Are we supposed to isolate a weak MP limper from the SB?

[Allday Everyday]

I am wondering how often players in this forum raise from SB when there is a single weak limper to you. I find myself raising here with standard C/O and button isolation hands such as KT, suited aces, and even hands like 44. Sometimes I raise with less than these holdings. Should I be tighter, should I be looser?

What kind of hand do you raise in this situation? What is your specific range? Let's say all we know is that the EMP limper has a VPIP of 45 and is loose passive postflop, the BB has a VPIP of 25, and the small blind post is half the size of the big blind post.

[Mr. Orange]

bump

Been a way for a few days but I'm shocked to see no replies to this given some of the preflop questions that have had extensively long/debated threads recently. Is the answer really that simple that no one wants to comment?

Allday, I don't really have any answers because I find that I've been having trouble with the exact situations you describe. I would love to hear someone else chime in.

Until recently I think I've been playing way too tight in these situations raising with just premium hands, 99+, ATo+, KJo+. I've also been folding a lot of hands that I probably shouldn't. Recently, I've been experimenting with my play in this spot raising more liberally (sample size too small to make any conclusions yet) but I'm also not sure how loose to go. In particular with hands like A4o-A8o, suited A-rag, 22-88, QTo, JTo etc. I would open raise on the button with these hands but I'm not sure raising in the SB is correct given that we're not playing against a "random hand", have less fold equity and we're OOP the whole hand.

In addition to raising, what hands (if any) should we just be calling with here? for both 1/3 and 1/2 blind structures.

[Bob T.]

If he's weak. Yes, raise to isolate and set up a flop win.

With a lot of hands.

[Harv72b]

I don't have a specific range--it fluctuates a lot depending on a ton of factors, not least of which is my own perceived table image.

If I'm running over the table & showing down nothing but monsters, then I'll raise pretty liberally in these situations. The hands you mentioned, plus the odd suited connector or just two random cards. Of course, this is rarely the case.

In most situations, I'll just complete with a borderline hand (any hand that I wouldn't normally openraise from MP1, to give a broad example) and see what the flop looks like. If the BB is also weak or just a straightforward tight player, I may complete with the intention of betting any flop, and check/folding the turn if I'm called & don't have a hand.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that there's a lot of feel involved here, based on the table texture, your own image, how the loose guy has been running, what the BB is likely to do, etc.

[James.]

is he a showdown monkey? that would probably dictate my range. if he's fit or fold my range is pretty wide.

[Bob T.]

I kinda assumed that when they said weak, that meant a fit or fold kind of player.

[Allday Everyday]

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bump

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Hey, thanks Mr. Orange. Saved me the trouble of doing it myself.

Thanks for the responses.

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is he a showdown monkey? that would probably dictate my range. if he's fit or fold my range is pretty wide.

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Yeah I agree that the more often he gets to SD, the less we should raise it up here. Obviously a great part of the profitability in such a play would be in getting the villain/villains to fold postflop when we both/all miss the board.

It seems that most 45 VPIP loose-passives who limp here will by nature call too much postflop. This probably means I should tighten my raising range up here and should possibly simply complete more.

[James.]

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I kinda assumed that when they said weak, that meant a fit or fold kind of player.

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i took "weak" to mean more of a passive/calling station-type. esp. w/those pf statistics.

to answer Allday's question: how often do i raise from the SB to iso a weak limper? not very often. i complete lots of junk, though. especially if the BB doesn't raise much.