open limping

Amanda A

Amanda A

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Do you ever open a pot by limping? Is this ever a good move or always a weak play?
 
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BIGAUS

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While I feel some people will say you should never do this, I sometimes do if I have a starting hand that is playable but not enough to be worth raising it up, especially if the rest of the table is more aggressive. If this means I have a playable hand and can get to see the flop for cheap and possibly hit, I'll take betting a little to maybe win big and folding with little cost if need be.
 
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wizcup

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While I feel some people will say you should never do this, I sometimes do if I have a starting hand that is playable but not enough to be worth raising it up, especially if the rest of the table is more aggressive. If this means I have a playable hand and can get to see the flop for cheap and possibly hit, I'll take betting a little to maybe win big and folding with little cost if need be.

If you open limp, let's say with decent hands. What would you do if someone raise it? Would you fold or cold call? If it depends on your hand, with what kind of hands would you fold? This is in assumption that the table is more aggressive as they will raise you a lot if you limp.
 
stylebender72

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It is always a fishy play. If you open limp you are a fish. If you over limp you are a fish. End of discussion. =)
 
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fundiver199

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In tournaments with antes I open limp from the small blind seat, since it allow me to play far more hands and contain for those dead chips. Otherwise I never do it.
 
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ledris

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I limp in 2 cases. Firstly when I have a playable but not strong hand amd secondly when I want to trap with a monster by reraising the person will choose to raise me!
 
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xrhstos

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It is a strategy that you can implement and even professional poker players mix some limping in their tournament game when they have less than a 25 big blinds stack.
Recreational players usually limp only Aces, Kings for value and every other hand that they limp is very weak, which makes playing against them very easy.
The important thing about limping is to mix in some good hands along with the suited connectors and weak pairs that most people limp.
Raising is mostly the better option to just win the blinds preflop, but limping is also a valid strategy if played correctly.
 
Vorem

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my opinion is a bad game. There is no reason why you should limp
 
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ramignis

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in most cases, this is a weak game. the exception is if you play one on one or you have a small stack and provoke your opponent to go all in when you have AA.
 
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1player2

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Do you ever open a pot by limping? Is this ever a good move or always a weak play?



Thank you for your post. The only hand I am willing to do this with is AA from early position. The limp re-raise seems to get me the most value from the best starting hand ever created. Besides AA it seems like a bad play because you will usually see at least a 3bet from players in position and you will have to fold or over invest in a mediocre starting hand. If you limp Ak and nobody raises then you have many players taking a flop and you won't know how strong your hand is in a multiway pot. In my opinion it's a bad idea. Maybe some others have better strategies for this play. Good Luck.


Good Luck To All:cool:
 
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valetgll

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I do this with an average card and small pocket pairs up to 10 10. In the case of a big raise, I can always fold the card.
 
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BIGAUS

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If you open limp, let's say with decent hands. What would you do if someone raise it? Would you fold or cold call? If it depends on your hand, with what kind of hands would you fold? This is in assumption that the table is more aggressive as they will raise you a lot if you limp.


Guess it depends on what tier of a starting hand I feel it is. If it's a weaker decent hand and the bet is 3x or more, then it'd be a fold. But a better decent hand that I would limp with, that could be the time to either cold call or raise over. If I also feel like I've gotten some sense of a raise on the player's tendencies that may impact how I act in these situations.
 
Luvepoker

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Personally I never open limp into the pot. Is it a bad play? I tend to thing that way bit there is always a time to do everything and I can say there is a probably good time to limp. It should be just a rare occasion though.
 
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pauloandre100

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This is relative. It will depend on how the table is behaving. This can be a tool to apply during the game.









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300HPGOD

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Open limping from the SB is fine but that is really not what you are asking. I think you are talking about anywhere not in the blinds. I would not advise doing it unless you have the perfect setup which would include non good aggressive players behind you along with a very strong holding. Your objective here would be to limp knowing that 80% of time or more one of the non good aggressive players behind will raise and you can then re-raise them. That is probably asking a lot so it is just better to go ahead and raise to begin with as they might 3 bet you anyway in the situation I mentioned.

Also to note, dont get in the habit of open limping with small pairs as it becomes transparent. Most of my opening raises are min raises to 2.5BB raise sizes and when I have a small pair (if I decide to play them) I just raise to these amounts. It is not costing me much and to my opponents I could just as easily have pocket 5s and I could have pocket Aces.
 
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tatalarata

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There are some table dynamics and scenarios were limping is fine, just dont over do it (meaning once every 30+ hands), raising/folding is almost always better. Limping with aces I dont like, unless I know someone is raising all the time and calls light.
 
Jon Poker

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Limps are generally weak. Basically what you are asking for is permission to play more hands, invest more money into pots put of position and you will check/folding a ton of these. Yes some people never raise, some people limp monster hands - why?? There isnt an easier way to get your AAs cracked than to limp them, go 5 ways to the flop and then start trying to play them on some weirdly connected board.

In general it's a bad idea. I saw a statement earlier that said "I limp hands that are playable but not quite good enough to raise" - these are called marginal hands and should NOT be limped, they should be folded becausel they are not very strong. By playing them you are burning chips and when you do pair up there's a good chance your kicker is going to be no good.

As a whole, I generally do not limp. It's a weaker strategy and good players will squeeze the hell out of habitual limpers - I am definitely one of those guys lol. If you are limping a ton and folding to most raises, I will start squeezing you until you decide you've had enough.
 
tauri103

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I allow myself to limp in CO position or when I adapt to the playing style of some of my opponents. when I am in the forward position (UTG1 ..). I only do it with a small pair and it depends on the situation because I always prefer to raise min and not limp whatever my hand.
 
Dailon Arroyo Blandon

Dailon Arroyo Blandon

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Doing "Limp" is a strategy that some players use .... it could be good or bad, some work well for others, not .... in my personal case I don't like to use it, I don't feel comfortable ...!
 
Dalyn

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Beginner players do a lot of "Limp" and for me, I never do that.
 
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DoIHaveAFlush

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I limp in 2 cases. Firstly when I have a playable but not strong hand amd secondly when I want to trap with a monster by reraising the person will choose to raise me!



Same with me! This trick is especially valueable, if you already know that this Person is playing aggressively (i.e. raising with a loose range).

In General, I think limping shouldn't be done too often, but sometimes it's ok.
The over-arching Goal should be to Keep your opponents guessing what you might have and in order to achieve this, you Need to balance your game! Limp with strong Hands, raise with strong Hands; re-raise with mediocre Hands, re-raise with strong Hands; just now when it is likely that you come through with your bluff, and when it is better to fold.
 
jadaminato

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I am surprised that there are people who say that limp with weak hands ir with aces, to make a reraise in the last case. Chances are that most opponents will either fold against a limp-raise, or at leats act suspiciously.
And limp with hands that aren't strong for a raise ... what hands would those be? 54s at UTG? You can open it and at least bluff it if the flop is favorable to your range.
I know that in the small blind, mixing limp with raises allows us to play more hands, but from other positions I don't see almost many opportunities for this "strategy", that also seems very face-up to me.
 
rj_montana

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I almost never open limp. I often overlimp with pocket pairs and suited connectors.

I sometimes open limp with premiums from early position where there are multiple players with 3-7 bb stacks. The reason I make this exception is that often one of the short stacks jams and then a player in late position or the blinds will go all in over the top with a marginal hand such as A 10 trying to isolate the small stack shover.
 
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