Good situational limp of a suited gapper, or just fooling myself?

[Wright Patterson]

Live 4/8 at a local club. Two seats to my right is an extremely passive, naive beginner who typically will call the flop and turn with absolute zip, but often fold a weak pair on the river if you bet at him; to my immediate left is a steamy loose raiser who ALWAYS pays off no matter what and who I feel I have an excellent read on.

I'm in early position, third in. The loose, naive beginner limps; so does the player after him, so it's two limpers to me. I see I have 75 of clubs. I also notice that my steamy friend on the left is loading up chips to raise, and I pause a second to think: my hand is cheese, but if I hit a good flop I'm absolutely sure of getting full value. Moreover I don't have to hope just for a straight or flush - given how loose this guy's raising standards are, and that I feel I can read him well, I have additional pair outs I wouldn't normally have, depending on whether I have a chance to manipulate things post-flop to get head-up with the raiser.

So I go ahead and limp and as expected, he raises. No one else calls so we go four way to the flop. To cut to the chase, I flop a double belly-buster, turn the straight, and my raise and river bet are both paid off by the steamer. He may already have been steaming, but now he's on full-blown tilt, muttering to himself about how loose I am to limp such a hand early, and to chase a "gutshot" on the flop (he doesn't understand the concept of a double-gutshot).

My question is, was there any value whatsoever to my extra-tricky limp - or was I fooling myself that the special situation justified it? How about the fact there was no guarantee that his raise would chase out enough players that I could get the potential to isolate on the flop that I was looking for?

[sublime]

Save your loose limps for the button

So I go ahead and limp and as expected, he raises.

If you know it is going to be raised behind you you need to tighten your reqs up. Not loosen them [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

[rigoletto]

You where fooling yourself. 75s is a very weak holding and you are not going to hit the flop often enough. Expecting a raise just makes your decision worse! If you want to get money out of a LAG on your left, you should limp some GOOD hands and let him raise for you!

[sthief09]

having to pay 2 bets with a suited connector/gap is a terrible situation. you want to get in as cheaply as possible and have good position. you have neither.

[MRBAA]

This is a much better play for one bet as CO or button. You overpaid for a hand that won't win often enough to make up for your likely negative pot equity preflop.

However, your perception that the EP limpers and the raiser could also be on very weak hands and would play badly and predictably after the flop does make the situation better, just not quite good enough.

[MoreWineII]

Well said. I think your head is in the right place but you probably should have waited for a better opportunity to make good on your reads.

[Aces McGee]

The best part of this post is that the poster keeps referring to his opponent as "steamy."

-McGee