How can I deal with limp-callers?

I played a tournament where everyone limped most of the hands, when I raised to 3BB, they always called to see the flop.

Then, they kept check-calling my raises when I hit the high pair or two pairs to build the pot. Finally, on the river, usually the was only one villain left, and he would shove.

The first time it happened, I called. It turned out that the villain had a triple. I was knocked out.

After I rebought, the same thing happened. This time I got two pairs but the board got wet. I was forced to fold when a straight became a real possibility and lost the majority of my stack.

I recovered my position when the same thing happened again holding the nuts, but then the same thing happened again and I lost the majority of the stack again.

Most people on my table only limped, never raised pre-flop, so I knew nothing about their range. How should I defend?

You didn't adjust to your opponents, and ended up losing because of it.

In this case, you need to adjust and play a TAG profile - don't get involved with mid-hands or hands that could get you in trouble post flop. You should play any hand you decide to play very strong - if 3BB doesn't scare anyone off, go to 4 or 5BB even. The fact that you didn't get any info about their range tells me that you did what you normally do hand over hand, and expected something to change. By raising big pre, and then betting your hand big post, you will force them to either bleed chips, or push back.

These people tend to be very cautious in their play, so I would play cautiously and bet according to the strength of my hand. Fold when they start getting aggressive.While most players' limping ranges are too wide and contain a lot of trash, these players are also too passive, so their limping range also includes a lot of hands that should be raised. Therefore, when you have multiple limpers in front of you, you still tighten your raising range.

As CRStals say, make a larger raise preflop. Against multible limpers its also reasonable to develop a range for limping behind and only raise strong hands. Like if 3 people have limped, and you make a big raise with 55, what are you really hoping to achieve? Most of the time you are just building a big pot with a hand, thats difficult to play postflop, unless you flop a set.

And postflop you are just playing poker. The value of hands go down in multiway pots, but that being said its also totally possible, that you are just focusing on a few hands, where you got coolered or sucked out on. Which is of course part of the game. If you want more specific feedback, you need to share the actual hand histories, so we can see all the details.