Limping In With Hands That Aren't Good

I like to limp in once in awhile with a hand that is obviously not good. I like to try and make a play out of it, by either bluffing, or actually getting something. I only do this if I don't get many good hands at all, but not too often. Is this okay to do as long as I know how much I can afford to lose.

Sure. Have fun. Seeing flops is fun. Limp more.

You can legitimately limp from late position with cards that have some potential to hit a flop (example - connectors, one-gappers, suited cards). However, beware of getting sucked into a big pot with a mediocre hand if you catch only a part of the flop (example - second pair, or top pair weak kicker).

If you have been card dead for more than three rounds at a 9 handed table, I think it is wise to try and steal a pot. Because you haven't entered any pots people have to give you credit for a big hand.

If your junk gets called - you should get more action from the rest of the players when you actually have good hands.

Just don't do it to often.

I was UTG yesterday in a 10c25c game on FT.

I hd 2 3 off and went to click fold but accidentally hit call. Ooops.. everyone folds to the Button who makes it 50c to go. The SB and BB call. I just thought at this point call!

Flop was 2 8 9.... Checked to the Button who bets 75c. (pot is $2) The SB and BB fold. I call and the Turn is a 3 giving me 2 pair. Checked to BB who bets $1 in a $3.50 pot. I call....
River is a blank.. I bet $3 out and he raises to $10... I think about this and call. He turns over KK...

Pocket, mofo Kings... I just typed... you should have raised more preflop and he left the table!

lol

If you are just playing for fun, sure you can limp in all day long. But if you are wanting to make money then no, limping in with bad hands is, well..... bad. If you are card dead in a tournament then making a move with not that great hands (and by move I mean raise not call) is a necessity. Limping in with crap will never give you a long term return, but It can be fun.

Originally posted by lonsdaleite totally agree with lonsdaleite on this one lots of folding gets you a image as a tight player and unless you walk into a monster hand your looking good for the steal

Limping in will makes the Baby Jesus cry
Oh wait nvm I think he may not care about not so good hands.


As you were.....

You have to play your position and your opponents!
Then it will not matter what cards you get...
It is good to mix your starting hands....

I would limp in late position, but i do believe that if you are the first to act you should bring it in for a raise... it desguises your hand if you always do that plus it puts pressure on your opponents...
Limping is fine with sub-par hands if there are a lot of people in the pot already and you have pot odds.

When playing 6 or 9 handed, consistently limping with trashy hands does not tend to be a profitable play. You just don't hit often enough for it to be profitable.

I am more likely to limp with junk in late position if the pot odds are too juicy, but I won't hesitate to throw away top pair on the flop if the texture is real scary.

If I'm playing heads-up or even three-handed, sometimes I'll limp- particularly if I know that the other players will let me see the flop for cheap.

I gotta admit though, it is fun to bust pocket aces with something like 2 8 off suit.

Yes, it is, I do it all the time as long as you can afford it, why not?

Nothing wrong with a few limp plays after all every once and a while you will hit and make up some ground.

No. Don't limp. Especially with garbage. If you feel you need to play garbage, raise it up. And be in late position.

Basically, it's a terrible plan to play with crap. If you play it as if you have AA, that's another story.

i prefer to raise with my pure crap. i'll call a min-raise on the bb with pure crap too. you can't sit around waiting for AK and AA and stuff like that all day. its a great feeling to raise, hit the nuts with your 49o, and bet it out to showdown, and then get called a donkey idiot loser. my take is, i raised preflop...i hadn't played a hand in like 10 mins...you should have folded. that's my take on every hand i guess..."you should have folded" haha

As others have mentioned... real bad idea.
There's a player I've noticed who is new to the CC buyin games (coming from another forum) who seems to try to do this a bit.... they'll limp in & then even call a raise out of pos. preflop w bunk... then a small stab on the flop....check the turn... then the BIG river POT bet... which is so easily read as a very poor bluff. (the 'story' they're telling doesn't make sense)

Personally I much prefer to raise with something like 74s, 86s, 98o, etc.,.. something I might actually hit big with on a flop. This also gives me the option of leading out with a cbet on many flops (ie. representing an Ace on flop) and can get alot of better hands to fold.

