Why do people call/re-raise preflop?

I have only experienced this a few times so far in my young poker career, and my first instinct is that it's a completely silly play. Since I've experienced it, I've noticed it come up in a few of the hands posted in here. I just can't understand why a thinking poker player would ever do this. I couldn't find anything about it in SSHE.

Can someone please enlighten me as to if this is ever actually +EV? Is there ever a situation where this play makes sense or is it pretty much just a boneheaded move?

[BoogerFace]

Actually, this is mentioned in SSHE in the preflop section. (I was reading this during lunch.)

Some people are afraid to raise monsters like AA in early position because they are afraid everyone behind might fold - or they are idiots who like to gambooool.

[SnglMaltScotch]

I have a very simple rule:

"Do not slow play preflop"!!!

It has served me well.

As for call/reraise, I don't think that it is +EV unless there is a maniac at the table that you know will raise.

I would imagine that people limp with monsters thinking that they're luring victims in, but once they realize that a few of their opponents like their hands, they figure it's time to spring to life. I've seen AA and KK played like this a few times, but I doubt anyone here will suggest that limping with those hands is advisable. Sometimes the limp/re-raise comes from a maniac with a weak hand who just likes brewing action. I believe I read somewhere in the SS forum that a limp/re-raise is a monster only 1/3 times, based on a player's large PT database.

For rational players, the only time I can see it is in a multiway pot in which the raise is for equity value. So I may limp with QJs UTG, but if there's a raise right behind me, and five cold calls including the blinds, I might as well raise it up to pull down a huge pot when I hit. So against a donk the limp/re-raise could mean anything, and against a thinking player it probably means a hand with high speculative value.

Edit: Found it.

[Abbaddabba]

There are a lot of really bad poker players out there.

Limp-raising, relative to many things they do, is fairly insignificant.

It's not good, but it's not terrible.

When you see people do this though, you can usually narrow their range of hands down. Especially if it's NL. If it's limit, people become erratic with strange things.

There is a time and a place for it, mind you. For example, if the table is loose, which justifies you open limping with a variety of hands including lowish suited broadways to low to mid pocket pairs (say, 7's or JQs)... if (for one reason or another) it gets folded ot the blinds and one of the blinds raises, you can justify 3betting.

[car ramrod]

The problem is that it's hard to tell. My experience is it is usually a really good hand that they were afraid to raise with as to not scare away people. Or it is someone who is mad b/c when they limp it gets raised on them, so they think, what the heck, I might as well raise again.

It is dependant on lots of things. Be on the look out for big hands. Also, look at who is doing it, is he low stacked? is he frustrated and running bad? Sometimes it is just out of frustation, sometimes it is a big hand.

[WalkAmongUs]

the only time I ever limp/reraise is when I have AA or KK on the button and its folded to me and the blinds are tight. I might call to lure one of them in if I can.

the only other time I do this is if I find myself in EP in a REALLY tight game with AA or KK where an EP raise almost always results in winning the blinds. Its fun to do in these games because you get to surprise TAGs who think they're smart by raising to get heads up with a limper. You then proceed to pwn them.

[Abbaddabba]

[ QUOTE ]
the only time I ever limp/reraise is when I have AA or KK on the button and its folded to me and the blinds are tight. I might call to lure one of them in if I can.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ha. You're one of those douchebags?

That's the worst time you can conceivably limp with aces/kings. Just raise, for [censored] sake.

I cant help but laugh when people who do this bitch and moan when i make some retarded ass two pair from the blinds with a sub-marginal hand to take down their slowplayed overpair.

I personally never use this play, but a lot of people will LRR aces or kings in full ring when they are UTG or UTG+1 to trap. This only works at an aggressive table with lots of preflop raising, where you know you'll get a chance to 3-bet; in other words you have to be sure someone is going to raise so it's not just 1 bet to play preflop. The idea is to get limpers, then trap them into cold calling 2 more bets before the flop.

IMO this reasoning is stupid; if the table is alreayd laggin it up, you don't need to LRR to get action on a big hand. They'll cold call and 3-bet with the same hands they'll limp and raise with anyway.

Hope this clears up some confusion,
Steve

P.S. In my experience (aka small sample size) I have only seen people do this with AA or KK. I'd be on the lookout if I were you; this is where PT and a HUD come in handy.

I might do this from EP with a hand that plays especially well multi-way, like J-10s. So I limp in from EP but if it's back to me with a raise and five or six-handed I might re-raise. The idea is if you connect on the flop you could win a monster pot against something like A-A or K-K, and if you don't connect it's easy to get away from the hand.