If you’re new to poker, you might have been told that limping is a bad strategy and should be avoided at all costs. However, the truth is, there are situations where limping can be a profitable move. 

The main reason for this is that many opponents often see a flop without making a strong hand, meaning they’re essentially giving away chips every time they miss. This can add up to a significant amount of money over time.

Instead of just limping with any hand you’re dealt, you can take advantage of this by raising preflop when you have a strong hand. By doing this, you force other players to make decisions about their hands, potentially increasing your win rate.

However, there are pitfalls to this strategy. Raising too much can be seen as a trap, giving your opponents the opportunity to push out with a strong hand. Additionally, you must remember that other players can raise you back if they have a better hand, making your decision-making process more challenging as you weigh the risk of calling a bet against the potential for a successful bluff.

Many players struggle with this strategy because they feel compelled to call every hand and hope for the best. However, this can be detrimental to your chip stack and can cause you to lose your edge in the game. Fortunately, there are ways to avoid these mistakes and ensure that you’re always in control of the game.

Who is a Limper?

When playing poker, a player that frequently calls rather than raising their bets is referred to as a limper. When all the players in front of them have folded, these players falter. As a limper, you lose the number of ways you can win a hand by allowing others to see the flop.

Here are a few tendencies limpers tend to have:

• Limpers bet when they have a strong hand.
• When they have nothing, they check-fold.
• When they have a draw, they check-call.

Playing against a limper can be frustrating if you don’t know how to use their limping to your advantage, and you could end up losing. On the other hand, playing against a limper is made easy by these traits. Over-limping is not the same as open-limping. In poker, open-limping is rarely a winning strategy; on the other hand, over-limping is. Limping is a passive gaming technique that lessens a player’s chances of winning the pot either before or after the flop.

Strategies to Consider :

There are two main strategies to consider when playing against limpers:

1. Loosen Up:

When you notice a player open-limping preflop, you can choose to play more aggressively. This strategy assumes that limpers are generally weak and passive. Since they often make mistakes, they make it easier for you to win pots. By isolating a limper, you can take advantage of their postflop mistakes and increase your equity. Forcing a limper to call your preflop raise with a weak range can be highly profitable.

2. Play Tighter:

Alternatively, you can choose to play tighter against limpers. This strategy is advisable when players behind you frequently 3-bet, when you’re playing with short stacks, or when the limper is a strong player with a solid strategy. However, this approach is generally less profitable compared to the aggressive approach.

How to Incorporate Limp into Your Poker Strategy

Using the limp as part of your poker strategy is often discouraged in No-Limit Texas Hold’em (NLHE), according to most strategic resources. However, completing the small blind (SB) should be a crucial component of any skilled player’s strategy. It can significantly increase the number of hands we play, particularly against weaker opponents at the table.

Additionally, limping behind is a valuable tool for successful players. While open limping is not commonly used by professional players, there are occasional instances of high-stakes professionals experimenting with open limp strategies. This suggests that open limping may not be as detrimental to a strategy as it has been portrayed over the years.

10 Tips for Crushing Limpers

1. Raise your preflop raise size to 3bb plus 1bb per limper in online games, and 4bb plus 1bb per limper in live games.

When playing online, it’s advisable to raise to 3 big blinds (bb) plus 1 big blind per limper. In live games, however, a raise to 4 big blinds plus 1 big blind per limper is recommended. 

These bet sizes are designed to deter players behind you from calling too often, while still keeping the original limper interested. 

It’s important to be flexible and make adjustments to exploit weaker players. For instance, if you notice that your 5bb raise in a live game is being quickly called by limpers, try increasing your raise to 6bb, then 7bb, until those players start folding. Once they start folding, revert back to your original raised size.

This adjustment strategy ensures that you can enter the flop with a stronger hand range, playing for the largest possible pot.

2. Adjust your iso-raising range based on your opponent’s limping tendencies.

Not all limpers are equal. While some players choose to limp with over 40% of possible starting hands, others prefer to limp with only around 20%.

Therefore, it’s essential to adapt your strategy based on your opponent’s tendencies. You can profitably widen your raising range against looser limpers compared to tighter ones.

3. When your stack is 40 big blinds or less, reconsider iso-raising with small pocket pairs

While iso-raising with small pocket pairs is often a profitable move due to the potential for a big payout if you flop a set, the dynamics change when stacks are short. In situations where there are many aggressive players behind you, it might be wise to fold these hands.

Normally, when you iso-raise with a small pair, you’re looking at a stack-to-pot ratio (SPR) of around 8–12. This means you can potentially win your preflop investment 15–30 times over. However, with a short stack, you’ll be playing a pot with an SPR of 5 or less. While this is advantageous with hands that can easily make strong top pairs, it’s less lucrative with more speculative hands like small pairs.

