Do you ever open limp?

[ZeroPointMachine]

I absolutely never open limp into a pot. If nobody has raised or limped before me I will fold or raise 2.5-4BB. My opening standards are slightly more aggressive than Harrington's "conservative". I do occasionally complete from the SB if it is folded around.

Should there be a place in my game for open limping?

[mrh86]

Nevermind

[fnurt]

Absolutely yes.

The thinking behind always coming in with a raise is to stop the blinds from getting a free flop. But this has to be balanced against the advantages of keeping the pot small. When you raise preflop, you create a bigger pot, meaning you need to make a bigger continuation bet, and you spend more money on every street. You make more when you win, but you have less room to maneuver, and you find yourself making tough decisions that can cost you your entire stack instead of a fraction of it.

Remember this as well: Many hands (pairs, suited connectors) are playable chiefly because of their implied odds. For example, with 89s, you won't win as many pots, but the ones you do win will be larger. With a hand like that, you want to see a cheap flop. If you spend a lot before the flop, then your implied odds go way down for those times when you do hit your hand. Of course, if you always raise with high cards, and limp with speculative hands, that's way too obvious, so you need to mix it up a bit.

[betgo]

There are a lot of times when it is a good play. If other people are limping a lot and you have a speculative hand. An open limp from early position allows you to stay in the hand and react to the action in front of you. If people are coming over top of limpers and you are playing for a limpraise. It can often be good to limp when people suspect you of having a big pair.

The first limper often has initiative after the flop similar to a preflop raiser. You can often pick the pot up on the flop, particularly against just the blinds, where you have position and momentum.

If you have an M or 6 to 9 and you have a good hand in early position, but raising would make you pot committed. From the button or the CO, generally with a speculative hand, if the players ahead of you are weak/tight or will pay off big if you hit. I don't like to open complete much from the SB, but you don't always want to raise being out of position.

The is kind of like "I ain't". People would say "He ain't and she ain't", etc., which was not proper English. So all these nitty English teachers said, "ain't ain't good." So now there is no contraction for "I am not."

[Ogre]

i do it early with the small blinds and i limp reraise sometimes

[CountDuckula]

[ QUOTE ]
The is kind of like "I ain't". People would say "He ain't and she ain't", etc., which was not proper English. So all these nitty English teachers said, "ain't ain't good." So now there is no contraction for "I am not."

[/ QUOTE ]

"I'm not". If you're willing to accept "I ain't" as a contraction for "I am not", then why not "I'm not"? Same # of words and letters.

Apologies for the thread hijack. I'll shut up now. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

-Mike
(nitty about English, but not a teacher)

I do it even with big hands (AK, QQ, etc). Screws up my opponents' perception of my hand range. Great for getting more bets into the pot.

[ZeroPointMachine]

[ QUOTE ]
Absolutely yes.

The thinking behind always coming in with a raise is to stop the blinds from getting a free flop. But this has to be balanced against the advantages of keeping the pot small. When you raise preflop, you create a bigger pot, meaning you need to make a bigger continuation bet, and you spend more money on every street. You make more when you win, but you have less room to maneuver, and you find yourself making tough decisions that can cost you your entire stack instead of a fraction of it.

Remember this as well: Many hands (pairs, suited connectors) are playable chiefly because of their implied odds. For example, with 89s, you won't win as many pots, but the ones you do win will be larger. With a hand like that, you want to see a cheap flop. If you spend a lot before the flop, then your implied odds go way down for those times when you do hit your hand. Of course, if you always raise with high cards, and limp with speculative hands, that's way too obvious, so you need to mix it up a bit.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the input.

Balance is what I'm trying to find. My style used to be something best decribed as goofy LAG. My results have gotten much better, but the pendulum seems to have swung too far. I understand the arguements for keeping the pot small and maximizing implied odds. This has to be balanced against the fold equity you give up and the possibility of losing more chips to a hand that would never have been involved. Nothing pegs my tilt-o-meter like losing a big pot to somebody who got to see a free flop.

[CardSharpCook]

is there another way to play aces?

[betgo]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]


The is kind of like "I ain't". People would say "He ain't and she ain't", etc., which was not proper English. So all these nitty English teachers said, "ain't ain't good." So now there is no contraction for "I am not."


[/ QUOTE ]

"I'm not". If you're willing to accept "I ain't" as a contraction for "I am not", then why not "I'm not"? Same # of words and letters.


[/ QUOTE ]

"I ain't" used to be the correct contraction for "I am not", but it was overused and misused. I don't want to argue about English, but if you research the matter, you will find that I am correct.

Similarly, limping is overused and misused by loose passive players who want to see a flop like in penny poker night baseball. However, that doesn't mean limping is always a bad play.