Preflop Limping is Bad

Poker Strategy
2

You are absolutely correct if you are playing against people that have the slightest understanding of this concept. However, it is not 100% effective against people who do not.

  1. You can give these players all the chance in the world to fold, but they will not fold. They will call all-in bets pre-flop with garbage and not care. Which leads me to…
  2. I’ve raised 25BB only to still have 5 callers to a flop. Your chances to win are far lower than against 1 or 2 opponents, but now you have put a larger amount of chips on the line when your AK hits nothing but air. Forget trying to bluff your AK too, because against calling stations, bluffing is suicide. You really should be playing for value against these types; which is where…
  3. your limp range should come in. Honestly, these players can barely understand what two pair is, much less what your open vs. limp range is. It is absolutely great thinking when you’re on a high level of play, but vastly over-thinking the situation when you’re at very basic levels of play.
  4. Which is why you don’t play too many and try to save those limps for when you’re in later position. I don’t advocate limping in with 98o UTG, but 98o on the BTN is playable as an overlimp. Yes, it’s loose, but relative to your opponent’s ranges, it’s pretty tight.
  5. Again, this relates to 1 & 2, virtually everyone will call because it is most likely a min raise. You’re still priced in. If the board shows big, yeah, it’ll probably match up with the raiser’s range and you can check-fold or check-call if the draw price is correct. It’s just as easy to dump a 2BB limp as it is a 1BB limp.

Optimal strategies at high level are not necessarily optimal at a low level. You can play high level poker at a low level table and come out ahead, sure. @love2eattacos experimented with this 2 years ago. However, my point is that you leave a lot of value behind if you do not adjust to your opponents’ style of play. Lots of things do not make any sense at all when up is down and down is up.

I’m certainly not the only person that employs this strategy. It appears to have come naturally to @MekonKing as described in this thread.

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