Reverse Implied Odds?

[W. Deranged]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you limp hands like, KJo, QJo, ATo?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think I play AT and KJ, but probably fold QJ. With no raise coming yet, we're unlikely to be dominated with KJo and ATo (though QJ is probably just too precarious to be worth it). Our odds are great and we have position.

Here's one way to think about these sorts of hands: In a pot with a ton of players, our pre-flop equity is unlikely to be significantly better or worse than many of our opponents. Since the pot is big already, calling is not likely to be either hugely + or - EV at the moment.

BUT, we play better than our opponents! Since pre-flop is sort of a wash, and because we are in good position, limping makes sense because we can anticipate that we are going to be able to play our hands profitably on the post-flop streets, whereas our opponents will generally make mistakes.

Winning players seek to play as many hands as possible that they can profitably. Our ability to play better than our opponents post-flop (which basically means losing the least on our bad hands and winning the most with our good hands) means that with marginal hands like AT and KJ we can play a little bit more loosely in such situations because we can anticipate making up any minor losses we might incur pre-flop (and, note, any losses would be minor and, in fact, might not even be losses!).