just need an opinion
when in say late position you have some limpers just calling the big blind, you have a good hand and raise say 3bb then someone who previously just called now re-raises your bet. what could this mean? surely they can't have a big hand or they would have bet earlier. i would think the right thing to do would be to raise them again?

Depends on the player, but more often than not it means they have a monster. If it is a limpy table, with some aggressive players, they don't want to raise early and get 6 callers. So they limp, hoping they can get a lot of money in the pot before it gets back to them - and then they can make a big raise. I've seen people do this with a marginal hand, but more often than not they turn up with a monster.

First of all, lets talk about bet-sizing.

"some limpers" = more than one, which means there is 3bb minimum in the pot already.

Your raise to 3bb makes it 6bb (or more) and the limpers only need to call 2bb to win 6bb or 3:1. That's far too generous. I'd prefer you increase the betsize based on the # of limpers - say add 1bb per limper, making it at least 5bb, maybe more, so that you're giving them bad odds to call.

That said, the limp-raise maneuver is GENERALLY a very amateur move by players with AA, KK or QQ who think they're being smart but really just don't want to see the flop and risk getting cracked.

Some cagey players will do this with medium pairs when facing some weak action as a semi bluff, but generally the person who limp-raises is playing their hand face up.

This is open to interpretation of a lot of factors

1. An open-limp followed by an appropriately sized 3 bet is very often aces or kings, and he wants to isolate you but not run you off. This happens because aces in early position doesn't want to lead out and have no action, but doesn't want to go to the flop with a lot of players, so they will limp hoping for an opportunity to reraise

2. A limp followed by an overbet can occur for two different reasons:
a. they perceive that you are just trying to squeeze light, and are willing to put pressure on you with a medium strength hand
b. they have a small pocket pair and don't really know how to play them post flop, so they are willing to gii or get pot committed preflop, knowing that your most likely holding is two big cards.

Very occasionally, you will see someone, particularly in tournaments, tilt raise with things like low suited connectors. They basically lose their stomach for the game, and are willing to 3 bet light, either to get a fold, or because they think that they will have two live cards if called.

What you read all depends on the other players, their stack sizes, the way the table has been playing, and their image of you.

It means they have kings or better 100% of the time.

Very good stuff here already.

You need to take a look at which limper the 3-bet comes from. Generally if it comes from the 1st or 2nd limper it WILL be a pretty decent hand and they were counting on someone else opening so they could thin the number of players seeing the Flop or just take it down without any more risk.

The more limpers and the later the 3-bettor the more likely it's a weaker hand who is trying to take it down with a steal. Of course, nothing is taken for granted. If you are a chronic opener, then a strong hand could be from anyone out there in limper land!! GL

I see this sometimes at 1/2 and 2/5 live. Basically the player has got a short term case of fancy play syndrome from EP figuring the table is lumpy and they're looking to do a few thing, either:

Steal the extra limps
Sweeten the pot

It's a gamble on their pot, so you have to look at it player dependent. I usually see it in fishes newer to live play. It usually indicates a pretty tight range, no greater than 8%

If the limp-reraiser was UTG, it's nearly always aces or kings. If he overlimped and then raised, he often has some total junk.
Without knowing the precise stacksizes and your hand or position, it's impossible to give infallible advice, but I would try and fold QQ to a limp-reraise by UTG, or just treat it as a set-mine if stacks are deep enough. Re-raising again won't work very well unless you have a big hand and you know villain is spewy.

Really depends on the level of play as well. Have to think about what level youre playing at. The high stake crushers could be doing this with any 2 depending if they have reads/history with the player. But in your case I assume its micro stakes so it could mean a big hand or some fish just messing around.