Abuse the Limper

[Jason Strasser]

Anyone ever been in a spot like this?

The player directly to my right was a complete idiot. With the blinds 100/200 and up, he'd limp with his average stack when folded to him, and end up folding to raises all the time. His strategy apparently was to see the flop with any two cards, then bet when checked to, in order to win the blinds. A very passive way of stealing the blinds.

Anyway, I began to try the following, the guy to my right is who I call "slug".

Dealt: T9s on the button with blinds 100/200 (stack size 1k). I push after slug limps, blinds fold, slug folds.

I did it again with A9o, and 44. My question to you is what range of hands do you do this with? And would you ever consider raising less than all in? He raised preflop once, and did not show. I assumed he had a very good hand. His stack was about 2k, and my little game with him went on from 6 handed to 3 handed, when I busted in third. I would say the player limped in about 50% of the time, and had managed to steal the blinds about 33% uncontested on the flop.

This post is specific, and opponent dependant, but what do you push with in my shoes? I folded a QTo, and a A3o, afterwords I realized I probably could've been pushing with any 2 cards... Although that seemed to be too risky.

[Prickly Pete]

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but what do you push with in my shoes? I folded a QTo, and a A3o, afterwords I realized I probably could've been pushing with any 2 cards... Although that seemed to be too risky

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I usually note these types, though I've never seen one to that degree. You certainly shouldn't raise allin with any 2 here (not often anyway) as that's no different than raising allin with any 2 any other time of the game. Real hands will call you.

He's basically become a 3rd blind and you should treat him as such, raising allin to steal when you want to play (as it sounds like you did).

[No Nuts]

I wish I found more opponents like this.

But.....to answer your question, I think you can make this play with any two cards. I wouldn't raise all-in, though, because there are times when someone behind you will wake up with a real hand, and you certainly don't want them calling your all-in when you've pushed with 72o. If a 3xBB raise will knock 'slug' out, then go with that.

[JerseyTom]

Also (unless he's clueless) he might get wise to your game and begin limping with premium hands so that he can come back over the top...