To Limp or Not to Limp?

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Limping can be a very touchy subject for poker players. Some players like it, so they can see cheap flops; especially when they’re holding speculative hands, like suited connectors or small pairs. Other players believe you should never limp, because by limping, you’re inviting players into multi-way pots, and thus limiting your chances to win the hand! While we tend to side with the more aggressive players, we certainly can’t tell you that limping is never the right play. But what we can tell you though, is that it’s not usually the best play.

Let’s start by looking at why players limp in the first place. As we’ve mentioned already, many players like to limp with speculative hands they don’t feel comfortable raising with preflop. In these cases, they’re hoping to get lucky by hitting the flop hard and winning a big pot, or being able to let the hand go without costing themselves too much money. The problem is that the players who like to limp with speculative hands are limping with a very specific set of hands; and essentially, whenever they limp, they’re letting the other players in the pot know something really significant about their hand. I.e., that they have something like suited connectors or small pairs. In other words, the limp is basically turning their cards face up to their opponents, which is something we really have to try hard not to do in poker.

Which Problems You May Face if You Limp?

Another reason players will limp is to “trap.” The difference here is that instead of limping with a speculative hand, i.e. kind of trying to get lucky on the flop, players here are giving it a big hand, like Aces or Kings, and are hoping to win a big pot while they either flop a set, or they overpair holds up, and their opponents don’t really put them on that. While there can be benefits to this play, it is fairly certain that the downside often outweighs the reward. Let’s say you’ll find Aces in early position, and decide to trap opponents by limping into the pot. Ideally, you’re hoping for someone to raise behind you, so that you can then re-raise and isolate them in a heads-up pot, where you’re likely to be a big favorite!

This is the №1 problem with the limp. When you do re-raise your opponent, now it’s really easy for them to fold a hand like, say, two Nines or Ace-Jack. Whereas, if you just open the pot for a raise with your aces, those hands like Ace-Jack or two Nines would probably re-raise you; and then they can really go broke to you!

The second problem is: what if nobody raises behind you? By limping with your Aces, you’re giving players behind you better odds to come along with a wide variety of hands that have a potential to beat you after the flop. Let’s say, five players see the flop, and the flop is Seven of Spades, Nine of Spades, Ten of Clubs, after you’ve limped with your lovely two red Aces, how likely do you think it is that your trap has now backfired when you’re facing four opponents on a very draw heavy board? How much more comfortable would you have been if you just raised your hand preflop, and were only facing one opponent in this situation?

Not only can limping put you into uncomfortable post-flop situations, but it also takes away the potential for you to go ahead and win the pot preflop. Remember: one of the goals of raising preflop is to thin the field of players with marginal hands who are looking to see cheap flops. If you don’t raise either with your premium hands or your speculative hands, you’re removing an essential weapon from your poker arsenal.

So is limping always wrong? No! There are times when it may pay to try it, but only under very specific circumstances.

When Is Limping Profitable?

• The first circumstance is: let’s say that you’re in a game where when you raise, you always get (say) five callers. Well, in that game, raising isn’t doing too much for you, is it? If you raise, you’re still getting five callers. So, that’s the kind of game where limping might make sense.
• Another place where it might make sense is when you’re playing at a table of very aggressive players, and you notice that every time you open for a pot, players are re-raising you, and they’re re-raising you with pretty weak hands, or there’s one player who is consistently punishing limpers by raising every hand and it’s making very difficult for you to be able to play in this game. In this situation, you may want to limp in with a massive hand, like Aces or Kings, so that you can exploit and punish your opponents over aggressiveness by re-raising them when the action gets back to you after they’ve come after you. To make this play work, though, you have to be very confident that at least one player behind you will be willing to put in a preflop raise. If your table is too timid, you’re only going to get yourself into trouble, where you are going to find yourself playing a five-way pot with two Aces, just as we discussed earlier.

Summary

In this article, we tried to explain that limping doesn’t always indicate the weakness of the player’s hand. Phil Ivey, for example, can say a lot about perfectly timed and counted-up limping, that had allowed him to significantly increase lots of pots during his career. If you don’t let the opponent know your play and you’ve developed a suitable image of yourself for the other players, you can still benefit a great deal from limping.