[Pokey]

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pokey is unlike most of us and advocates open limping. nothing surprising. if it works for him, then by all means...

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Well, let me explain a bit more.

First of all, I'm making two important assumptions which I really should clarify:

1. The table is relatively loose and relatively passive.
2. The open-limper is a good postflop player with discipline and skill.

If these assumptions are true then open-limping is just fine with a speculative hand. The "passive" characteristic means that you're likely to see the flop on the cheap. The "loose" characteristic means that you're still likely to get paid off big-time if you hit your monster. The "disciplined" characteristic means that you're capable of escaping from TPNK-type hands. The "skilled" characteristic means that you're capable of extracting the extra money on the table when you connect.

There are three primary benefits to raising a speculative hand preflop:

1. To build folding equity for when you miss, giving you a second way to win. At a loose table, that's not as important a feature.

2. To start building a pot so that when you connect you can extract mucho dinero. At a loose table, that's again not as important a feature.

3. To disguise your other holdings and extract more value when you raise with a true monster. At a table with bad opponents that also won't be as important.

I'm willing to sacrifice these benefits in exchange for the absolutely insanely good implied odds that limping gets me. There's nothing like getting 130 times your preflop investment when you hit a monster in a limped pot and STILL get paid off on your all-in....

If those assumptions don't hold then open-limping isn't really a good choice. However, relative to the $400NL tables, those assumptions hold.