Raising before you enter a hand

[ph_il]

This raising or folding strategy is not great at all, in my opinion. It might work at medium or high stakes, but in small/microstakes or freerolls is just going to make you lose money. The whole reasoning behind your strategy is the theoretical fold equity, without it you end up raising with marginal hands and throwing away playable hands for no reason.

By not limping in too often and coming with a raise more means you're being selective with the hands you play. This means you aren't bleeding chips when you're in situations where you limp/fold preflop or limp/call/fold post flop with weaker hands.

If stacks are deep, you can definitely open up your limp/call range a bit, but as blinds increase, limping in too often is a losing play.

On top of that, by not bleeding chips with lots of limp/folding, you preserve more of your stack. So, in situations where you do have a big hand that holds, your pots earned are greater. For example, let's say you limp/folded too much in the mid stages and you were down to 20 BBs before you doubled up to 40. Had you not tried to limp in too often, you could've possibly had a 40 BB stack that doubled up to 80 BBs.

That's not saying you'll never win huge pots by limping in sometimes preflop. They're just not going to win enough to where is a solid play.

 

[ViolentID]

I am a bit curious why I see so many limpers playing poker these days? I only limp on rare circumstances. If I can't raise to enter the pot I don't like to play my hand. When I do raise the limpers often end up like calling station and call with their limping hands. That is when on fourth street or the river I get sucked out on. The only solution some times is to just pray. Does anyone else feel the same?

I agree with you completely. If its good enough to call its good enough to raise. Great advice!

 

[Tatomircg]

I am a bit curious why I see so many limpers playing poker these days? I only limp on rare circumstances. If I can't raise to enter the pot I don't like to play my hand. When I do raise the limpers often end up like calling station and call with their limping hands. That is when on fourth street or the river I get sucked out on. The only solution some times is to just pray. Does anyone else feel the same?

not true....people call sometimes anything...if the blinds are small....ussualy at beginning...when the blinds go up and get big.....and u call lets say with 9 2 ...and u put 1 third off ur chips in....that means u play for nothing poker

 

[bstest]

After all these years, I still limp from any position with colored suited connectors. I've gotten very over confident in my post flop play. Generally the flop kills me and I just wasted some chips and exposed myself to a raise that I may not call. It's bad buy I often get bored and think I'm the luckiest guy at the table.

 

[bstest]

After all these years, I have reverted to limping with colored suited connectors from any position. I open myself up to folding immediately after bad flops and pre flop raises. However, I often get bored and play them thinking I'm the luckiest guy at the table.

 

[Martin Carreira]

Raising before you enter a hand
I am a bit curious why I see so many limpers playing poker these days? I only limp on rare circumstances. If I can't raise to enter the pot I don't like to play my hand. When I do raise the limpers often end up like calling station and call with their limping hands. That is when on fourth street or the river I get sucked out on. The only solution some times is to just pray. Does anyone else feel the same?

 

[rigor mortis]

The reason many players limp from an early position with a good hand is to draw others into the pot, or to find out how many will be coming into it.
The problem I see with raising all the time or not playing in the hand, is that you can be read like a book. You must duck and dive, raise and limp so that nobody can get a good read on your play.

 

[aslanvanacha]

Raising))

yes my friend you right/ it is very uncomfortable to play with people who raisez before enter a hand/ in my oppinion if you have a strong hand you should call)) but do not re-reaise/ by me its a big mistake))) good luck))))

 

[eberetta1]

I think you see so many limpers because they see this on TV or they see this at online casinos, so it is copied behavior.

The reasoning being is if you do not raise going into the hand, you cannot tell if they are going in with junk or a premium hand.

Nice for a game that starts at 100k chips cause u can go in a few hands more than you can a 1500 starting chip game which us lowballers play.

 

[ThinkIllcallUwitha5]

This raising or folding strategy is not great at all, in my opinion. It might work at medium or high stakes, but in small/microstakes or freerolls is just going to make you lose money. The whole reasoning behind your strategy is the theoretical fold equity, without it you end up raising with marginal hands and throwing away playable hands for no reason.

This is a good point, there's close to 0 fold equity in a lot of freerolls in my experience. This cost me a lot of money because, by following the general advice and raising with good hands and then getting callled by all limpers, I was paying money for fold equity that turned out not to exist. Better to spend those chips to leverage my skills once I see some board cards, rather than gambling with a wide variance.

 

[AG04CAS]

I will occasionally limp ep/mp with a monster just for varience.....then reraise anyone who shows interest...other than that i raise it all the way