I’m a recreational poker player. I already know that if your the first to enter the pot you should raise. What should you do if someone limps into the pot. Should you follow suit and limp also or raise as if you were the first to enter pot?

Yes you should raise as first one to enter the pot, as for limping behind when others limp you have to take few factors in consideration. One thing you are getting better odds(which is always decent reason to stay in hand), 2. You have to think about people left to act after you if the like Isolating raise /ISO raise a lot or high % than its less atractive to enter the pot. 3. Your hand and position, i would generally play raise or fold/ISO raise limpers unless on btn, and then i would have a calling range, but again it depends on factors. Now i will usually limp behind in my 6max game on btn when blinds are not iso raising a tone, something like small pocket pairs (22-77, small sutied aces a2s to a7s, small suited kings like k2s-k8s, suited connectors 34s to 89s, some small suited gappers like 24s up to 79s) and that is something like this. Now i may also call from sb if limpers,as i already invested 0,5bb and have a good incentive to see flop with better odds, again have to think about bb, i would limpe similar range with addition of some k10off, kjoff, q10off, qjoff hands, or all off suited brodways. And because of the price add something like 610s, j6s,j7s, things of that nature.

If you play live then games play more passive, there is more limping and limping behind and less folding so generally hands that depend on fold equity to be Ev positive raises can go in limp category even from some earlier positions as you will be able to see more flops and try to realize equity of a hand in a multiway pot, so then you can call small pocket pairs if you dont have info that someone is agresive and likes to attack limpers and iso raise. You can see flops with some small pocket pairs and suited connectors some higher connectors do i would always raise j10s+ and pairs like 99+, suited small aces are great as not only you can flop nuts but be on good side of coolers, as sometimes if you play small suited stuff you will be on wrong side as pasive players especially live like to limp sutied aces a lot. But ok, thats my 2 cents, hope others share their strategy and how they approach limping behind online vs live ect, and hope you get something out of this. Gl

'Should do' ... ? In poker it's always ... "It depends .. "

Poker is about table dynamic and where you feel you have advantages over the other Players. At some tables that may be post-Flop where the Players are very passive, even when they hit part of the Board. At some tables that may be PF, where certain Players just wont fold and you can build a pot with your better holdings. At some tables, especially 1/2, you can make a late position raise and still get all 6 of the limpers to call.

Online you typically need to be very consistent in your play whereas in live play lots of the Players are indifferent between a $10 and $18 opening bet. So you can, and should, make adjustments on the fly considering 'remaining' Players to act and table to table.

Please don't fall into the odds trap PF ... There's plenty of stats out there where it shows Players lose the most chips in the blinds. Don't compound that stat by playing margin hands that without lots of self discipline (lots of folds on the Flop) can cost you large portions of your stack ... and rarely get you paid 'big' when you do hit the Board.

As a rec player (are your a reg rec or just a rec?) you probably should play a little more ABC-ish and play your big hands big and your small hands small before the Flop and then see what happens. GL

plz stop writing huge walls of text on subjecst that, in this case, is very simple

OP: as a beginning player, you should simply never limp. If your hand isn't good enough to isolate a bunch of limpers, just fold it. Once you are a winning player (which is like top 5% of all players), you can start thinking about implementing limping strategies, but you won't be needing to ask that question then, you'll just know.

I highly disagree with never limping as a beginner, especially in live games.

If you play a raise-only strategy in a live game, you’re either raising a ton of hands, which is probably not a good idea for a beginner or sit around for ages without playing a hand. Which is also not a good idea for beginners because it’s boring AF and doesn’t teach you anything. Even if limping a specific hand had a slightly lower EV as folding = a negative monetary EV, it might still be the right thing to do. Imagine having 2 options at the movies: a) pay $10 to see the movie you would like to see or b) see an extremely boring movie for free. Would you choose option b?

Even from a strictly monetary EV perspective, there are hands where limping along is better than trying to “isolate” in a game where that strategy never works because players rarely limp/fold.

I tried to explaine my strategy which i think its decent, and i cant do that with never limp, or sometimes limp. I wrote ranges i limp and why, and what i consider, and that in 6 max online I only limp from btn. But live strategy changes, and why is because limp/callin is at high frequency that changes.

This never limping is not good advice, as i think it misses a lot of value, if you play live 150bb or deeper game and have 33 or a6s late position with few limpers his hand is not good enough to ISO , but is good call hand as he will see a flop multiway a lot of times with chance to realize

I wolud say if he play online which rarely plays deep as live and is more agressive its better advice though on btn and sb you should deff limp/call some hands. But ok, live you should for sure limp behind.

this is precisly the single most important thing a beginner in live poker has to learn - that sometimes you will go an hour or two without playing a single hand, that's just a thing that happens. Unfortunately, winning strategy in live poker is not fun (unless you enjoy socializing), which is also an important thing to learn.

