U.S. Players Welcome!Open Limping
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To open limp means you are the first to voluntary enter a hand preflop and do so by simply calling the big blind instead of raising. Among good cash game players, this is a bit of a faux pas. The normal recommendation is to raise when you are the first to enter a pot. There are good reasons for this. You give yourself the chance to simply take the blind money. And, while NLHE is a big bet game, do not underestimate the value of winning lots of small pots.
Yet another benefit of opening for a raise is it increases your steal equity postflop. You gain what players call "the initiative" in the hand. This means players are responding to you. You're controlling the hand and dictating the action.
You're the one applying the pressure in the hand. It's hard to make a hand on the flop, so this often leaves your opponents surrendering the pot to your aggression on the flop. All good things. However, this concept can be taken too far. You still need to answer - always - the two questions preflop. Here are a couple situations to go against the always-open-for-a-raise mantra.
You're playing a $1/$2 game in your poker room. Most everyone is playing with $200 or $300. Players are very loose preflop with many players seeing the flop, even for a large preflop raise. Also, players don't like to fold much of anything postflop. You're UTG and get dealt 33.
Well, you definitely don't want to throw away a pocket pair in this game. Hitting a set against these players will be super valuable, as they’ll call your huge bets postflop with weak holdings. However, think about your situation if you raise preflop. You're likely to get multiple callers. You'll only flop a strong hand about 12% of the time. That means almost 90% of the time you'll be staring at flops you just hate. Then you'll look up and realize you're out of position against players who hate to fold. Your only reasonable option will be to check-fold to almost any bet the vast majority of the time. So, raising isn't that attractive. Calling is certainly the most attractive decision in this situation.
Here's a slightly different example where just calling is the best option. It varies from the first as we're not opening the pot. Same table as the 33 example. You're on the button with T7s. Two very loose players limp in and it folds to you. Both players have taken a few big losses and now only have $80 each.
Well, seeing a flop in position against these players is probably going to be a profitable venture. However, let's examine your situation if you raise. A pot size raise would be $11. If you make that raise, the blinds fold and both limpers call, the pot will be $36. The players will both have only $69. With an SPR that low, you're likely to have extremely low steal equity. With low cards like T7s, this is fairly bad news. While the holding can make strong hands now and then, it will rarely win without improving in some way. So again, just calling preflop is the best option here.
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