Recently I've switched game types to Heads Up and have noticed that a lot of the regulars are limping more often from the button than they are raising. I've seen it so much that I know there is a fundamental reason behind this. I just haven't been able to wrap my head around why anyone would let their opponent see a free flop.

Because they are nit biches and I hope they all go bust

are you just assuming they are winning players? vast majority of poker players are losing, that also includes those who play regularly

limping is fine (even necessary) in short stack situations, but there isn't really much merit in doing it with 100b+ stacks, I know exactly 1 winning player who does it (rec313, who is probably a bot). Please make sure that you're not in the wrong forum, this is for hu cash, not husng.

limping deep just makes your preflop strategy waaay more complicated, without providing large enough benefits

I always wondered about that rec313 guy on stars, his style is really strange (seems bad) but figured it was probably some type of bot that's somehow doing ok in the games given they have been around a while

Heyyy sorry about that! I'm a forum noob, so sorry about posting in the wrong thread.

I think your right I was giving too much credit to these cats, but I also wanted to double check to make sure I haven't missed any limping trends in the Heads-Up world haven't really grinded any Heads up in years so I was just making sure that this was just a sign of a loser or if there was a strategic reason for this

Thanks!

Great post. I agree about rec313, or at least was highly suspicious.

Some hands are too weak too raise but too strong to fold
so they usually L/C or L/F with a big part of the range

+1

NickAA u play 25nl bro.

Great plan!
Not exploitable at all ...

Might as well just tell your opponent your hand sucks and he should raise big.

@fityfmi

What do you play bro? Want to tell us why limping is a good strat as a default bro?

send me $50 (2 buyins 4 u) and ill pm u my thoughts about limping OTB.

Is that because that's how much rent costs where you live?

don't hate, you would live here if you could afford to get out of the micros.

Who's hating? You want to talk **** but won't say what you play. Ya I'm not playing high but the site options I have are crap and you probably couldn't beat the regs on $25nl there. You're likely a pure bum hunter anyways.

Prove me wrong.

prove you wrong? just open my pgc thread have answers for all Q's. You got a big mouth for some 25nl choad. I'd challenge you HU4rollz but problem is its been 7 years since you started play poker and your still at 25nl, only god knows how long its gonna be until you can play a stake where we won't get raked to death.

Look, im willing to help you bro, just PM me for coaching we can sort something out im sure...ill give you one of those deals like you pay up front in bulk and ill give you a discount...hows $1000 for 5 hours sound buddy?

lmfao..... I was 100% right. Euro boy bum hunting the softest euro sites. Admittedly broke.....would be hilarious to compare lives....seriously

you do have an epic pgc thread with 3 unique posters including you, and even more epic red line. keep it up (or should i say down?).

?? your roll is $900.

ill take 4/5 figure months with neg red line over +red but loses at 40bb/100 over 100k+ hands any time.

PM me for coaching, you can join in with nickAA maybe you guys can create a skype group together figure out how to beat nl25.

lolregs, how many players have you coached? And how much progress have they made?

first

answer -

about ten years ago and also in several LIVE games, it was a strategy employed by many players. Nowadays it's much less common and by god it sure is tilting.

not saying I know or whatever but I will say this - it's better to open with a limp than to just eat 3.5 blinds instantly. Also some people used to open to four. I like to min open but I no longer play poker. So I can see why some people like to limp. Maybe this is for PLO?

*cliffs - obvious

The equities that trash hands flop are more suitable for limped pots. And you generally won't be exploited for it. Like if you're limping only trash your opponent should be isoing crazy wide. Any two remotely high cards for sure. But they just don't adjust properly.

First, for clarifications sake, are these regs doing this against everybody or just you? If they are only doing it against you then that means they believe you are a loose passive player and can do this with their garbage hands and still make a profit. Also, if games aren't coming along very often they will want to keep the stacks deep to maximize their edge against you.

Some players simply incorporate the limp strategy into their game as a standard. There are different ideas about what is the best strategy. I personally don't like it at all. I prefer to bet 2x with 80%ish of my hands. When even deeper stacked, I increase the size to 3x. In a HU SNG with 75BBs as the max I just use a 2x sizing and that works very well.

You may also be at some of the lower levels where the player pool may not be as good. I know that a lot of the regs at the $50 level use a similar strategy as me. There are still regs at the $50 level that do use a partial limping strategy while deep stacked.

A good way to exploit bad players that limp garbage/monsters and raise strong hands is to raise their limp with garbage and watch them fold. With medium strength hands check. With power house hands raise 3x and hope they call. Some of these limper types are on the opposite end of the scale and just don't fold to the 3x raise. If this is the case, check back your weak hands and play very wimpy like. With the strong hands raise and take them to town.

If you are facing a good player you'll want to balance, but don't let them get away with limping too much. Your raising range here should be looser than if you were to 3-bet vs. a 2x open.

I should also mention that around the 15ish BB and sometimes 20ish BB area limping starts to become more frequent and that is simply good strategy. At 10BBs I personally resort to limping, folding, and shoving with no minraising at all.