In my books, I often give some pretty uncompromising advice, such as: don't limp preflop, ever. In this article, I'm going to argue against that, at least a little.
I think most people limp too often. The biggest problem with limping is when you do it with the mindset of “trying to see a cheap flop”, with the goal of either making a really good hand or, more likely, folding the flop or turn. When you limp with this mindset, you end up playing hands like the following.
One player limps, you limp next with :Kh :5h , for $5 in a $2/$5 game. The next player then raises to $25. The first limper calls and you call. At this point the pot is $82.
The flop comes :Jh :6d :5c . The first limper checks, you check and the aggressor bets $45. The first player folds and you call. The turn comes :Ad . You check and the aggressor bets $90. You then fold.
The total losses in this hand were $70. This in itself does not make it a bad play. However, for hands like this to be profitable, the relatively common losses of $70 must be offset by the winnings. In practice, you will need frequent small wins and more occasional substantial wins to offset the losses.
The fact is, most $2/$5 players who limp and play hands like this don't win pots often enough, or big enough, to make up for the pots they lose. So they end up throwing money away every time they decide to limp.
My goal with the “never limp preflop” advice is to encourage you to cut hands like this out of your game. Don’t just stop doing it gradually, just stop doing it completely. For players at stakes like $2/$5, just breaking this bad habit will improve your graph substantially.
However, the reality is a bit nuanced. In fact, if you really adhere to my “never limp preflop” rule, you’re missing out on some great opportunities. Also, if you’re a great postflop player at the limit you’re playing at, and you end up not limping at all, you’re missing out on a lot of great opportunities. So here are a few situations where limping can be a good thing.
When stack sizes are weird
The first situation where limping tends to make sense is when the stack sizes are weird, or too disparate. Let's say your opponents, in a $2/$5 game, are playing with a stack size range of $80 to $1,500, with some players in the $150-$250 range and some others in the $500-$1,000 range.
There may be many hands that you would be happy to play against, for example, a weak player with a stack of $800. Let's use the hand :8h :5h as an example. It is important to note, however, that as soon as a short stack enters the pot, your hand loses all value. This is because your :8h :5h can make you some money if you have enough chips to play against the bad player. However, if you are forced to commit most of your money pre-flop or on the flop, :8h :5h becomes a bad hand.
So let's say a player limped in and the bad player with $800 also limped in from MP. You are in the cutoff with your :8h :5h , in one of the blinds is the player with $80 and the button has $220.
If you raise here, and either the button or the super short stack decides to play, you have lost all of the value in your hand. The player with $80 could just re-raise all-in. Or, the player with $220 could call from the button, leaving you playing a weak hand out of position, with the pot already inflated and your stack nearly compromised.
It's probably best to limp and hope that the short stacks either limp or fold. If the player with $80 decides to shove all-in, you can just fold the hand. However, if all goes well, you should be able to see the flop against that weak player with $800.
In this case, if we look at the hand's advantages, limping is almost as good as raising, since you'll be playing in position against a bad player. In situations like this, go ahead and limp.
When you expect action, Limp can be good
The classic rationale for limping is this: “I want to see the flop. If I miss, I know how to get away from the hand. But if I hit, I can win a big pot.”
In today’s games, the assumption “if I hit I can win a big pot” is often wrong and dangerous. Players are not willing to risk calling a huge bet on the river with bad hands. In some games, it can be difficult to find someone who is willing to call even $50 or $100 to see your flush.
Limping tends to be less of a good idea when no one at your table is willing to call bets on the river.
However, not every game these days is super conservative. When you actually find a game that has a lot of river action, the logic of limping becomes more sound. The more you can count on winning a big pot with your big hands, the more you should try to see cheap flops with marginal starting hands.
In these cases, you should not only limp marginal hands that you would fold in very tight games, but you should also limp some hands that you would raise in tighter games. To illustrate this, a hand like :Td :8d can be a great bluffing hand in a tight game, and I might raise it from the button to try to bluff postflop.
However, in a looser game where there is a lot of action, there is less incentive to raise with this type of hand pre-flop, making it more profitable to just limp.
Final Thoughts
I was a little hesitant to write this article, since most people think most of the time that they are making mistakes when limping into pots at limits like $1/$2 and $2/$5 in no-limit games. The “never limp” rule works to cut down on some types of bad play with just one rule. If you think that you are a player who is prone to making mistakes related to limping too often, I suggest that you stick with the rule of never entering a hand this way.
On the other hand, if you feel like you can handle this type of play, and want to think about how to put limping back into your arsenal in a positive way, these two situations are good places to start. You can limp with some hands when you want to play a pot against a particularly bad player, and at the same time, the other players' stacks would leave you in a bad position to play a raised pot. You can also limp when you feel that your opponents are likely to give you action on a big hand.
If you try to limp in these situations, you can have good results.
Article translated and adapted from the original: When Cleaning is Good
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