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No-Limit Hold'em (NLH):
Of the 10 most prestigious poker tournaments today, six are NLH. There is a list of the 50 most prestigious events in poker in Appendix 3. The biggest two—the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the Poker Million—each pay roughly $1.5 million for first place!

Imagine the scene in 2001 at the World Series of Poker when we were down to six players left in the tournament. I was still playing. The Travel Channel had a battery of cameras covering the table and the surrounding standing-room-only crowd. (Most of the crowd had to watch the action on television monitors set up throughout the room.) Two live Internet broadcasts were going on, one at my site (philhellmuth and one at Mark and Tina Napolitano's site (PokerPages). With a first-place prize of $1.5 million and $6,130,000 in tournament chips lying on the table, we engaged in some pretty spectacular clashes that day.

In one hand, I opened the pot for $90,000 on the button with J3-[V] (exactly the same two cards that I won the WSOP with in 1989!) and Phil Gordon moved all-in in the big blind for about $550,000 total. I called his $450,000 raise so quickly that I freaked out everyone at the table! I just knew that he was going to move all-in with a weak hand, and I was ready for him. It turned out that he had 6-6, which made me a 4!/2-to-l favorite to win the $1.1 million pot and bust him (I still had $500,000 in chips left if he won).

Unfortunately for me, the flop was 6-8-K, and his three sixes wound up winning the pot. If I had won this pot, then I would have had at least $1.6 million in chips and perhaps would have won my second "big one." My friend Andy, reading this book in draft, remarked that there's very little "perhaps" to it, although he was extraordinarily impressed with Dewey Tomko's play at the final table (Tomko finished second). Oh, well, either way, it was an exciting hand to be a part of! The two black nines lost the $1.1 million pot, but in 1989 they had held up for a $1.2 million pot and given me the WSOP title. So, 0-[V] is still my favorite hand, and I'd had a really good chance to immortalize it that day. Winning the most prestigious NLH event in the world is the best way to achieve poker immortality!

• Poker – No-limit And Pot-limit Hold (0)
• Poker – Dangers Of Resteals And Suited Connectors (0)
• Advanced Hold Em Poker On The Flop (0)

It's time now to talk about the Cadillac of all poker games, no-limit Hold'em (NLH), and its brother, pot-limit Hold'em (PLH). In NLH you can bet any amount of the money in front of you on the table at any time! Imagine this concept: any amount at any time. If you sense weakness in your opponent, then go ahead and bet $100,000 on a pure bluff.

Of course, if you bluff $100,000 at someone who has only $50,000 left in front of him on the table, then he is allowed to call for his $50,000, making your bet effectively $50,000. If we didn't have that protection in place, whereby you can only bet as much as your opponents have in front of them (called "table stakes"), then Bill Gates would win every pot! Bluffing is a much bigger part of NLH and PLH than it is in limit Hold'em. The great bluffs, the great "reads," and the massive amount of strategy involved in NLH make it the most interesting and most strategic game that we have in poker.

PLH is similar to NLH after the flop play, because by that point the pot in a PLH game has usually grown large enough to make huge bets possible. Before the flop, there are a fair number of strategic differences between the two games, because big bets aren't possible immediately in PLH. But in most respects PLH and NLH are roughly the same game. In this chapter you will learn:

I The difference between no-limit Hold'em (NLH) and pot-limit Hold'em (PLH).
I How to introduce NLH into your game—"cash downs."
I Phil's "NLH fifteen."
I How to trap with A-A and K-K.
I Three theories on how to play pocket 2-2 to 8-8, and A-Q.
I Phil's game—"Guess your opponent's exact two hole
cards."
I Phil's NLH theory.
I The "bet it all" NLH strategy—yuck!
I The "suited connector" NLH theory that Huck Seed uses.
I The superadvanced "Calling with nothing" NLH theory.
I Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott's NLH theory.

• The Biggest And Most Prestigious Poker Game (0)
• Poker – Dangers Of Resteals And Suited Connectors (0)
• Advanced Hold Em Poker On The Flop (0)