Punish or join the limpers?: Playing against limpers (Part 1)

It’s a situation you’ll often see in the early stages of a tournament and in some cash games: one player limps, then another, then another and before you know it everyone is getting great odds to call. When the action comes to your door you have three options: fold, limp as well, or raise. But which is the best option? Limping in is always a viable option, especially when the stacks are deep, because the implied odds in an unraised multi-way pot are usually excellent. Alternatively, another common play is to ‘punish the limpers’ by putting in a big raise and taking control of the pot. When deciding which option to take you should consider the following key factors…

1. Who is limping?

This is the most important factor because every player limps in for a different reason. Having an understanding of a particular player’s motive for limping will help you make the correct decision. If the players that have limped are the types of players who are looking to see a cheap flop, then it’s often a good assumption that their hands will not be able to withstand much heat. Therefore raising is an excellent option. However, let’s say the table has been ultra-aggressive with a lot of pre-flop raising, but this time two people, who you know to be smart and savvy players, have limped in. What are the chances that they did this with a big hand in the hope of getting someone to raise over the top of them? In this case, limping (or folding for that matter) is a better option because you can potentially win a big pot if you hit the flop. Know who is in the hand before deciding which option to pursue.

2. What are the blinds?

The earlier in the tournament, the less likely it is that a raise will force all the limpers to fold. The reason is that a call is usually a smaller percentage of their stack. Later in the tournament, the opposite is true. You can still raise to isolate the play when deep-stacked, just don’t expect everyone to fold.

3. What are the stack sizes of the involved parties?

If a player has limped in with only 5-6 big blinds left, there is a good chance they will not fold to any raise. The best time to ‘punish the limpers’ is when you can make a raise that is large enough to put a serious dent in the limpers’ stacks but at the same time small enough that it will not cripple you if you are called.

4. What’s your position?

A lot of players like to punish limpers from the blinds, but there is an inherent problem with this. What do you do if you are called? At least if you are punishing from the cutoff or button and get called pre-flop, you will have the advantage of position after the flop. This is not to be underestimated.

One last note on punishing the limpers with a raise.

A common mistake that players make in these instances is to raise too little or too much. There is no need to move all-in for 50 big blinds, while at the other end of the scale a raise of three big blinds will seldom get the job done. A good starting point is to take your standard raise and add one big blind for every limper in the pot. For example, if your standard raise is three times the big blind and there are three limpers, you would want to make your raise six times the big blind. And make sure you play your big hands the same way for the sake of balance.