Limping with Aces - Good examples?

[PokrLikeItsProse]

TJ Cloutier has written a bit about the idea of a play called "second hand low" where you have a limper in early position and you limp behind him as the second player in the pot when you have an aggressive player behind you who likes to raise, with the idea being that you sometimes reraise that player. While he might put you on aces if you limp to open the pot, it can be harder to put you on aces when you are the second limper. He might have described such a play in his hold em book; if not, I am sure there are examples out there.

[AKQJ10]

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In most online games, if someone fires out 8xbb from UTG, they're usually going to just pick up the blinds.

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I know I'm repeating myself, but in a live $1-2 game it would be no surprise whatsoever to fold hands for an hour and have my raise to $15 with AA called three ways. Occasionally they catch on and don't give action, but then lo and behold they pick up a "monster" like KTs and can't help themselves.

When I'm short-stacked the loose calls are even more fun.

[Vicarious]

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If more than half of the players see every flop (historically), I limp. The more callers I get, the more likely I'll get a very huge pot in return. If fewer than 1/3 of players see the flop (historically again), I raise 3-4x.

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I think this is going to hurt in the long run.

In the first case, you're allowing for a big multiway pot without charging anyone, and that's a bad mistake. Even on a flop like 972 rainbow, you have no way to know if your hand is best - you can't rule out anything since you didn't raise. this is compounded when you're facing a bunch of limpers.

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Sorry, I should have been more clear. I was speaking of being at a table with a bunch of loose-aggressive types who will raise the pot for me.

If I don't know there will be bets behind me, I would bet.

[TC Franks]

Obviously none of the posters here would do this but ...

If you limp with aces and get cracked, please refrain from complaining afterward!

[CBat28]

Limping with aces in the small blind could work if would be heads up against the BB. Also, I've found that limping with monsters in very early position (UTG or UTG+1) at a very aggressive full table can result in a raise later, and then a reraise by yours truely. Only problem with that is, if there is no raise, you could be seeing a flop with 5 others.

[AKQJ10]

Exactly, that's one pro and con of limp/reraising your big hands. The other con is that people will pretty much put you on AA or KK so you may as well turn your hand over, unless you balance by limp-reraising 66 or AJs occasionally.

[SplawnDarts]

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Exactly, that's one pro and con of limp/reraising your big hands. The other con is that people will pretty much put you on AA or KK so you may as well turn your hand over, unless you balance by limp-reraising 66 or AJs occasionally.

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An excellent point - the preflop NL check-raise simply has AA/KK written all over it. I think your PF raising strategy in NL has to have no direct correlation to your hand contents. As Slansky suggest, you can "shade" a bit to the right size based on your hand, but mostly it should be sized based on pot size, position, and previous action.

[AKQJ10]

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I think your PF raising strategy in NL has to have no direct correlation to your hand contents.

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I wouldn't quite go that far. I'm not raising 83o as often as AKo. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Actually I'm not reraising it at all, because I can get better semibluff value from AJs or 66 if my opponents are savvy enough to lay down AQ or 99.

But you certainly need to be conscious of your opponents and, in good Level 2 style, what you think they think you have.