How afraid of limpers should I be

[BarryLyndon]

Bonds post on "position" is nice and sweet and all well and good, but let's face it, even with 40BB at 50/100 and what not, it is almost INEVITABLE that you are going to be at a table where one player limps before you in the button these days. It can come from UTG, MP, MP1, it can come from a habitual limper, or just someone who doesn't care. How do you adjust for this in terms of hand range. Basically, hands that I love open raising with from late, like Q10, K10, 109s, etc., I find myself folding because the limper flat out scares me. I know he's gonna call near to 100% of the time and I'm going to be clueless postflop, even if he checks, because my cont. bet success percentage has sucked lately. Do I have to 2-bet on turns more on dry boards? I'm a little confused.

Barry

[hamnegger]

just call . let your position work for you. assess the action /stength of your hand/ texture of board and make a decision.if its raised by blinds preflop you can call suited multiway or fold

[2p2J]

It all depends on the situation but generally from exp. early limper's usually have a small PP or big PP. I generally take the same action as you when I see this ( tighten up my requirment) maybe this is the wrong play since yes people do limp with weak hands in bad position. Like hamneg said if I have a hand worth seeing a flop then I let position, the board and other players actions decide the hand.

[stevematador]

It's funny Barry that you ask this question because this is the exact thing I've been struggling with lately. It seems as you stated every freaking time I have a marginal hand ready to raise with, someone limps in front. The thing that has been killing me lately is all the AA KK limpers lately, it seems to be at an all time high that people are limping monsters and I get sucked right into the trap.

I hate calling with QJ, Q10, KJ, K10, etc. because it seems lately, even when I hit my hand TP etc., the limper is slowplaying me with AA or KK and I go busto by the river. And as you said Barry, if I raise they call 100% of the time and I face a tough decision on the flop. I've been leaning toward folding these hands lately if someone limps in front, I don't even bother calling anymore. Lately I think I've been incorrectly fearing the early position limpers due to the shear number of times I've been burned by AA, KK, limping on me lately. It's almost as if I always assume they have a monster lately, SIGH!!! [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[erc007]

I think u have to tighten up your LP raising stds obv, but one thing that u can do is limp behind esp from CO and Button (with hands like the ones u mentioned.) This exploits his play, and makes it much tougher for OOP players to raise. If you're decent postflop, u have a pretty big edge here, since these limpers usually play too many hands and are very passive postflop.

[jchauvin]

i never give limpers any credit at low stakes. i raise more hands from button/co when someone limps with any medium sized stack or bigger. this works the majority of the time.

[black666]

Why would you want to create a big pot with a trouble hand when you are almost certain that you are getting called?
If you feel like it, limp behind and use your position as an advantage.

Raising trouble hands only makes sense against villains who have a fold button.

[BarryLyndon]

I guess so. But, I hate limping with marginal hands, I'm a "raise or gtfo" player unless I have suited connectors in nice multiways. However, I guess I just have to put limping on the button/CO after the first hour into my arsenal. Trying to bluff/semibluff into what usually becomes 3 - 4 players proves to be very hard for me, though, and more often than not, I have no a [censored] clue what to do by the turn. Live and learn, I guess.

Barry

[CobraGoat]

One of the best notes i take throughout MTTs is: limp caller/limp folder and the slight variations between. If the guy is a weak tighty, raise tons of stuff up (esp. since you nkow you are likely getting a fold from the limper and your raise looks that much stronger to the blinds). if its a laptard usually fold. also, i hate ever limping behind later in tourney cuz blinds so often raise...even at small stakes.

[ChipSpeak]

I just sent off a PM last night to address this as it's turning into a leak for me. It was pointed out, I'm prolly running bad which only brings on poor decisions out of frustration. Not getting paid on our hits and having strong position raised hands cbets blown off on rag flops gets aggravating. I think it takes a different mindset and level of patience to overcome a table full of donks open limping the 1000/2000 levels on our button w 30bb's.