Limpers

Hello all,

Wanted to get some opinions on something that I see in a lot of MTT’s that I play.
In a lot of MTTs I see people limping with 78s,KTs, A2s, QTs, 55 etc. basically hands that you would like to see a flop cheaply with. There are a lot of times that I’m sitting in the SB or BB with A8,A9, KJ. In this situation I think that there is a good chance that I have the best hand. Now my dilemma is should I raise with these types of hands or just call? Let’s assume that you are a medium stack (14-20 BB’s) and in the mid/late stages of a tourney; thus if you make a wrong move you are in survival mode or eliminated. The things that I’m thinking about are the following:
1)What is my table image? If I haven’t played a hand in a while they might respect my raise and fold
2)Stack size. Are the limpers all medium/short stacks? I’m avoiding big stacks here.
3)If I raise, what are the chances that I take down right there? What amount will take the pot right there?
4)If I raise, get called and I hit TPWK what do I do? I might have to commit myself to this hand with the worst of it; assuming we are late in the tourney when blinds are very high with medium stack.
5)If I raise and get reraised all-in, what do I do? This is the toughest decision, because someone could have limped with a monster. Or someone could have put you on a steal, and reraised.They might have a small pocket pair and you are in a coin flip for most of your chips.

I tend to be on the aggressive side so normally I’m going to raise with decent hands in that situation with the goal of taking down the pot there, but I have been donkey punched a couple times. I’d just like to hear some opinions on how you guys handle situations like this.

Thanks in advance

You seem to have it pretty sussed out.

The general idea is you should raise to something like 3bb +1bb/limper assuming middling/deep stacks. Otherwise a push is standard if your M (number of orbits before you get blinded out, go read Harrington on Holdem) is relatively small. Chances you'll take it down? Depends on the other players. Have you seen them get stubborn with suited connectors often, or do they limp/fold almost every time? Have you seen them limp/reraise before? Regardless of if you think you're going to get called, you still want to raise if you think you have the best hand to get heads up, as A9/KJ etc. don't play well multiway.

I generally bet out 3/4 pot or so, or check on a co-ordinated board (say if I have A9 and 3 other people are in the pot with me and the flop is 9h8h7h I'm not very happy with tptk here). Your opponents hand ranges are large, but it's unlikely they will limp/call with something that has A9 beat on an A84 board or KJ an a KQ3 board, for example. Of course if you get raised barring any reads it's usually an easy fold.

Preflop? A limp/reraise is a huge sign of strength. In 95% of cases something like A9 vs. a limp/push is an incredibly easy fold - the only time a call is good is if stack sizes give you pot odds to do so (ie. if one of you is very shortstacked).