In my books I’ve often given some uncompromising advice. Don’t limp preflop, ever. On this article, I walk that back just a bit bit.

I think the general public limp way too often. The most important problem limping comes when persons are “trying to peer a flop” — with the goal being either to make an ideal hand or (more likely) to finish up folding either at the flop or turn. While you limp this way, you find yourself playing hands like this.

A player limps. You limp next with K 5 for $5 in a $2-$5 game. The following player raises to $25. The primary limper calls, and also you call. There’s $82 within the pot.

The flop comes J 6 5. The primary limper checks, you check, and the preflop raiser bets $45. The primary player folds, and also you call.

The turn is the A. You check, and the preflop raiser bets $90. You fold.

The total loss on this hand was $70. That, by itself, doesn’t make playing the hand bad. However, for hands like these to be profitable, the relatively common $70 losses you're going to endure should be greater than compensated by wins. In practice, you'll need both fairly frequent small wins plus occasional large wins to make up for the steady losses.

The fact is, most $2-$5 players who limp and play hands like this one don’t win pots often enough or large enough to make up for the losing pots. And, therefore, they're slowly leaking money whenever they make the sort of limps.

My goal with my “don’t limp preflop ever” advice is to encourage you to chop hands like these cold-turkey out of your game. Don’t wean yourself off this habit. Just do away with it entirely. For many $2-$5 level players, just stopping this bad habit will improve your base line substantially.

But the truth is more nuanced. In fact, should you truly adhere to my “don’t limp preflop ever” rule, you might be missing a couple of opportunities. And if you're a very good post-flop player in your level, by refusing to limp, you're sometimes missing quite a lot of opportunities. So listed below are a couple of situations where limping may also be good.

When The Stack Sizes Are Awkward

The first time limping tends to make sense is when the stack sizes are awkward. Say your opponents in a $2-$5 game are playing more than a few stack sizes from $80 to $1,500. A COUPLE OF players are within the $150-$250 range. A COUPLE OF others are within the $500-$1,000 range.

There is also many hands that you’d be at liberty to play, perhaps, against a nasty player with $800. Let’s use 8 5 for instance. The issue is, however, that once some of the shorter stacks enters the pot, your hand loses all its value. Because while your 8-5 might generate income if in case you have plenty behind to play with against the bad player, if you’re forced to commit a number of the money preflop and at the flop, 8-5 just isn’t very good.

So say a player limps, after which the bad player with $800 limps in middle position. You’re within the cutoff with 8 5. In a single of the blinds is the player with the $80 stack, and the button has $220.

If you raise here, and either the button or the very short stack decides to play, then you’ve lost the various value of your hand. The $80 stack might just reraise you all-in. Or the $220 stack could call you at the button, and now you need to play the weak hand out of position with a small stack-to-pot ratio.

It’s probably better to limp and hope the shorter stacks either limp along or fold out. If the man with $80 decides to shove all in, you'll be able to just fold your limp. But, if all goes well, you ought to be in a position to see a flop against the bad player with $800.

In this case, limping is nearly nearly as good as raising while you have a look at your upside (playing a hand in position against a nasty player), nevertheless it goes far to restrict your downside when things get it wrong. So in these situations, go ahead and limp.

When You are expecting To Get Action

The classic rationalization for limping goes like this. “I need to see a flop. If I miss, I UNDERSTAND HOW to break out from the hand. But when I hit it, I WILL BE ABLE TO win a large pot.”

In today’s games, the assumption, “If I hit it, I WILL win a large pot,” is generally very wrong. Players aren’t falling all over the place themselves to name huge river bets with beaten hands. In some games, it may be hard to search out someone willing to pay even $50 or $100 to peer your flush.

Limping tends to be not-so-good when no person at your table is willing to repay river bets.

But not every game in 2016 is nitty. While you do discover a great game with quite a lot of river action, this old logic for limping becomes more correct. The more you'll be able to depend on winning a large pot to your big hands, the more you want to attempt to see flops cheaply with marginal starting hands.

Not only for those who play some marginal hands for a limp that you just won't play in a nittier game, but it surely too can make sense to limp some hands that you simply might raise in a nittier game. For example, a hand like 10 8 is usually a great bluffing hand in a nitty game, and that i might raise that hand at the button to establish a probable post-flop bluff.

But in a loose game where there’s a large number of action, there’s less incentive to lift the hand preflop, and also you may well be at an advantage just limping in.

Final Thoughts

I was a bit hesitant to write down this article, since I BELIEVE that the majority people, many of the time, are making errors once they limp into pots in $1-$2 and $2-$5 level no-limit games. The “no limping ever” advice works great to chop out these kind of bad plays with one simple rule. Should you think you're at risk of making limping errors, then I MIGHT suggest staying strong with out a limping ever.

But for those who feel such as you have a handle on bad limps, and also you wish to determine add limping back into your game in a good way, these two situations are good places to start out. You'll limp in with some hands when you’d love to play a pot against an especially bad player, however the stack sizes of a few of your other opponents will making playing a raised pot awkward. And you'll also limp into pots while you perceive that your opponents are particularly prone to come up with action on a large hand.

If you are trying out limping in these situations, you must see some good results. ♠

Ed’s newest book, The Course: Serious Hold ‘Em Strategy For Smart Players is on the market now at his website edmillerpoker.com. You too can find original articles and instructional videos by Ed on the training site redchippoker.com.

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