Is open limping ever OK?

[toffer]

I've been playing 5/10 for a couple months now and have been lurking on this forum even longer. (Finally, I've decided it's time to become active on the forum!)

One of the things that has surprised me the most about moving up to 5/10 6max from the 3/6 full ring games is the huge amount of preflop open limping I see. I expected 5/10 to be much more aggressive. For my own play, if I'm the first one in, I've been either raising or folding, only limping behind 1 or preferably 2 early limpers.

But, I see open limping so much, I've got to ask: Is open limping ever OK? If so, when?

[wheelz]

It's probably OK, but never best.

Some people will argue that you should do it on the button with real tenacious blind defenders, but... I like to raise.

[Joe826]

as a general rule, you wouldn't be making any huge mistakes if you never open limped.

however, there are some situations when it's correct. last night i opened limped in MP with 33 on a very loose passive 10/20 table (which is generally a rarity). i'd do the same thing with higher suited connectors in similar situations. in general, these are situations where you're very sure you're going to get called by several players if you raise, but your hand has more value if you can see the flop for only one SB.

this doesn't happen very often.

[stigmata]

Like Joe said, it's definately correct on very loose passive tables (e.g. most 1/2, many 5/10, some 10/20 tables) with small/medium pocket pairs, so that you are getting good implied odds on flopping a set. I also do it with medium suited connectors sometimes, but I think this could be borderline.

HEPFAP says that you can limp (rather than blind steal) with Ax type hands against loose-tenacious defenders, but nobody seems to do this. I think it might be worth experimenting with though, as against this type of player you probably have more fold equity if he thinks you aren't stealing.