To Limp or Not to Limp

I've always thought I play weak players well and am comparatively weaker against good players, in part because I developed my poker game in Washington state at a time when the poker games had all the restraint and control of Vegas craps tables.

"Well, duh," you might say, "who doesn't play better against weak players?"

But the strategies and skill sets needed to play weak players are different than those needed to play good players. Many good players have developed their game strategies to beat knowledgeable opponents. Many of these players are well-known high-limit players, good tournament players, and the authors of books and other writings. Their strategies are correct against their usual opponents, but incorrect against a different type of player.

For example, as I have noted in the past, the value of deception plays and setting traps that are sprung on future hands is very small against unobservant opponents. And also as I have said, many players wouldn't notice it if a purple elephant sat in the middle of the table. So, how can you expect them to notice the way that you play different hands from different positions? You're just going to execute differently against weak players than against strong players.

I recently had a heated poker-strategy discussion with Chris "Jesus" Ferguson - generally considered one of the world's best tournament players - about limping to open a pot in limit hold'em (a passive preflop strategy). The value of aggression varies considerably between loose-passive, medium, and tight-aggressive games.

Chris opined that one should always raise when opening a pot, mostly because of the equity in folding the blinds and to make your holding unreadable, but also not to let opponents with inferior holdings in cheaply behind you. I agree that strategy is often correct, particularly against the tough opponents whom Chris usually faces. Against opponents who don't respect raises or seldom fold their blinds, the play loses considerable value when the most significant reason that you make it is not congruent with the current situation. In poker, you must adjust your strategies based on your opponents' reactions. When your likelihood of folding the blinds and other opponents goes down significantly, it makes aggressive plays less valuable.

"What do you do with 6-6 in early position in a loose-passive game?" I asked Chris.

"Raise," he answered.

I disagreed, stating that in this type of game, you would be extremely unlikely to win the pot either preflop or on the flop, or have it hold up unimproved whether you raised or not. Since those factors are hugely devalued, you would want opponents available to give you action when you flop a set, and limping creates a greater likelihood for that situation to occur. The same concept applies to your suited hands, with which you want players around to give you action when you are drawing, and, more importantly, after you make your hand.

Another argument against limping is that if you limp, you encourage opponents to play aggressively behind you, and you must hit the flop and show down the best hand to win. You encourage your opponents with position to attack your limps.

Indeed, limping signals to your opponents that your range of hands is on the weaker side, and encourages players to raise. In a game in which you have opponents behind you taking this course of action, you would of course adjust and limp less frequently. But in many weaker fields, you have passive opponents who don't attack your limps. Furthermore, if you are in a game in which people are attacking your limps, you can make the counterplay of limping and reraising with your big hands.
I don't agree that if you limp, you must make the best hand to win, but it does change the play of the hand. If you play well and can read hands, you still should find bluffable situations. And just because you give up the lead preflop doesn't mean that you can't take the lead back later in the hand. When I say that I tend to play well against weaker fields, one of the points I am making is that better play after the flop can to some extent counter the edge you give up to those with position when you limp in situations in which raising has diminished value because of the styles of your opponents.

Limping also lets opponents into the pot who would not have called your raise - which is not necessarily a bad thing. Yes, sometimes they will make the best hand, but oftentimes they will have inferior holdings to yours that will make second-best hands and give you action. The types of players against whom you would limp because the value of aggression is low are also the types of players who tend to marry a hand that hits a little piece of the flop, and they put in money at a bad price after the flop. What small edge you surrender by not raising preflop can often be made up by outplaying opponents post-flop who wouldn't have called that preflop raise, or by receiving incorrect post-flop calls from them. These are opportunities that would not have been present had you not let them into the pot! Of course, this assumes that you can outplay your opponents post-flop.

Opening with limps indeed runs counter to much conventional wisdom. But the mentality, "If your hand is good enough to call, it's good enough to raise," is incorrect in many situations. Identifying and differentiating those situations and adjusting your strategy accordingly adds to your edge in the game.

Chris, being an extremely bright fellow, understood my thinking. Since he is strictly a tournament player who competes against tougher opponents than I usually face, preflop raising is almost always correct for his situations. But successfully adjusting to your opponents' tendencies is what distinguishes good players from great ones.

And we all want to be great ones, don't we?

Roy Cooke has played more than 60,000 hours of pro poker and is a real estate broker in Las Vegas. His longtime collaborator, John Bond, is a freelance writer in South Florida. Their latest book is How to Think Like a Poker Pro. Please see Roy's real estate ad on this page.