To Open Limp or to Open Raise

[Draidin]

Is it ever really Ok to open limp into a pot.
Or is open raising paramount?
With the exception being when you have AA or KK and you are very certain the aggro player behind you will raise for you.
Is it ok to open limp?

[jakesbrake]

well in a cash game with a drawing hand with a few callers in front it is perfectly fine to limp. In fact raising with suited connectors is almost never the correct way to play them.

[Small Fry]

I don't think open limping is bad under the right conditions. Namely a loose passive table with players that can't fold. And it might apply to limit more than NL, but it applies to most live low limit games. A hand like Q,J that you might never play from an early position can become quite profitable if the flop averages 5-8 and most of these will take any pair to the river.

I think this could also be profitable even if a player in late posiation raises as all the limpers will call and now the pot's even bigger meaning even more will stick around post flop. Of course you must hve decent post flop skills so if the flop comes A,Q,5 you're not one of "those players" taking your queen to the river.

But if your talking about opening from a later position after 3-4 folds, then I would say only play hands that you can open for a raise. You can't get the callers for a multi way pot so you want to accomplish two things. 1. Have a good hand if called by a player after (cut off, button) you as you'll be oop for the rest of the hand and if #1 doesn't happen 2. make the blinds pay to play. No reason to give the bb a free sgot at beating you.

[mattak]

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...rt=all&vc=1

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...;gonew=1#UNREAD

[4W Cowboy]

Limping seems to be contagious because the people acting next are getting the correct pot odds to limp also. Then if you get a piece of the flop or flop a draw you will probably be getting the correct odds to draw; however, if you get raised you haven't committed too much to abandon ship either.

[ogdundar]

Need better description of scenario. NL/FL, how many players at the table, stacksizes etc.

[4W Cowboy]

What I was implying was if you were UTG...doesnt really matter if its NL or Limit, limping IS contagious.

[Albert Moulton]

If the stack sizes and game conditions are such that if you raise in EP with a hand like 88, then you can expect to be reraised a high percentage of the time an amount that is too much to call for set value (putting you in a push or fold situation), then limp/call is probably better than raise/fold or raise/push.

Obv. if the stacks are very short, raise/push or even jsut push with 99 is probably best.

And with very deep stacks you can raise/call and still have good implied odds allowing you to call for set value.

[4W Cowboy]

Thats why I was only talking about Open limping..nothing said about raising.