$10+1: Help me out, no clue what to do with limpers.

For a long time I played the hands where there was one or more limpers as no-push hands (unless of course a good hand). If SNGPT showed the hand red, I just skipped it when checking hand histories.

Lately I've realized that I'm going to chip out too often if I just wait for open push situation. This is especially true on weekends when there are very loose games. It's no use to going bubble or near with 4xBB when everybody else has over 2000 chips and are loose. They just laugh and call your feeble stealing attempt with almost anything. When looking back these hhs on SNGPT, all the hands are red except something like CO+2 < where pushing is -EV anyways.

So I'm reasoning at these common situations (at 10s) where every hand is contested I just have to choose a hand and push. I'm just having hard time to know what are the situations and SNGPT doesn't help you with limpers on hands.

There are probably not easy answer to question "so, when should I push when there are limper(s)", and it depends on situation.. So here are some situations.

Three sample hands where I tried to adjust when open pushing was close to impossible. What do you think?

#1

***** Hand History for Game 3105180791 *****
NL Texas Hold'em $10 Buy-in + $1 Entry Fee Trny:17777063 Level:4 Blinds(50/100) - Sunday, November 27, 16:50:17 EDT 2005
Table Table 68106 (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 7
Seat 1: Peeig ( $1125 )
Seat 3: saarigeorge ( $470 )
Seat 5: brant321 ( $1920 )
Seat 6: fishman339 ( $1870 )
Seat 8: quinneskimo3 ( $1420 )
Seat 9: I_am_Liquid ( $635 )
Seat 10: pjboozehound ( $560 )
Trny:17777063 Level:4
Blinds(50/100)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to I_am_Liquid [ 3s Ad ]
Peeig folds.
saarigeorge folds.
brant321 folds.
fishman339 calls [100].
quinneskimo3 folds.
I_am_Liquid is all-In.

Fishman was limping almost every hand.

#2

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (8 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx (http://www.zerodivide.cx/converter)

UTG (t1413)
UTG+1 (t1679)
MP1 (t1158)
MP2 (t265)
CO (t205)
Button (t625)
SB (t1805)
Hero (t850)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A/images/graemlins/heart.gif, T/images/graemlins/spade.gif.
UTG calls t100, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, MP1 calls t100, <font color="#666666">3 folds</font>, SB completes, Hero raises [t850]

UTG was megaloose, other limpers where average 10+1s around 30VP$IP.

Maybe I was too hasty to push with 8xBB, but on the other hand, no-one had shown any strength yet in this hand.

#3

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t150 (4 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx (http://www.zerodivide.cx/converter)

BB (t3635)
UTG (t2485)
Button (t1110)
Hero (t770)

Preflop: Hero is SB with J/images/graemlins/spade.gif, A/images/graemlins/club.gif.
<font color="#CC3333">UTG raises to t300</font>, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, Hero raises [t770]

I know that I don't have FE here, but villain was very lag, raising a lots of hands, so I might be ahead here.

Thanks for the help again

- Begs.

[Damian UK]

FWIW - I would do the same with hands 2 and 3 (tho thats prolly why I am still playing this level /images/graemlins/smile.gif)

hand 1 is tricky coz he will prolly call with any two, and your 3 is likely to be behind his 2 'overcards', so you need your ace to stand up and hope he doesn't hit.

With the other two pushes you have to feel you are ahead/or in coin flip territory and given your stack size its time to gamble.

Damian

The last two seem standard to me, given your read on UTG in #3.

I'm not a big fan of the first one, because it's impossible for you to be much of a favorite, and his calling range is huge considering his style and stack.

[durron597]

Hand 1 I would take a flop. I would push A8 or KT.

Hand 2 and 3 I like.

Interesting. Everyone so far thought that hand 1. was bad and 2, 3 ok. When I was posting this I thought that AT BB push was more borderline move than A3 because I was risking bigger stack to more players to look me up.

Is the AT so much better hand than A3 that it makes the push better, or is it the dead money already in the pot with AT?

.. or do I actually have less FE in A3 hand?

[ QUOTE ]
Is the AT so much better hand than A3 that it makes the push better, or is it the dead money already in the pot with AT?

[/ QUOTE ]

Both. AT is about my cutoff point for pwning limpers. Ocassionally someone will have limped a monster or a better ace. But weaker aces call frequently, as will smaller pairs. Both of those villain hands will be favored against A3, but dogs or races against AT. The dead money more than makes up for the times you're against an underpair.

[ QUOTE ]
.. or do I actually have less FE in A3 hand?

[/ QUOTE ]

Against a loose player, your FE in hand #1 is very small, because villain will still have a decent stack even if he loses. That's his thought process, though not necessarily the right one.