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[Editor's Note: This is a 2 part series, part 1 can be read here.]

One thing I was noticing was the lack of bad beats in NL. This is something that answered yet another question. Why did NL players always whine about bad beats in Limit? It’s because they are not used to them!!

In limit, bad beats are a way of life, they happen all the time. In NL, you push the poor cards out of the way with the bigger bets. When you lose you are generally losing to a quality hand. In Limit, any ol’ crap can beat you. When you show your hand and wait for those chips to slide your way and some pathetic bozo shows his two pair 94 that he got on the flop and limped the entire way, you just have to grin and bear it. It happens all the time. You have to realize that in Limit the long run means more.

That is also why a NL your bankroll has less fluctuation then a Limit bankroll. I think (and you can correct me if I am wrong) that NL banks tend to move in the same direction more often, up or down. If you are good you tend to not have as many bad sessions as you would if you were as good in Limit. It’s the bad beat syndrome. Less in NL, more in Limit.

And so my education continued. I was doing well, and starting to play out side the box. Perhaps bluffing a little to much, perhaps not seeing the kind of hands that were dangerous. This was easy. Odd hands like hitting top pair in the Big Blind with a 85 or bottom two cards of a straight or the always mind bender QQ and even A7 suited when you hit your Ace and 4 people are in the pot, WHAT DO YOU DO!! Or when you have a REAL good hand like top two pair and a guy goes ALL-IN.

So many things that you just have to figure out through experience.

All of a sudden I felt like I WAS GAMBLING. And even though I bet on sports (for entertainment purposes only) and have played Limit Hold’m online since 1999. I really do not like to gamble. I get no thrill out of the hunt, I get the thrill out of the rewards OF the hunt.

That is what I think NL players have, the “thrill of the hunt.” They enjoy the bashing of clubs over each other heads. The in your face finger of going all in. I must admit that that does have a certain adrenalin thrill.

Not that I minded this thrill. After all it was helping clear my arteries. And I was winning.

I moved up to NL50 and was bringing $40 to the table.

It was at this level and 25 hours into my journey when mother variance showed her face.

The combination of going card dead and getting some pretty good 2nd best hands led to some catastrophic results. The they started to pile up.

Yet another thing I learned in the differences between Limit and No-Limit. Tilting, even if it is one hand, can lead to disastrous results.

You see in Limit you can tilt and by doing so lose a hand. In NL when you tilt you can lose your entire stack. I found when I lost my entire stack that I would sit there, a shell of a man, empty, gutted, eviscerated. I really do not think there is a worse feeling (OK, there is ONE worse feeling, that is when you tell your wife all the player has to do is kneel down on the last play of the game and you win $200, and instead they hand the ball off, it gets fumbled and a Chicago Bear picks it up and runs 85 yards for a meaningless Touchdown and you lose $200. But that is another story).

Oops, sorry, flashback! Back to the present. So I am sitting there, the chips did not come my way and I have nothing. Well, I can’t stop with that hand so in my weakened state of mind I reload. I will not continue this story, much much to painful.

I learned that I must respect the ALL-IN player. I guess he is not bluffing as much as I would think. Unless I have the nuts and know I will win, back down. I think new people to NL need to heed this warning. RESPECT THE ALL-INer.

So after 80 hours of No-Limit Hold’em I had learned a lot about the game and I had learned a more about myself. What I learned about myself was actually re-learning. I don’t like to gamble. More importantly, I HATE losing. I HATE losing more then I LIKE winning.

This is actually important when it comes to Hold’em.

Look at it this way. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the strongest emotion. When I lose a hand in Limit my emotions hit a 6 with disappointment. When I win a hand in Limit my emotion rank is a 4 in happiness.

However, in No Limit if I lose a hand my disappointment factor is a 9. And if I win a hand it’s still a 5! Somewhere I’m losing out on this deal! 6 to a 9 and 4 to a 5.

With this startling revelation I decided I need to make some money and went back to Limit where I felt more comfortable. No Limit is a great game and I will continue to play it, but not for serious money.

My goal is to keep playing NL but go a little more slowly. I’m doing the 300 Big Blind Bankroll strategy. Start at the bottom and don’t move to a new limit until I have 300 Big Blinds. In the mean time play Limit for money and NL for entertainment.
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Post Script - once back in Limit where I knew for a fact I could win I proceeded to go on a -145 Big Bet losing streak in the next 35 hours of play! The ship has since been righted but the transition BACK to limit was not without some bleeding.

Good luck, except against me!
Grinder

For the further adventure in Grinder’s sometimes gambling and sometimes processing poker journey feel free to check out his blog, Grinders Warehouse. A Curiously Entertaining Blog!