I don't believe in limping, not early, not late. My standard raise is 2xBB, which means I'm going to make it at least 3x, + 1xBB for each player that has limped in front of me, up to 5x. Limping allows too many players to get involved in the hand, making post-flop play difficult. Consider how hard it is to put 3 or 4 opponents on hands. Anyone could be holding anything. Any one of them could have binged two pair on you. Players with drawing hands will be reluctant to fold as well, unless you are willing to risk a significant amount of your stack to try to get them to fold.
Just about every time I see someone cussing and fussing over having a big hand cracked by some "why would you even play that?" type of hand, it's because they allowed someone to limp in with an inferior hand. In fact, I am so against limping in and playing multi-way pots that if I see too many limpers in the pot in front of me I am likely to just fold a lot of hands that I would otherwise be willing to raise with. Once so many limpers enter the pot, it starts to give players later position the right price to call. At this point, raising to 3x or even 5x isn't going to be able to fold out bingo hands. Given the choice between limping in and playing bingo, or making a raise that's not likely to lessen the number of players in the pot, which is just playing expensive bingo, I choose option C, to just fold and take notes as the rest of the limpers donk it out without me.
Simply put, I would rather fold a quality hand than to limp with one.
