Texas Holdem Strategy: Never Open Limp
Never is a difficult word to live up to. You can go into a poker game saying you won’t limp in, ever, but you’ll get those suited connectors in early position and try to limp in. There are reasons to limp in, but it would be best if you decided to never limp in to an unopened pot.
That means that if a hand has progressed to you, you should either raise or fold. Limping in will just allow weak hands to catch cards. If you limp, you will likely not be able to represent a strong hand, since you didn’t represent strength to begin with.
Here’s an example of what will happen to limpers. You’ve got 8-9 of clubs in middle position. The other players have folded to you and you limp in to the pot. Limping in is to just call the bet. Three others including the big blind call. Four of you to the flop.
The flop is 4-4-8. You’ve got top pair and you bet. Everyone folds but the big blind and he raises. Now what. He could have an 8. Chances are good if he does have an 8, your kicker might be in trouble. But there’s another pair on the board, so it could be that before the hand is over, high cards will come and you’ll chop.
But, what if he has a 4? There’s almost no way you can win if that happens. The flush possibilities didn’t occur and you are stuck with a weak pair. The other player in the hand isn’t likely to have a high pair. He’d likely have bet the pair pre-flop.
So, your decision is, does he have the 4, or the 8? Call or fold, there’s a good chance this isn’t going to work out in your favor. Now, let’s see what happens if the circumstances are identical and you raise to three times the blind, pre-flop.
Two other players call, but the big blind folds his 2-4. The flop is the same as before. You bet out with the pair of 8’s. Both of the callers fold, as they did in the previous example. You win a pot that includes your own three times the blind bet, two calls and the blinds. All that because you raised pre-flop.
There is one danger that might be confronted in the above example. Since you raised, others may have trouble putting you on a hand that the 4-4-8 flop hit. However a nice middle pair would still look pretty good with that flop.
The no limp rule is a tough one for beginners to master. And the reason is that a raise doesn’t guarantee that others won’t have a better hand. If you raise with the 8-9 of clubs and pocket Aces are waiting for you later in the round of betting, you are in trouble. You’ll have to draw on your experiences to decide what to do if someone else raises you.
This also is dependent on the rest of the players at your table. If the table is particularly tight, you’ll have opportunities to sneak a few pots with well placed raises. Beware that if you get action in a raised pot at a tight table, you’ll likely be up against a good hand. If you are able to see a flop without putting all your chips on the line, it is these suited connectors or other less than premium hands that can break the high pocket pairs.
Sometimes, limping in is worth the small amount of chips it will cost you. To justify the limp in, do the odds and see how they work out. The more chips in the pot, the more intriguing lesser hands become.
If you go into a tournament, or a cash game with resolve to never limp into a pot, you may find that you are limiting some of your best opportunities. If you like to see flops, raising every pot can be costly.
However, if you do raise a lot of pots, you will be tougher to read. Once you’ve revealed a hand that was not necessarily a raisable hand, you will add to your reputation that you’ll raise with any two cards. Once you’ve made that point, you’ll want to try to wait for a good hand to raise. You opponents will think you are bullying them, when you finally have the kind of hand they’d play. It may get you more action, just what you were looking for.
Table position is important as well. While you could do just about anything sporadically at a tight table, against a mixture of tight and loose players, a mixture of types of hands you play will be important to you.
If the table is accustomed to you raising only premium hands from early position, you may want to throw in a smaller hand to raise in early position. The idea is to vary your play so that people don’t catch on to what you are up to.
If you raise or fold every hand, good players will catch on to your plan. Varying your approach will be the most effective way to proceed. If you aren’t comfortable with raising lesser hands, try it once or twice and see what happens. If you get re-raised, you can always fold.
