No Limit is about Winning Stacks
Limit is about Winning Pots

It's true.  One of the biggest differences between limit and no limit comes in how you win your money.  Limit players strive to make the most +EV decision every single time they have a decision.  Of course no limit players also want to make +EV decisions but in no limit there's more of an emphasis on manipulating your opponents into giving you their stacks.  That's just not possible in limit.

So how do you manipulate your opponents into giving up their stacks?  Well, that's a complex question.  What I can tell you is there are 4 things you can do to get your opponents to loosen their grips on their stacks:

• Having more patience than your opponents
• Mixing up your play
• Building pots with strong hands
• Manipulating your table image

Having more patience than your opponents

Eventually one of your opponents will make a mistake and you will want to be there to capitalize on it.  The longer you go without slipping up, the more likely it is that you'll be there to catch someone else's mistake.  If you can patiently wait for your opponents to do something stupid before you do something stupid yourself, you'll eventually take all their money.

Mixing up your play

Mixing up your play is a great way to win stacks from your opponents.  Mixing up your play can be as subtle as limping in with AA occasionally or as dramatic as playing some of your draws as if they are made hands.  It doesn't take a lot to mix up your play, just the occasional deviation from your normal strategy.

If you successfully mix up your play, you will keep your opponents off balance and they'll never know when to call you or when to fold to you.  If an opponent sees you push all in with a draw, try pushing all in with a set the next time you get one against him.  You don't have to risk chips all the time, just make the occasional weird play and you'll succeed in making your opponents think twice about folding to you.

Building pots with strong hands

This one only makes sense since you're trying to win your opponents' stacks.  Consciously work to improve your pot building skills.  The goal is to get opponents so deeply tied to the pot that they can't fold when they finally figure out they're beat.

The best way to do this is to build the pot early on in the hand.  If you get the pot big early, the bets will be larger on later streets.  You can build the pot against passive players by making the bets yourself and you can build the pot against aggressive players by letting them do all the betting.

For more tips on this subject, read my article on building pots with made hands.

Manipulating your table image

Manipulating your table image is a lot of fun and can be very profitable if done correctly.  Anyone can raise 40 hands in a row and look like a total maniac, the hard part is looking like a maniac without losing all kinds of money. 

It takes experience and confidence more than anything else to be successful at manipulating your image.  The best way to learn it is by moving down to lower stakes and experimenting there.  There you won't be as affected by the money and you'll be able to make decisions based on logic and not on money.

I know the explanation of each one of these points was a little basic but I'll explain these further in later articles.  For now ponder on these points and keep them in mind the next time you play at the tables.  If you don't have a poker site to call home, give Cake Poker a try.  I've really come to like Cake.