A very common mistake made by beginner Poker players is to enter several hands with Limps.
First: What is Limp?
A player “limps” into a hand when he simply calls the blind, rather than making a raise. In other words, it is the minimum bet before the flop.
Many argue that every hand has a chance of winning, and that the more flops you see, the more games you will play… and this is true. The problem is that in the long run you will probably lose money.
Limp with any hand type
Before we get into the details, here are some interesting numbers. Given any given hand, what would be the chance that you would improve your play on the flop?
* 1 pair: 32.4%
* 2 pairs: 2.00%
* 1 crack: 1.35%
* Full House: 0.10%
* Quadra: 0.01%
Let's assume you have 1000 chips and that you limp in every hand. The blinds are 5/10. To make things easier, let's assume that no one has raised.
Well: you will spend, in a complete round, 100 chips (BB x 10 positions at the table).
Considering that the chances of you improving your game are approximately 36%, you will only make a hand 1/3 of the time, and often you will make a bad hand, such as a low pair.
So, you've spent 100 chips, of which you've probably wasted 70 right away, and the other 30 depend on having made a play and won the hand. Assuming you won two of the 10 hands you played, you'd need to have won 50 chips in each of those hands (5x your investment) just to break even.
It is important to highlight that:
* If you win, you probably won't take home a big pot. This is easy to understand: your investment was small and the pot was small. So, your return will probably be small too.
* Most of the time when you hit the flop your game won't be that good.
* It will be harder to bluff, as opponents will not believe in a good hand since you limped in.
* You run the risk of not even seeing the flop, as a player after you could raise, making you fold.
Limp with good hands (premium)
There are some players who choose to limp in with hands like AA, KK, QQ, etc. The goal of these people is to hide the value of their hand, trying to make more money as the round progresses.
This strategy may even work in some cases, but most of the time it ends up taking away value from an excellent hand like these.
For starters, by limping you can end up winning a very small pot if your opponents don't hit anything on the flop.
Another problem is that you let the BB enter the round “for free”, with a random hand, which could end up catching you by surprise.
And to top it all off, by limping you attract a lot of players to the hand, making your good hand lose value. Remember that AA against one random hand wins 85% of the time. AA against four random hands wins only 52% of the time (you lose one in every two!).
Examples:
Situation 1: The tournament is just beginning and you are limping into every hand. You are dealt :5s :7d and limp in. Three other players join the hand. The flop comes :7h :Qh :Ks and you have made a middle pair. A player leads out betting half the pot. What now? You have a middle pair against three opponents, with a minimal chance of winning the hand. If you call the bet, you will be investing more chips with a bad play, so you decide to fold.
As the tournament progresses, those precious chips wasted on weak hands will be sorely missed! Remember that the chance of making a good play on the flop is about 5%!
Situation 2: You receive :As :Ad and limp in. The table folds, and it ends up being just you and the BB, who only needs to check (he got in “for free”).
Now let's imagine that the flop comes :3c :5s :6h.
Do you know what this means? That you, out of fear of betting and kicking your opponents out of the hand, gave a player with a random marginal hand the opportunity to beat you! And what happened was that, instead of winning a little, you will lose a lot. Note: possible BB hands that would beat you: 2 4, 4 7, 3 3, 5 5, 6 6, 3 6, 5 6, 3 5.
What if the BB didn't hit the flop? He'll probably fold and you'll win a micro-pot of 2.5xBB with your powerful AA!
Situation 3: You are dealt :Ks :Kc and limp in to try to trap. Four other players also limp in. The flop comes :Qs :8d :7d. What now? You have a pair over the flop, which is great, but you have four opponents who could have all sorts of hands. One of them could have trips, or made two pair, or have a straight or flush shot. See how much more complicated your situation has become?
Conclusion
Limping is not a prohibited play, but it must be used at the right times, and with knowledge of the risks it entails: winning little when you get it right, or losing a lot when you get it wrong.
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I understand that limping in gives more room to wait for the flop and raise in this case and to discourage those who are more conservative, but what if instead of limping in I raise and in the sequence of any of the 3 examples one of the players hits the flop, do I not lose anymore? What should my stance be in case they call or re-raise?
Bruce, with this answer, if you are receiving a re-raise, you will move on to the second part of the manual, which is reading your opponent. You will have to read his play and you will certainly make a good decision. For example, if you receive a re-raise from an aggressive player who does this frequently, you will certainly be winning or at least have the game to face him. However, if you receive a re-raise from a super passive, conservative player, you will certainly make the right decision to fold your hand and not lose money, because you will be losing. Other than that, you still have the option of folding pre-flop, with marginal or possibly good plays, especially in early positions, avoiding limping to see a flop, which will not help you at all or will make you lose a lot of money in the long run.
It depends a lot on the field. I used to raise and it was really bad because the range never reached me and when it did, the board didn't fit, so I was left without chips. When I limped, I realized that I could make strong hands like trips and flushes much more easily. The best thing is that guys who entered with strong hands always went ALL in on me with pairs while I had at least 2 pairs. It doesn't work on any field. I recommend limping whenever you have low pairs or suited connectors. Only raise with the top of your range, otherwise you'll run out of chips very quickly. Thanks and bye. In fields where people don't leave them clean, go for a minraise.