I used to limp in towards the end position. But I kept getting sucked into big pots with mediocre hands. Eventually I just had to tell myself before the flop what bet I would fold to so things don't get out of hand.

phil gordon little green book tells me..when first to enter a pot....RAISE mofo RAISE......

I like to Raise, Bet, Bet, Re-raise with garbage.

Depends a lot on the situation. In cash games I tend to limp a bit more than in tournaments but that again depends on what games I am playing. Forexample in PLO8, I do a lot of limping, but much less in NLHE.

In deeper stack cash games on the other hand you can play a lot of hands very profitably as long as your post-flop game is good.

There's a big difference between limping and limping behind in position. The latter can be a viable strategy, more so when the stacks are deeper. However, it's not something you should just do for no reason. It's an approach that requires making more marginal post-flop decisions, and thus puts a premium on your ability to do so.

If you are a beginner I don't recommend limping in with anything other than small to mid pocket pairs. Those have great value if you hit a set on an Ace high board cause a lot of small stakes players like to play Ace rag type hands and won't fold if they hit their Ace.

Limping with other hands will only cause you to get into a bad habit when you should be focusing on your fundamentals. It is a -EV play at small stakes. It does have it's place at higher stakes against players who can read you well, but it should only been done once ion a while to switch up your game.

Even the pros say that to win big tourneys you have to play with hands that "you're not supposed to"

A lot of poker players do it ... but as an strategy for bluffing and a way to get something would make you getting used to it ....

Play to win ... okay .

You have to either play really aggressive by raising or you have to play really smart and keep folding, folding, folding

If your card dead and are folding a lot you have to be aggressive and make a raise and hope no one has a big pocket pair. I would not advise you do it to often won't be very profitable, be careful and be patient. GL

I will on occasion only in late position thoug

My favorite book!

Limping with mediocre-bad hands is generally a bad idea. I would either raise PF or fold them, unless you have a near full ring of limpers, and even then you only get paid if you hit a miracle flop.

If you stick to only great hands, your play is just one way. If you mix it up, it will fool opponents especially if you hit. It is good to limp in a lot if you have a big stack or even call minimum raises. If you hit the 2 pair or possibly trips on the flop, their AA is beat and you crack a great hand and will win the big pot. I believe it's better to play aggressive early to get your big stack and then you can play looser later on. This is a good strategy, hope it helps, gl

Believe it or not, as I was reading this post, I was dealt T6o, and ended up with a fullhouse (freeroll, and no one was betting the flop hard so I just called a bunch of min bets

The thing about bad hands is, when you hit they are unlikely to help other people, so on the rare occasions you do hit you win a small pot.
And other times you'll hit stuff like top pair with a weak kicker, in which case you have to worry about bigger kickers, overpairs, overcards on later streets, etc. They're hard to play post-flop.

Look at your stats. You should be profitable in every position except the blinds. If you are losing money in other positions these sort of moves are probably hurting you with negative risk-to-reward ratios.

I think limping or calling min raises with rags with a lot of people in the pot can be fruitful... if you get the right flop. Early in a a tournament with a lot of weak players and small blinds playing something like 56o or 74o and getting trips or higher can really pay off, again its like bigsmak's situation, people don't raise high enough with hands like AA or KK because their scared of pushing people out of the pot, but when they probably know they could be beat they refuse to fold AA or KK and lose all their chips because they only made a min raise. I don't go in with rags a lot though, most of the time they're never going to hit more than a pair on the flop which I'll fold.

Well said, Thomas.

I like the way you think.

If you are going to play the hand, at least make a "min-raise"...this causes opponents to have to decide something and not get a free look.

Limping only says ur weak and they can get a free look.

I have found that limping drains chips away faster than actually betting,

Wally