I hate playing limit poker.

I haven't played much "limit poker" but I can tell you after only five sessions of playing it that I hate the game.

The very first time I played it -- more than two years ago -- I finished 7th in a major tournament at The Bicycle Casino. And that was the last time I played it until about two weeks ago. Since then it's been a game of grief, heartache, despair, and wonder about how do these idiots play poker?

Let me give you an example: In one of my first limit games -- it was 3/6 limit -- I have pocket aces in late position and I raise. Unfortunately, as I soon discovered, in limit it's hard to get other players to fold once they have decided to play a flop. This is because you can't "force them out" with a big bet or raise or an all-in as you can in No Limit. And especially in a low limit, limit game like 3/6 it's hard to get anyone to fold.

So, I raise with pocket aces and all six other players at the table call. Then comes the flop, and there is an ace on the flop -- I have a set of aces.

But to make a long story short, there is only one spade on the flop and despite my raising, a player with two small spades calls and sees another spade on the turn and the flush spade on the river -- while my set did not improve to a full house.

What amazed me was not so much that the player made the flush, but that the player was in the hand with 3 and 8 of spades. Wow. In limit it appeared you could play A2C (any two cards) and win.

And since then I've played higher stakes limit games including 4/8 and 8/16 and nothing changed. Players will play any two cards and any two cards can win when the river card is finally dealt.

I hate playing limit poker.