How can I exploit someone limping utg constantly sitting to their left?

Had someone doing this every orbit in a tournament last night on final table, he had noticed that when he limped utg, everyone folded round to sb + bb who made up, then check folded flop. The tournament was on the bubble, and I was on 13bbs with average stack about 26bbs. As far as I can see, all I can do is let him get away with it, because I can't risk my whole stack in early position on the bubble.

well it might be harder for you but people in later positions with bigger stacks should have exploited this tendancy by raising!

ymer said:

... all I can do is let him get away with it, because I can't risk my whole stack in early position on the bubble.

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It depends on your approach to bubble play. If you've decided to fold anything but premium hands until the bubble breaks, there really isn't anything you can do. What range would you open anyway?

Otoh, if you're willing to risk bubbling in order to improve your tournament EV, you can simply show some aggression by opening a reasonable range. While your fairly short stack size is awkward in that you can only afford to bet and fold to a raise once or twice, that situation may not happen at all since most players will be playing more conservatively than usual to make the money, and just stealing the blinds once or twice per orbit is pretty helpful. Yes, you'll bubble a little more often, but by retaining or even building your stack, you'll place somewhat higher on average when you do cash, and because of how payouts usually escalate, you'll make more money despite cashing a bit less often.

If you're going to do anything other than fold just shove over top.

Just lecture the people with a bigger stack than you about what they should be doing.

BlueNowhere said:

Just lecture the people with a bigger stack than you about what they should be doing.

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As we say at the club, 'Poker lessons are Monday night.' with Monday being the only day the club is closed

Well the old rule as far as I remember is to add a BB for every limper if more I would maybe make it ½ BB for every limper, so why not just do that, when you want to get into the play. So if you normally raise with 2½ BB then raise it to 3½ BB, when you have a hand, and be happy if he call OOP.

Arjonius said:

your fairly short stack size is awkward in that you can only afford to bet and fold to a raise once or twice,

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I disagree. With 13x BB when average stacks are 26x BB, I don`t believe that OP should be playing any hand where he is not prepared to play for all his chips.

Egon Towst said:

I disagree. With 13x BB when average stacks are 26x BB, I don`t believe that OP should be playing any hand where he is not prepared to play for all his chips.

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absolutly agree on this, and he should shove if / when he enter a pot. .. not raise as stated in my prev. post.

Egon Towst said:

I disagree. With 13x BB when average stacks are 26x BB, I don`t believe that OP should be playing any hand where he is not prepared to play for all his chips.

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It can depend on multiple factors, not just individually, but in combinations and with different weightings - the players, their respective styles and stacks, their probable perceptions of you and your style, how many people are how short, etc.

Being prepared to play for your entire 13BB stack isn't bad per se. It may even be fine more often than not. However, the nature of poker is that always doing something is seldom if ever optimal.

spunka said:

absolutly agree on this, and he should shove if / when he enter a pot. .. not raise as stated in my prev. post.

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phew :handkiss:

Arjonius said:

the nature of poker is that always doing something is seldom if ever optimal.

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In general terms, I agree. However, when you have only 13x BB you simply can`t fritter away whatever remaining fold equity you may have by betting and then folding to a raise. Any way you slice it, that`s terrible weak play.

ymer said:

Had someone doing this every orbit in a tournament last night on final table, he had noticed that when he limped utg, everyone folded round to sb + bb who made up, then check folded flop. The tournament was on the bubble, and I was on 13bbs with average stack about 26bbs. As far as I can see, all I can do is let him get away with it, because I can't risk my whole stack in early position on the bubble.

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Since you are so short there is nothing you can do, you need to pick a spot to put all your money in, if you had more chips then it would be a different situation where you could take some of those chips

Thanks for the reply guys, yeah I had pretty much figured it was a shove or fold. Normally I would go for it, maybe with suited connectors; good chance of everyone folding but a nice hand against a caller. Though in this particular case I had over half my money to last me till January invested in the tournament XD So I guess it was better to play it safe. Degens gonna degen...

you have to shove all in w/ a good hand. You my even win the tournament.

normally i would not recommend it but since all of the stacks are pretty shallow you could try flat calling and shoving the flop hoping he did not connect, a stop-n-go which is mostly outdated at this point but there are some uses.
You could also try shoving preflop as you represent a significant portion of any player at your tables stack and limits their calling range to top 10%
also try to exploit him on your bb since he seems comfortable flat calling preflop, raise and put some pressure on when you have the option or position.

u wann a play poker, u wanna beat this annoying *****, u hate hes mooching off the tight table like a leech - This is where mental toughness comes in. Forget about the blood suckers actions and think about what cards you want to hit hard with. Thats all. Wait for the right position, players, hole cards and shove away.

dont think there is much you can do, dont like small raise, it would be interesting to know the payouts
if the payout structure is flat - just knit a sweater until the bubble bursts