Instead of iso-raising, you might consider just limping behind with these small pocket pairs. However, if there are many aggressive players behind you, folding might be the best option.

4. Adjust Your Strategy: When Facing a 3-Bet-Happy Opponent, Tighten Your Iso-Raising Range

When facing opponents who believe you’re raising too wide to isolate limpers, and they counter by frequently 3-betting you, you have two strategic options:

1. Start 4-betting more frequently, mixing value hands with appropriate bluff candidates.

2. Narrow your isolation raising range.

While the first option is theoretically sound, accurately judging the opponent’s 3-betting range is challenging. This can lead to difficult and often negative expected value (EV) situations.

Therefore, I recommend the second option: tightening your isolation raising range. This not only reduces variance but can also be more profitable than the first option, especially if your opponent struggles to readjust quickly.

Additionally, by narrowing your range, you’ll face fewer tough decisions, and your opponent may fall into making more negative EV plays by overadjusting.

5. Adjusting your strategy: Tightening your range from the blinds.

Being out of position (OOP) presents significant challenges in poker. Even the most optimal preflop strategies, such as Game Theory Optimal (GTO) solutions, rely on complex and mixed frequencies that are difficult for humans to replicate. Therefore, it’s advisable to adopt a tighter range when playing from OOP.

Keep in mind: When you’re out of position, playing tight is the way to go.

6. Understanding the Strategy Behind Your Opponent’s Limp-3-Bet

When a player chooses to limp, it often indicates that they don’t consider their hand strong enough to raise. However, there are instances where they might be trapping with a premium hand like AQ+, JJ+. 

When they follow this up with a limp-3-bet, there’s a chance they’re bluffing, but more often than not, they’re holding a very strong hand. In such situations, it’s prudent to adjust your own playing style and tighten your range accordingly.

7. Adjust your bluff sizes downward and increase your value bet sizes on the flop.

Adjust your bet sizing strategy on the flop based on your hand strength. When bluffing, opt for smaller bets, while with strong hands, bet larger. When playing against recreational players, you don’t need to worry about balancing your bet sizes. These players tend to have inelastic calling ranges, meaning they’re just as likely to call a 50% pot c-bet as they are a 66% pot c-bet. Therefore, smaller bets work well for bluffs. Conversely, larger bets are more effective for extracting maximum value from your strong hands, given the inelasticity of their calling ranges.

8. Value betting becomes more challenging, particularly during the flop and turn.

Recreational players often overlook pot odds and overestimate their implied odds, leading them to call large bets with weak hands in the hope of hitting a straight, flush, set, or two-pair. Adjusting your strategy to aim for thinner value bets on the flop and turn can be highly profitable in these situations.

9. Take Advantage of Recreational Players’ Fold Tendencies on the Flop

Recreational players often enter the flop with a wide and weak range, which frequently misses. However, their range narrows down to pairs or draws by the turn. Therefore, it’s advisable to avoid bluffing on the turn and instead adopt a “one-and-done” strategy on the flop. Nevertheless, it’s essential to exploit the tendency of recreational players to fold excessively on scary flop cards.

10. More Folding Recommended in Response to Raises After C-Betting

Players who choose to limp preflop often exhibit a tendency towards passive play. They frequently opt for calling and rarely raise, especially with their draws. 

Given that these players engage in a significantly higher number of hands, including random offsuit ones, they may have a greater frequency of random two pairs or trips than one might anticipate.

In light of these factors, it is advisable to adopt a tighter playing style than usual when facing raises after making a continuation bet (c-bet).

How to Beat Limper in Poker FAQs

1- What does it mean to limp in poker?

In poker, “limping” refers to the act of entering the pot by calling the big blind rather than raising. When a player limps, they simply match the current bet without adding any additional chips to the pot.

2- Why is limping so bad in poker?

Limping is often considered a suboptimal strategy in poker because it allows opponents to see the flop without making a significant investment. When you limp, you give your opponents the opportunity to see the flop cheaply, potentially allowing them to outdraw you or make a better hand. Additionally, limping reduces your ability to win the pot before the flop, making it harder to play strong hands aggressively.

3- How to play poker against limpers?

You can play against limpers by either loosening up and playing more aggressively or playing tighter and more selectively depending on the situation.

4- How to avoid limping in poker?

To avoid limping, raise preflop with strong hands, adjust your bet sizes, and adapt your strategy to the table dynamics.

5- Is limping a good strategy in poker?

Limping is generally considered suboptimal because it allows opponents to see the flop cheaply and potentially outdraw you.