Here's a thought from today.


Let's define the basics. The only reason to raise is to steal the blinds. Typically with a strong hand. If there were no blinds we could limp every hand.
Raising works because people are willing to fold since they understand hand strength.
Against an extreme nit you could raise 100% of hands profitably.
The fish are the contrary.

First strategy would be to only open raise strong hands.
Second level strategy would be to look at post-flop leaks, which improve our hands playability.
One fish may call very wide preflop, but then always check/fold when he misses. However we are taking a risk anytime we bet.

I see a lot of whales who don't fold much at all in the blinds. Post-flop they have low FTCB and some other aggressive stats.
Is it wrong to steal wide against these guys?

Could we try limping more hands from the BTN?
In BvB the limp strategy is becoming more common, since good players don't fold preflop and 3-bet a lot.
Limping keeps the pot small and keeps ranges wide.

I would assume that the average fish does not systematically raise wide vs limps, especially OOP. Even the regulars are lazy in this regards.

I find myself trying to take more riskier lines to get these fish to fold. i.e pot flop or barrel overcards.

Should I try limping instead?
The advantages of limping:
- Cheap way to realize your equity
- less incentive for fish to fight for the pot. It's just "one of the pots"
- confuses the reg.
- Reg may limp behind A2s-A6s which may otherwise have been 3-bet.

Risks of limping
- getting raised, have to fold
- unbalanced range
- if regular raises it ruins our plan. But if we have a situation where reg is SB and fish BB, the reg can't just raise ATC
- we give SB reg a good price to limp behind, but we have position


I think in order to limp, you would need to have a certain equity vs ATC.
i.e bvb I wouldn't limp Q2o since it has 47% equity vs ATC. Q7o could be a limp since it has 52% equity.


So if you have a hand like J5s on the BTN vs aggressive fish in BB, limp, raise or fold preflop?

I play high enough limits where rake is not a big concern.

... you shouldnt fold much in bvb scenario

also shouldn't fold much to a c-bet

the whales are probably actually playing that spot OK, just not aggro enuff

yes raise.

I wanna know too heh esp the limping/completing sb part, i mean they generally aren't going to be 3!ing you enough so we gain some EV as opposed to if the fish were 3!ing a reasonable %.

I like to think that if we raise idm getting called because we will just be able to make more +EV decisions postflop because they won't defend enough OTF in some spots.

There is something else you can change besides the frequency of your open....you can also change the composition of your opening range vs the whale.

As you pointed out the raise is also to isolate which should matter a lot, especially when most hands don't retain their equity as well multi way and are harder to showdown.

On the button definitely keep raising tons even if they call 100% they will make massive mistakes postflop. The only situation that should discourage button opens is getting 3bet. If they are not 3betting you can literally open 100% it does not matter how wide they call.

In the SB it's obv different and that's where you'd want to develop a limping range against fish that never fold.

Stealing the blinds is not the only reason to raise preflop. You can raise for value with strong hands. You can raise to make a bigger pot. Against a player who is very fit-or-fold on the flop, you can raise with the intention of stealing the pot on the flop if he calls.

One thing that limping does is increase your implied odds, especially if they are so loose that you have a good chance of building a significant pot when you get a favorable flop. If you have a hand that can call a raise but can't call a 3bet, you might want to limp.

You generally don't care about having an unbalanced range against a fish because they aren't good enough to exploit an unbalanced range.

One option that you haven't considered is varying the size of your raise if you choose to raise. I might raise smaller against a player who is unlikely to fold. The idea is to raise just enough so that he won't three-bet light, while building a slightly bigger pot that I have greater fold equity in from the button because I have position. This would be an example of a raise meant to build the pot rather than to steal the blinds.