It's just as easy to lose money playing limped pots. Limping just shouldn't be in the arsenal of a rec/losing player yet. First become a winner playing a relatively static strategy that exploits the population, then expand ranges in exploitable spots against individuals, then go for the fancy stuff.

For the same reason I don't advice beginners to have a light 4bet range limping just should never be done.

Raise your best hands depending on position, limp your middling and lowest part of your range.

Raising is also a way to isolate so if someone is very weak, isolating them itself has value with more mehish hands which as iso raises might be barely break even or even -ev, but playing hu pots with spewtards, passive nits or maniacs post makes it +ev.

People obviously have different objectives and levels of patience. But I can say with 100% certainty that for me personally, I would have left and never set foot in a poker room again if I had a 60 minute stretch without playing a single hand as a beginner. Why would anyone want to spend their free time sitting around folding for hours? Sounds like a miserable life if you don’t find anything better to do.

You don’t learn to play poker without playing poker which means playing hands. If you play Zoom games online, you can nit it up. But being a nit in a 1/2 live game sounds extremely miserable to me.

There are obviously good reasons why limping mediocre hands and raising 10% with strong hands is not a good idea. But if you play in a game where nobody is able to exploit you or willing to fold their limp to a raise, there’s nothing wrong with it.

I think overlimping is fine as long as you are not the first to limp. My overlimping range is 77-22, A9s-A2s, K9s, Q9s, J9s+, T8s+, 97s+, 86s+, 76s, 65s, 54s, basically small pocket pairs and sc.

The only thing you need to consider is how likely are you to get raised behind. If there are aggressive players left to act, you may want to raise these hands or fold. But in many live games you can get away with overlimping. Even if you get raised, these are still good hands to call a raise and see a flop.

the only other thing to keep in mind is you are looking to flop a monster hand or a strong draw. You don't want to call down 3 streets with TP. Even if you flop top pair and there isn't a strong draw to go along with it, better to just give up if facing multiple bets.

You should only raise if it accomplishes something - not because it's the 'done thing'.

E.g. if you're at a table where everyone always calls there's no point in raising first in unless you are reasonably sure that you have the strongest hand.

You can also limp in with a big hand from early position if there's some very loose aggressive players on the table. Nothing sweeter than to see people raise and reraise thinking they are trying to outplay each other with trash (and that you - as a "weak" limper - will fold anyhow to so much action) while you're holding aces.

Don't get me wrong: Raising first in is often the best play. But you should have the limp in your arsenal. You should have every move in your arsenal...(well maybe not the suicidal ones).
If you limp: Always have a plan what to do if someone behind you raises. Are you only limping with hands that you will fold to a bet? Are you likely to face a raise before the flop (depends on table dynamic and how many people are left to act)...if so: limping is probably not a good idea.

Because watching better players play can teach you no end of stuff? Just because you're not in a hand doesn't mean your time is wasted. You have a lot more opportunity to concentrating on finding out where others have leaks while you don't have to worry about playing your own hand.

As a winning live player, I can say that one of the flaws that I attack is a player who can't stand the idea of a limped pot and must raise if they play. If this behavior can be exploited, then it must not be ideal.

There are times when you have a playable hand, but you prefer to keep the pot small preflop. If you are a recreational player, then you are likely playing a live low stakes game. In these games, you sometimes encounter conditions where few people fold, where the idea of raising for isolation is something you should abandon because you can never isolate anyone, and you have a choice between playing a six-way raised pot or an eight-way limped pot. There are situations where you might prefer the latter with hands that you don't want to fold.

The advice for beginning players to limp less is partly intended to discourage them from playing too many hands, as everyone intuitively understands that you can play more hands for 1BB than you can for 4BB, and partly to discourage them from playing too passively.

The most important thing to understand is that "it's only three dollars" is not a good reason to play bad hands in a live 1/3 game and that, if the pot is multiway, you need a stronger hand to justify putting in significant money.

Certain hands, like small pocket pairs for example, play fine as an over limp. You don't really want to raise, because you are such a dog to hit your set, and getting three bet is a disaster. On the other hand if you over limp and someone raises behind you can you go four or five ways to the flop you still have a profitable call unless the raise was absurdly large.

But the most important thing is that you play tight. Most people make the mistake of playing too loose. Fold a lot, that is how you beat the 9 or 10 handed game.