheless, the adrenaline rush of No Limit tends to draw all types of poker players to the table, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the realm of online Texas Hold Em.

If you have a good grasp of the odds, know what you’re trying to do (nonverbally convince your opponents to put in their money when they really ought not to), and a strong sense of confidence, you can easily clean up any room of online No Limit Hold Em Poker.