No Limit Hold ‘Em has swept the nation. I’m still figuring out why. I used to play the game all the time but have since abandoned it for Limit Hold ‘Em.

Maybe I have the game all figured wrong. Here are some of my observations.

1> When you sit down, there is usually a maximum buyin (unless you play high stakes). This seems to put you at a disadvantage to other players already there who may have 10x or more than you. You are definately a candidate to be bullied.

2> The game seems to favor luck over skill. The last 13 times I went all in, I had the best hand 12 times. So I must have skill because I know when I have the best hand. All 13 times I lost all my money. Maybe I shouldn’t go all in with the best hand, in which case I’m not as good a player as I think.

3> You can play this game for hours and build up all your chips, then lose them all to some guy who chases a flush (roughly a 14% chance of catching) and hits on the river. Yes, I did go all in and make it hard for them to call. Yes they were only getting 1-1 on their money. They call anyway and they get there.

Compare the above to Limit Hold ‘Em where you can buy-in for as much as you want. You can’t be bullied. Yes you do get bad beats there also but at Limit Hold ‘Em you have to suffer quite a few bad beats in order to lose all your money, not just one.

My conclusion thus comes to be that if you are a lucky player, No Limit is your game. You’ll build chips faster. If you are a skillful player, Limit is better off because if luck isn’t on your side, you can still come out ahead over the short term.