Is Limping Ever Profitable in Low-Stakes Cash Games?

[babyrosejr]

At low-stakes tables, many players tend to limp a lot. Do you think there are situations where limping can actually be profitable, or is it almost always a losing play compared to raising?

 

[rsparente]

Hardly ever, it work if super premium hand and only two other people in the hand, but, why risk?

Lower pairs can be player by limping SB, but with the intention to fold after flop, if nothing comes in their direction.

 

[Kerasuss28]

No, with limpin you lose a lot against 5/2 with your A/A , if you had raised pre, the 5/2 don’t play against you and you win against other premiums , let say limpin is 2 out of ten good, so with that low possibility to win the max, why try to limp always ?

 

[EvertonGirl]

Open limping is sometimes profitable but it's based on opponent.

Say you are in SB and everyone has folded to you, you look down at AA now you know if you limp here the BB who is a maniac is going to shove on you, then it's profitable.

You can also do this move UTG if you know you are going to get 3b by a maniac too. I did this once, see how I bolded once, opportunity doesn't come around that often. I had AA UTG I limped because I knew this maniac was going to 3b me. I jammed on him and he called with his 77, I held to take a big pot! Yes, he could have cracked me, but results don't matter. Majority of the time it's not worth limping

 

[Rosylly]

It can be profitable if you are playing against aggressive reg who will try isolate you and outplay at postflop

But most of the time you’ll end up in multipot, so it’s generally better to raise

 

[alexbuicky]

At low-stakes tables, many players tend to limp a lot. Do you think there are situations where limping can actually be profitable, or is it almost always a losing play compared to raising?

Hey, idk if you saw the other reply but if you are baby_rose contact abarone on twitch/discord because i think u won a main event ticket to London

 

[TeUnit]

Just like in Mtts when you open limp you are really fighting against math- playing a marginal hand, out of position, with no initiative - is really a hard way to go. You are giving up the information advantage by having to play first. You are pricing in the the other players to over limp, giving them a great price to draw to their hand. Its very difficult for you to control the size of the pot you want to play. Its like swimming with lead weights in your pocket and expecting to win the race. You can win for the short term playing negative EV but there is no way it doesnt get you in the long term.

There are exceptions to this when the effective stack sizes are low or win you are playing against GTO players and want to broaden your hand range.

You probably wont run into many low stakes players playing GTO, so exploitive plays would be better against them.

Another way to tell if open limping is profitable is to look at the results of the open limping villans in your hud, you can look at their BB win rate or more likely BB loss rate. Or if its a tourney you can sharkscope them.

 

[Hospedar]

I played hands enough to answer this for you:

Yeah, it's profitable, indeed! Not for the limper, obviously... but for the REG that study and knows how to exploit this kind of weakness...

 

[RALF_AK]

At low-stakes tables, many players tend to limp a lot. Do you think there are situations where limping can actually be profitable, or is it almost always a losing play compared to raising?

...LIMP is a dangerous play, it serves a part of the range, always depending on the positional advantage... playing LIMP with strong hands you have to keep in mind that at some point you will have to know how to fold depending on the board...

 

[10gerka]

It's not profitable to limp because others will label you as recreational and exploit you in every hand, so you shouldn't do it.

 

[Claudiunm]

Limping is almost never a good option. Usually, the table goes multiway, or someone bets behind you, pushing you out of the pot. The best option is to wait for a better hand and good position and raise. The stronger the hand, the more aggressive you should be to isolate just one or two to go with you post-flop. After the flop, reevaluate.

 

[Brigistul]

Yes! There are situations when limping can be profitable! In the UTG and UTG+1 positions, when you have a premium hand and hope that a player will raise and the others will fold or call. You have the option to go all-in or re-raise, giving you a chance to win many chips. Limping in the SB or BB with premium cards is a mistake!

 

[TeUnit]

Yes! There are situations when limping can be profitable! In the UTG and UTG+1 positions, when you have a premium hand and hope that a player will raise and the others will fold or call. You have the option to go all-in or re-raise, giving you a chance to win many chips. Limping in the SB or BB with premium cards is a mistake!

I would think that most thinking opponents would notice if you only limp in early position with premium hands. If the villans dont raise and you give them great odds to over limp you might have 5 players in the hand drawing to their hand instead of 1 if you raised. So this is where AA is great for winning a small hand or losing a large hand when the villans hit 2 pair, trips, a straight, or a flush on you.

If you have enough hands on the villan to know they like to isolate, they probably have enough hands on you to know you only limp premium hands in early position.

 

[Brigistul]

I would think that most thinking opponents would notice if you only limp in early position with premium hands. If the villans dont raise and you give them great odds to over limp you might have 5 players in the hand drawing to their hand instead of 1 if you raised. So this is where AA is great for winning a small hand or losing a large hand when the villans hit 2 pair, trips, a straight, or a flush on you.

If you have enough hands on the villan to know they like to isolate, they probably have enough hands on you to know you only limp premium hands in early position.

It’s much more likely to limp when you have premium hands in early positions! If you go all-in, you might win a small pot as you said, but considering that premium hands come less often, I prefer this limp!

 

[Station_Master]

Raising is almost always better, dont waste your energy thinking about limping strategies

 

[fundiver199]

Raising is almost always better, dont waste your energy thinking about limping strategies

OP is not thinking about limping strategies. They are just trying to get to 100 posts, so they can get platinum status and access to more freerolls. Check the numbers of threads, they have started in the tournament and learning poker forums and in this one as well

 

[wushibala]

Lumping is a losing strategy. I don't think that playing only with limps is even possible to show results at a distance. Yes, you can accidentally win one or two tournaments with this kind of game, but that's about it.

 

[Highfish]

Someone said a long time ago, "raise that fu.....g up" and he was right.

 

[blueskies]

Well, you can follow the same strategy against all players, or you can adjust your strategy against different players depending on their aggression and playing styles.

And no, limping does NOT mean always limping AA and KK.

Listen, if you have early position with lets say 55 and you have mostly calling station types behind you, do you really think you are gonna kick ass by playing 55 aggressively? You are gonna get like 3 callers and how often are you gonna flop a set? And how often are all 3 guys gonna completely whiff the flop? if these guys are gonna call ya down if they have anything, then you are just kidding yourself if you think you are gonna bully them.

Or, maybe, you can see the flop for cheap and if you do flop a set, you can value bet these stations accordingly.

Yes, in general limping is a bad idea against competent and tough opponents, but you have to know there's no "always" in poker. You have to play the opponent(s) at the table.

 

[Lomba]

Limping is what i call „Slow play“
Often failed, Couse i didn‘t raise a strong hand and lost on the River
No limping

 

[GrannySmit77]

I actually try to play more mid stakes. At low stakes, how much can you really raise with, say, aces? Not enough to scare away anybody who has suited connectors and wants to call. So, at low stakes, I frequently see good hands getting cracked by random , any 2 cards hands. Just because the player called because you raise too much to isolate and now they have too much information about the strength of your hand. If any of this makes sense to you.