Limping UTG!!!

[KRE8R]

No reason to play this hand. Just fold it. Everyone at NL10 is a station anyway.

[Spanky1974]

[ QUOTE ]
I have conflicting answers here.... I like the one that says raise it or fold it... Can I get more opinion from soemoen who can give ma straight answer???

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Raise or fold. If you think you can make money at this table with this hand, raise it up. Default play for a learning player would be to fold in EP. I don't think either play makes too much difference in a vacuum.

[jerryf1914]

the straight answer for 10nl is that you should limp this hand sometimes and fold it the rest of the time.

[TheRenaissance]

There is only one correct answer to this question:
It depends.

Most of the advice in this thread so far seem to be based on pretty simple rule-of-thumb thinking, ie 'I has hand x in position y so I must always do z'. The truth is that all options are open to you - fold, raise, limp. It depends. To the people that say always raise/fold, try thinking of a situation where limping in utg actually might be a good option.

[Khumalo]

I'm having a difficult time thinking of a situation where limping Q10s UTG is a good option six-handed.

To the OP, I recommend considering a raise with this hand when first to act only if a few conditions are met.

1) The table climate is favorable. This can mean several things: tight-passive players who will give you their blinds easily, one or two loose-weak players who call you but fold a lot of flops to your c-bets, super-stations who call with any two cards and pay you off with any piece / draw when you flop TP or better (without semi-bluffing you or pressuring you), players whom you have good reads on and can manipulate well when good spots arise, etc.

2) You have a decent idea how to play out of position with marginal holdings versus one or two weak-to-decent opponents. This usually involves a lot of cautious play, a wider than usual check-calling range, the occasional bit of check-raising against certain types of villains, sporadic block-betting on the turn to set the price going to the river versus passive pay-off wizards, and other lines you'll learn with experience.

Being out of position is always going to be a tricky aspect of NLHE, and your short-handed UTG range (once you move past bare beginner status) should be dynamic and adaptive.

[Spanky1974]

[ QUOTE ]
There is only one correct answer to this question:
It depends.

Most of the advice in this thread so far seem to be based on pretty simple rule-of-thumb thinking, ie 'I has hand x in position y so I must always do z'. The truth is that all options are open to you - fold, raise, limp. It depends. To the people that say always raise/fold, try thinking of a situation where limping in utg actually might be a good option.

[/ QUOTE ]

After my first 100K hands, I looked through my pokertraker stats pretty hard, and found that I was bleeding money in hands where I limped or called raises. I think open-limping is pretty spewy unless you incorporate it into your game, which I think isn't really necessary at 6max. In FR, I think it may be a bigger part of an ABC strategy. About the only hands I could ever see open-limping with would be smaller pairs with the occasional big hand thrown in.

[clowntable]

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fold that all day utg.

[/ QUOTE ]
qft
You usually want to be extremly tight UTG and UTG+1 (raising 15% or less)
CO and BTN raise this all day

[scallop]

I even think KQ/KJ/A9s arent worth much alot of the time to raise UTG.

[Pokerdemic]

Has this forum already forgotten the brilliant post "Dear uNL, you're not good enough"???

There are no conditions in uNL that would justify playing QTs UTG. At a table of 3/3 nits so you can steal the blinds? Maybe.

Fold it, fold it, fold it. Every time!!! *You do not need to mix up your game at NL10* You're opponents aren't paying attention anyway. What you need to do is learn the fundamentals, position being a most important concept.

If you play QTs UTG and raise it up, one of two things will likely happen:

1) You will flop a pair, and if you meet resistance from villain you are going to be out-kicked unless villain is stupid. But even stupid people make hands from time to time.

2) you will flop a pair and combo draw, which you won't know how to play because you will be OOP. And playing draws OOP is difficult.



I respect the fact that poker is a situationally dependent game, and perhaps QTs can be played profitably UTG at NL10. But developing bad habits is no good. And if you are trying to develop an ABC TAG game, which most people that post in uNL are trying to do, fold it.

[Triggerle]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm having a difficult time thinking of a situation where limping Q10s UTG is a good option six-handed.

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When the other people at your table

1) are major calling stations pre-flop and rarely ever raise

and

2) call down deveral substantial bets with hands like middle pair/top pair.

In that situation a pre-flop raise would not enable you to take down pots with cbets while you will get paid off even if you don't start building the pot pre-flop.

Situations like that can come around sporadically on loose/passive tables and if you identify them as such a limp would be the right play. (You are playing for 2pair or better then.)

I don't think you will often find tables that stay in this dynamic over several orbits although I have seen it happen.