Limping vs raising from UTG

[Arnfinn Madsen]

When playing No Limit Tourneys with stack above ~ 25BB I have stopped raising from UTG. I have found that limping and thus being able to fold or reraise or call an eventual raise gives me better EV and disguises my cards (I still have almost as strict opening requirements as I would have with raising but include also some suited connectors and i.e. A9 suited).

Anybody else tried this?

[TheTimeIsUp]

This is majorly weak/tight. This is beyond that. You are pretty much taking all of the aggression out of your game. Yuck.

[Arnfinn Madsen]

[ QUOTE ]
This is majorly weak/tight. This is beyond that. You are pretty much taking all of the aggression out of your game. Yuck.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just in UTG-position (and only 9-10 handed). I still play aggressively in other position and after the flop.

[Jdanz]

i agree, but i've also started limping more from utg with tens and ak type stuff that really needs the right kind of flop to play post flop, but can call a pretty decent raise but not a re-raise.

[TheTimeIsUp]

This still is a big flaw. Not raising with AK utg is horrible.

[Jdanz]

hmm, interesting

[Scooterdoo]

[ QUOTE ]
This still is a big flaw. Not raising with AK utg is horrible.

[/ QUOTE ]

Funny story about this exact thing (at least funny for me). I'm in a 2k NL event at the LA Poker Classic. I'm in the bb, early in tournament, blinds are around 50/100. UTG limps, 6 folds, sb completes, I look down at QJs. I raise to 300 hoping to take it down. UTG raises me to about 800. I think about this for quite some time. I have seen the guy before and know he's aggressive. We both have another 2k or so left -- him a bit more than me. I can't get my hands around a hand that he would limp in a 9 handed table from early position and then re-raise me. I finally conclude that the only hands he will call a push by me are AA, KK, QQ, AK, maybe but not likely JJ or TT and I just cannot believe that he would have limped UTG with any of these hands so he must be making a play at me thinking that I'm making a play at the pot... so I push. He calls and turns over AK! I hit a J and beat him. He's furious and cannot believe I would push with QJ. I tell him that if he would have raised UTG I would have clearly folded to his re-raise, so he got exactly the action he was looking for by disguising his AK.

[Crooked Paul]

Dude, I love it when I have a good enough hand to raise UTG. Especially if you have a good table image, any player who's paying attention will fold a marginal hand here because they know you're not trying to pick up the blinds with a mediocre hand UTG. You can get lots of hands that might suck out on you (K10, QJ, J10, even low pocket pairs) to fold right away. It's a great play. Why do you eschew it?

I swear to god I just raised UTG with AJs as I type this. All but two players folded. Hit an ace on the flop and bet half the pot. I wound up losing to some douche who made a set of 2s on the turn (what was he doing calling two bets with 22?!), but it's still the best move IMO.


Crooked