Isolating limpers: When, why and how should you isolate?

[bruno13xs]

great article, I always when the first game to have any chance of hitting a straight or a flash is certainly that will increase at the beginning of a pot

 

[Karl Hernandez]

Wow.
I just found out that im a weak Player

 

[Anders1616]

Interesting article. I think i just lost a small tournament by limping too much.
I have to change my style of playing.

 

[Schrubbler]

On low stakes i would recommend to just stick to your normal playstyle and play your hand like you always would. Make a note in your head and adjust the range of your enemy, see it as free information but dont mess up your game to much ^^

 

[Chief talking bull]

I do a lot of limping myself. I don't like to put a lot of chips on the line without more info. When I notice people coming over the top a lot I'll do it with a strong hand with intent to set a trap. So watch your back.

 

[makisaa]

Isolating a limper has may dangers, like when poker cards "decide" different than we planned and the limper gets the pot! So right measure and being carefull is good behavior.

 

[weezy1312]

i think everybody should stick to their pre-game strategy until they collect enough data to know who are the limpers and who are those that might trap and start to develop a strategy to exploit them as every game and every table is different from the one before it is crucial to have a strong pre-game strategy and adapt to the tables as the games goes on and not fall into trying to isolate early and the hunter becomes the prey.

 

[Syltan]

Informative, especially with the dynamics of the Game with me constantly doing this, and in my own experience he began to carry out the same, through time works)))

 

[Queenlimp]

I don't understand much the benefit of isolating a limper (if indeed you can isolate).
If blinds are big and over half the table already folded, I would hope to induce a fold for most hands. You could slow roll a monster, but is the risk worth the reward? I suppose in some instances, but isn't that the exact move the limper is hoping for?
I guess options come into play if the limper is short or deep stacked.


Seems to me like most circumstances merit just playing your normal game.

 

[king11682]

I think we should raise against a limping player, depending on our cards and position, otherwise it's better to retire especially if there are a lot of players who have limped

 

[Gaaangster]

Do you notice opponents limping into pots? Should you bet to isolate them or are you walking into a trap? Do you isolate with top hand or notice an opponents tendancies to limp into a lot of pots and try to exploit that?

Read our guide on Isolating limpers

Then come back and let us know your experiences when trying to isolate limpers.

I always catch myself saying that this guy would get some good value out of my BB because I’m defending here always. The flop comes and I brick, he bets and I fold. Those small pots add up post ante. We lose equity with more players going to flop so I feel like it’s best for me and the limpers if I raise pre. I notice limpers adjusting to this and they start to limp their entire range. I’m only going to raise over limpers with hands that I would raise in that position with my current amount of blinds. It’s a bad habit of getting into. The only time I do limp is under 20bbs and then I limp my entire range and only reshoving never just calling a raise pre. I see some of the high stakes guys open limp but I think they have a well balanced range and their post flop game is probably absolute.

 

[Datdude1]

I think that you have to be cautious with limpers because they may be trying to slow play cards. I try to play every hand like players are trying to trap me because in the end they are.

 

[BentleyBoy]

Great Article once again CardsChat: Thank you.

Limping is an interesting subject and it is even more interesting when you actively assess the amount of limping taking place in a game, whether it's a tournament, SNG or Cash game.

I think the most important aspect is to acknowledge or recognise why you or others limp. Is it because you think you may be lucky or do you have a strategy. Simply limping through habit will never be profitable in the long term, although you may get lucky occasionally.

I always think the worst thing you can do, is limp and allow there BB to see the flop without contributing anything else to the pot.... in this situation you have no idea at all what the BB has and his chance of being successful on the flop (or even bluffing the flop) is immense as you have absolutely no info on his hand.

So.... the bottom line is ...HAVE A PLAN for your limp.

BB

 

[gaguilu]

limpers

the adversaries who only complete the bets, only make us bet bet higher and we lose a lot of chips, my advice, do not play until the middle of the tournament, after this phase ends this practice of completing the bb

 

[DiegoRamos]

Excellent article
I especially love playing at a table where there are several limpers, as I will be deep very fast and I will be able to explore more players more easily. No tips today, because players playing limp apply to help me win the tournament =)

 

[Bozovicdj]

I often bet over limpers because I am usually doing it in position, so even if I get called, I can adjust my play properly post flop..
I would advise not to isolate over limpers in case you see UTG limping. 5-10 years ago this was a genuine strategy when you hit a monster hand UTG like AA where players would limp, hoping to see a bet or iso, so that they could shove it in or 3-bet, and I have seen similar plays today as well so be careful with that one..

Also, I have to recommend to players NOT to limp. It is really the worse possible thing someone can do, especially in MTTs.. Honestly, majority of the players on CC limp and that is a huge flaw in their game.

I only hope many will read this strategy article and take note of this line:
"The players who open limp tend to be the weak players."

 

[Andrew Popov]

Poker is good with perfect solutions for all situations. Sometimes you have to isolate a limper, but sometimes you have to be a limper yourself to exploit it.

Preflop raise makes postflop play easier, that's right. But it is also true that it makes it even more expensive.

 

[AzdajaD]

Great article!
Sometimes limping range is different, sometimes open-limp with AK because is double edged sword, sometimes will limp with KK to make a trap...sometimes limp with any 2 card, just to see a flop...but, behind limping is great speculation!

 

[GRIN281289]

I continue to play my game until a good map appears, then you can put 5 bb. We must be careful and do not forget that the poker room can work wonders

 

[sergik1992]

Thank you for another good article! The information in this article isn`t new for me, but practice makes perfect. It`s very important to isolate limpers, when you are holding strong hand, but you have to be carefull, because limper often can have all range of hands (including monsterhands). So the best way to do right isolate is learning your opponents.

 

[PHX]

Great article I agree with most of what is in the article. I love isolating especially when in position I do it a lot often more than most. The main aim of isolating is to get those pesky blinds to fold by not giving a good price and playing headsup against a player you can out play. Most times don't need much a hand once we are relatively deep. The best part of isolating is you can do if you can do it with junk a couple of times when you actually get a big hand you can play it exactly the same way, you get more value from your bigger hands that way.

 

[Rijckenborg]

Limping player trapped me a lot of time.
I also trapped others by doing the same things.
I will be more cautious and watch for those red flags.

 

[Miguel Chacon]

hehe I like and laugh how this is so true I notice myself those traps in tournaments they are shortstack and just limp I seen lots fall into that even me with this tips I'll be more cautious and also use this strategy to exploit limpers in cash games awesomes article Martin thanks!

 

[vovqa93]

Limps

We don't want to limp, but at some stage of tournaments we want:
1) Trap against aggresive short stackers or just aggresive players, when we have top range
2) In my case very often I need to overlimp with suited Aces into multi=limp pot on micro stakes tournaments
3) Also if you have some shove stack but your table is very passive, it's possible to limp-in with mid-strength cards and then play postflop even multiway. Very rare, but option is ok.

 

[m0t22]

In a way, I believe that the limper tends to be harmful in the long run because you pay to hit and most of the time do not hit, right?Playing against paying players, we may consider increasing our range (linear) to punish the limpers and even play in position, but we need to remember the effectiveness of our stack and also the depth of players' stacks.Is not it good to clean then? Of course there is no absolute answer on anything, but there are some scenarios that we can clean to demonstrate some hand combos and even to induce the opponent to make mistakes, especially when the effectiveness is less than 20blinds. At the same time we need to have the emotional capacity to punish some limpers and not hit the flop with our range, we can consider a hand and continue to survive in the tournament.always remember the stacks' effectiveness.