the problem with limpers
I’m struggling with a question: what to do with limpers. I play on the cheapest tables around, since I’m still learning, but it seems like the level of play in that game invalidates a certain amount of advice you might rely on at a more serious table.
Late position is where you should be playing most of your hands (not that you’ll play 50% of what you’re dealt there, but that’s where you’ll be most of the time when you’re playing). I’m getting frustrated thinking that I’ve got a great hand for raising, and then find that four people ahead of me are limping. Again. Their limps turn your KJs–a great blind-stealing hand–into an underdog trying to bluff half the table.
I think most advice you’ll get says: scare these guys off with a raise if you have cards or take the nearly-cheap ride if your cards are marginal. Tight aggressive, right? With an eye towards pot odds. But with that kind of money already in the pot, everyone’s getting pot odds to call, so they can’t fold. So you can’t shake them. And four limpers holding crap will beat you, no matter what you have. Most of the time, the flop will miss you, and it’s just math: with that many hands, what doesn’t help you helps them.
People say there’s no such thing as "too loose" in an opponent. I
think sometimes there is, especially if you’re just trying to practice
your TA-A game. If they don’t respect your aggressive play, there’s no point. Here are the options as I see them:
- Limp and cut if you miss. You had the pot odds and position to call, and when you miss, you’re out one BB. Don’t make it worse by making something happen.
- If it keeps happening, move on (to a different table) or move up (to a higher level, where the raises are respected a little more).
- Treat .01/.02 like .05/.10. Throw out the advice about 2BB or 3BB raises and start raising 10BB if you’re going to play at all. That’s something this kind of table understands: if their stupidity is sufficient to call your monster raises with poor holdings, tune the raise to get the result you want. It’s not changing your game to suit lesser players, it’s… well, okay, it is. Also dangerous. But at least you have to ask yourself why you were thinking raise to begin with.
- Never, ever bluff at this level. You want to make something happen with that AQs in your hand, but he already made something happen with his 74o. He knows where he stands, you don’t, you don’t have the outs, you’re throwing money away.
- Patience. He’ll still have your money in fifteen minutes when you actually do hit with a decent hand, and he won’t know to be scared enough to fold.