In Texas hold em whats difference be Fixed limit and Pot Limit?

Question

And which is the best game to play for someone starting off?

Cheers

Answer 1

To play limit poker well you need to understand pot odds, since pot odds determines whether or not you're going to call most of the time.

Pot odds are figured by your odds of winning the pot compared to how much you have to put in compared to the amount you will win.

Say you have 2 pair, but there is a flush draw on the board.  You figure you're going to win this pot 20% of the time (the rest he'll have a flush or a set, or maybe better 2 pair), so you're odds of winning are 4:1 against.  You have to put $10 into a $60 pot to call the bet, so you're getting 6:1 pot odds.  The one time you win, you will win $60.  In order to do this, you will expect to have to make that bet 5 times, losing 4 of them.  That means you will lose $40 but win $60, meaning you're up $20 in those situations.

Now let's say that you have to put $20 into a $60 pot.  That means you're getting 3:1 on your money.  This is a losing proposition, since in the long run making bets at those odds will cost you money.

Pot limit can get very expensive, especially on a table with a lot of action.  Essentially, it can turn into no-limit by the river, but the early rounds are limited, meaning more people see flops and the turn, and there are more showdowns.

All poker takes a lot of time and effort to get good at.  Limit is a science, no-limit is an art.  It's very rare to see a pot limit game anywhere, so you should focus on learning limit and no-limit.  No-limit is easier, IMO, because you can use betting as power a lot easier than you can in limit.  But some people, like my brother, like limit better.  It's all a matter of choice.

If losing your entire buy-in on one hand is a cause for concern to you, I'd stick to limit.  But if you can emotionally handle losing $100 or more in one hand, try no-limit.

Answer 2

Fixed limit is where the bets are for each portion are fixed. For example, preflop limit $2 per bet up to 3 or 4 raises for a total of $8 or $10 per player. Flop betting is the same, turn and river double to $4 per bet up to 3 or 4 raises for a total of $16-$20 for each one.

Pot limit is where the most a player can bet is the amount already in the pot. This generally starts off with blinds and antes (say 9 player table, ante of $1 and blinds of $2/$4 would net a starting pot of $15). Raises must be a minimum of the big blind ($4), and cannot exceed $15. If somone wishes to reraise, they can raise up to the new total pot (if the last person raised the max, this would now be $30 bringing the pot to $60 total).

Answer 3

Joe explained it very well. couldnt have done it better or any easier to understand. if you are just starting out, i would play the fixed limit, you wont lose as much when you do lose and same thing about winning, you wont win as much but you cant be "greedy" either. you have to take the good with the bad. with pot limit you could lose your whole stack in one hand if you are not careful. play the limit until you think you can handle that and you are doing good at it, then you can try either pot limit or no limit and see how you do there. i would really suggest staying with limit until you are able to build up enough play money to try the other games though. on some sites, they have play money tournaments so you could try those when you feel that you are ready for that.