Open Limping (Why Not To)

Open Limping (Why Not To) is bad in a game like no limit because when you limp in to hands you aren’t applying pressure on your opponents. When you are playing a game with your poker bonus money and are under the gun, and limp in to the pot; instantly people will either think you have a weak hand trying to see a cheap flop or AA. Either way you will not get the correct value for your hand. You should never open a pot up by limping in because you now have no fold equity from your opponents, and have no way of winning the hand before the flop. That is just one reason, and the main one to look at, but, also if you do limp in to a pot with pocket aces you could let weaker hands see the flop and out flop your aces. Then what are you to do? What can you do besides kick yourself for not opening the pot for a raise. Every action in a hand stems off of the initial raise in a hand, and if you are initially limping in to the hand then you give away a lot of equity. On the flop by betting you can easily get stuck in a hand or raised and have nothing to do, but commit your stack with the worst hand. When you do have AA you want to get all of the money in, but playing AA with an open limp is incorrect. You have to make a raise before the flop and then play it strong on the flop. If you limp under the gun that could cause 4 or 5 limpers behind you because they know you have a strong hand and want to crack it.

Another reason to not limp in to pots is that if you do have a weaker hand and open a pot by limping you can get yourself confused and stuck in a pot. If you limp in early position with a hand like AJ, and call a raise before the flop; you are just asking for trouble. You are better off raising or folding if the action is on you. Opening a pot up with a limp can only get you stuck in hands and wondering where you went wrong. Almost every action before the flop will retrace in better players minds after they are forced to a decision. If you limped in on the button you could really have almost anything, but it most likely isn’t a big pair or big cards, so, if the board is high cards and you take a stab at the pot your opponent may make a call more times than not. Playing weak hands for a raise is better than playing weak hands with an open limp. If you are making a raise before the flop this means you are applying pressure on your opponents, and have more fold equity. If you are limping in to hands before the flop you are losing equity, and the amount of money you can make.