take it to the (fixed) limit?

Exciting news - we're taking a last minute road trip to Mountaineer this weekend. We're staying one night, playing all Friday evening and Saturday until dinnertime or so.

If you'll recall, Mountaineer is famous for my purchase of a $456 T-Shirt. I started out with a way-too-small bankroll and bombed it away in short order. Then I switched to $2/$4 fixed limit, where my mood evened out, but I still lost and lost and lost. Read all about it in the linked post and ones after that.

Anyway, my plan this weekend is to start off playing limit poker. My friend Wiley came back from a Vegas weekend last month and reported great success playing limit, even though he's a no-limit player like I am. He also gave me some strategies - which I must say are quite ingenious (probably conventional fixed limit strategies, but I could have never thought of them coming from a no-limit world).

To practice for the big weekend, I logged onto Full-Tilt tonight and played .10/.20 fixed limit ring tables (2 at the same time) for the first time. Overall, I posted a solid win in 221 hands (26 BB/100 hands).

One other thing I learned - there are some AWFUL players down in the low limits. I had my HUD running, I had 2 players at my tables with stats of 82/0 and 72/0 after 100 hands. They are playing almost every hand and never raising. Ever.

Here is a hand I played tonight. See if you can put the villain on a hand....

Full Tilt Poker, $0.10/$0.20 Limit Hold'em Cash Game, 8 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Pre-Flop: K A dealt to Hero (MP1)
3 folds, BB calls, 2 folds, Hero raises, MP2 calls, BB calls

Flop: (6 SB) 8 6 J (3 Players) I flop the nuts. Not a bad hand.
Hero checks, MP2 bets, BB folds, Hero raises, MP2 caps, Hero caps, MP2 calls
I checkraise, which I guess you usually don't do in limit (you need to build pots with good hands), but the board was so scary that I wanted to make sure one bet got into the pot. I was pleasantly surprised when the villain caps the betting.

Turn: (7 BB) 7 (2 Players)
Hero bets, MP2 raises, Hero caps, MP2 calls
Ok, now we build the pot as much as we can. We get to a cap again.

River: (13 BB) 5 (2 Players)
Hero bets, MP2 raises, Hero caps, MP2 caps, Hero calls
The river comes. The board isn't paired. I've got the nuts (and the second nuts). What's he still capping with?

Results: 21 BB Pot (1.05 BB Rake)

Hero showed K A (a flush, Ace high) and WON 19.95 BB (+9.95 BB NET)
MP2 showed 9 J (a straight, Nine high) and LOST (-10 BB NET)

A straight? I suppose his hand looked pretty good considering he had top pair and an open ended straight draw on the flop, if you discount the fact that there are already 3 hearts out there. I mean, if you don't necessarily believe that I have two hearts, fine, control the pot size (he's in position) and see if your top pair is good (which doesn't hit the straight until the river). But to cap the betting on all three streets with top pair and a draw to the already non-nuts? Oy.

I may have found a new game.