There are essential differences between limit hold’em and no limit hold’em besides the esthetic one that involves the presence of absence of limits.
For once, when you are playing no limit hold’em you play a more methodic game. A skilled player can easily develop and apply strategies in no limit hold’em, much easier than in limit games. If you are a beginner then no-limit is not the game for you, but limit is the perfect one. Limit protects new comers and doesn’t let them loose too much. If you are a skilled player and you encounter a beginner in a no limit poker room then you can easily take advantage of his presence and make a lot of money out of him. As they say, sky is the limit and here the sky is the beginner’s stack. Big mistakes are paid dearly in no-limit, you will just go all-in and lose all your stack. But in limit if the same mistake is made then it is not such a big deal, it just means that if you pass a few mediocre bets you will be right where you started.
In no limit hold’em you can use psychology more often and it turns out to be more reliable. This happens mostly because in no limit more money are involved and the risk of losing them all at once because of one single bad call is greater. At the end in limit hold’em all the hands are shown because of the concept that the best hand wins. But in no limit this doesn’t have to happen, you can show the hand only if you want to. In limit you can play a person, make them fold and in the end it would turn out that you had a bad hand. Now everyone knows you bluffed that person and you won’t get another opportunity to do it again. In no limit it is much easier to tell others’ game style and much harder to use psychology and to play others. You can do one trick once, but after that you’ll have to change it in to limit because the “word” will be out.
Position counts in both game types. But position count a lot more n no limit games. Even though in both games the worst position is the early position and the best one is the late position, there is a big difference on how position affects your hand. In no limit if you are in early position the chances that you get trapped are bigger. There is no risk free way to play a hand here, no matter how good it is. It all depends on the other players and the impression they have of you. You can play ruff and end up losing a lot or cautiously and end up being trapped because other can tell that you are not sure of the hand you are holding.
