Playing Limit Hold’em Tournaments

While most people prefer to play the more popular No-Limit Hold’em tournaments, Limit tourneys still draw a fair share of players.  In fact, some people actually like playing Limit Hold’em tournaments since they force them to play more under control.  If you’re a Limit Hold’em buff, or have just considered playing in a Limit tourney, these tips should help your game.

The Basics

Basic Limit Hold’em tournament strategy involves playing in position during the early going and sticking to premium, or near-premium, hands.  Since it’s tougher to come from behind in a Limit tourney, you need to keep a decent chip stack at all times.  This means avoiding playing hands like A-Q, K-J, and Q-T out of position since they can cost you a lot of chips.

Steal Blinds and Small Pots

Once the blinds start going up towards the middle stages of the tournament, you’re going to have to steal blinds and small pots to stay in the action.  This means betting out more and trying to semi-bluff other players into folding so you can steal whatever is on the table.  Of course, you need to take into account the players you’re stealing blinds from before you make the attempt.  If they’re a tight player who only plays premium hands, then you’re no doubt better off leaving them alone.

Much like No-Limit

Sure Limit Hold’em tournaments are different from their No-Limit counterpart, but this doesn’t mean you should treat a Limit Hold’em tourney like it’s totally different.  In fact, you can apply a lot of the same concepts from No-Limit towards Limit Hold’em.  This means you still need to know what hands to play and which ones to fold, look for opportunities to bluff, and make strong value bets.  The only difference is going to be that you can’t take a whole player’s stack in one hand.