Covering live poker tournaments for a living affords me the opportunity to see countless thousands of hands played out, many of which offer interesting and potentially valuable insights into how players — both amateurs and professionals — play the game. In this ongoing series, I’ll highlight hands I’ve seen at the tournaments I’ve covered and see if we can glean anything useful from them.

A limp is an act of placing the minimum bet that is required to stay in a hand. When a player calls preflop instead of folding or raising, that player is said to have limped in. In poker, players form sets of five playing cards, called hands, according to the rules of the game. Each hand has a rank, which is compared against the ranks of other hands participating in the showdown to decide who wins the pot. In high games, like Texas hold 'em and seven-card stud, the highest-ranking hands win.In low games, like razz, the lowest-ranking hands. Lfi or over limp lots of hands esp in games where there are over limps and 5 way pots. These are your general loose passives limp weak and those that limp strong, for a reason. Which is usually not.

The Scene

Sep 04, 2020 Limp Re-Raising Aces from Under the Gun Chances are if you've played much poker you've seen someone limp in from under the gun, only to three-bet when someone comes in for a raise. It's important to recognize this spot because nine times out of 10 that limp re-raiser will have a monster hand. Most limp re-raises UTG are aces. If you’re limping weak hands, it creates a good spot to limp strong hands. If you start limping strong hands, limping weak hands becomes okay, but the value of the strong hands decreases.

This summer, I had the pleasure of covering the Super High Roller Cash Game, a nosebleed affair involving some of the best and/or most affluent poker players on the planet. Sent back to the World Series of Poker beat afterwards, I did not get to return days later for the $500,000 Super High Roller Bowl, which was covered by my esteemed colleagues. That’s the setting for this week’s hand, which I happened to catch on recent TV coverage of the event.

One of the biggest tournaments in recent memory, the Super High Roller Bowl drew 43 of the game’s best and wealthiest, with the titanic buy-in creating a suitably enormous first-place prize of $7,525,000. At the point this hand took place, three of the game’s best — Scott Seiver, Brian Rast, and Connor Drinan — were left battling, with substantial money jumps of about $2 million after each of the final two eliminations.

The Action

Limp Hands Poker Videos

Play had recently moved to Level 22 (60,000/120,000/20,000). Rast and Seiver were playing fairly deep with about 10 million and 7 million, respectively, while Drinan lagged behind with about 4 million. Drinan got out of the way from the button in this hand to leave the big stacks to do battle, and battle they did.

Things started slowly enough as Rast completed from the small blind, but Seiver popped it up with a big raise to 420,000. Rast came back over the top for 1.13 million, and Seiver went into the tank for a while before moving all in for 7.195 million total. Rast immediately called with and had Seiver’s crushed.

Unfortunately for Rast, the board ran out , giving Seiver a winning set of eights and allowing him to fade Rast’s backdoor flush draw.

Concept and Analysis

Blind battles can be some of the most interesting and fun hands in poker. They usually involve two players going at it with the widest ranges they’ll play, given that everyone else in the hand has folded to leave a default heads-up match. In cash games they don’t come up as often, since many players will just chop. But that’s not an option in tournaments, making the blind-vs.-blind hand an important part of tournament play.

In this hand, Rast picks up a monster when he sees kings in the small blind. Whereas many players would immediately raise in an effort to build the pot and protect their hand, Rast elects to just call.

When Seiver raises, Rast springs the trap, waking up with a reraise to just short of three times Seiver’s bet. Holding two eights, Seiver is in a tough predicament. You’re never thrilled about getting 60 big blinds in with eights, but his options are pretty limited. Just calling isn’t a great option, as most flops will include an overcard to his pair and he will be left guessing at that point. He has to decide whether to go with his hand now.

Rightly figuring that two eights are usually going to be best in a blind battle, Seiver shipped it, only to be shown the kings.

Many players like just to call from the small blind with a wide range of hands, and who can really blame them? You’re getting a great price — at least 3-to-1 depending on antes — and you have just one opponent who is holding any two. In the big blind, many players who see a call from the SB like to bump it up. Again, who can blame them? They know they are facing a very wide range of hands and they’ll have position the rest of the hand.

Thus, it’s important occasionally to limp some very strong hands from the small blind as part of a balanced overall strategy. Otherwise, it’s just too easy for the player in the big blind to exploit you with raises and then taking down pots postflop with continuation bets on the occasions when you miss (which is more often than not). When players see you do this, they will be far less likely to raise your small blind limps in the future, enabling you to see more cheap flops and use pot control when out of position.

This hand seemed to be an incredibly costly beat for Rast at the time. It reduced him to the shortest stack, while Seiver appeared to be in complete command with about two-thirds of the chips in play. Rast shook the bad luck off, though, and got the last laugh as he bested Seiver heads-up to take down the $7.525 million first prize.

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  tournament strategyno-limit hold’emSuper High Roller Series$500000 Super High Roller Bowlblind-vs.-blind strategyBrian RastScott SeiverConnor Drinan

• Related Players

  Scott SeiverBrian RastConnor Drinan

To limp in poker is to bet the absolute minimum needed to stay in a hand. Limping is often used when the little blind simply calls the big blind instead of raising. It's also known as limp in, flat call, or calling the blind.

An open limp is when the first player to enter the pot preflop bets only the amount of the big blind, the minimum bet. The under the gun position is one that is most likely to open limp to see how the rest of the table will be playing their hands.

Limping is considered to be weak and passive play and is seen more among beginning poker players rather than experienced players, who prefer to open with a raise if they have a hand they wish to play.

Small Blind Limp

An example of the small blind limp is being dealt 8-9 offsuit in the small blind. All of the players before you fold so only the big blind and you will be in the hand if you limp in. You place the minimum bet in hopes that the big blind will simply check and you'll be able to see a cheap flop.

Limp Hands Poker Play

By limping in from the small blind, you risk that the big blind will raise and you'll have to decide whether to match it to see the flop. However, it is a cheap investment as you've already had to bet half of the amount of the big blind if you had folded rather than limped in.

If you have a strong starting hand when in the small blind, limping would be a weak or passive move. But if the big blind raises, you have the choice of reraising and sweetening the pot. However, that also signals that you have a strong hand, perhaps A-A.

A small blind limp with a strong hand can be a tactic to use against an aggressive player in the big blind. You can anticipate that they will raise and then you have the opportunity to call them and see the flop or to re-raise.

Limp Hands Poker Hands

Open Limp

An example of an open limp is that you are the player under the gun and have the first action preflop. The big blind minimum bet is $10, so you place that bet. The action then proceeds around the table and other players have the chance to call, raise, or fold. If everyone folds and the big blind checks, then there are just you two in the pot, plus the $5 from the small blind, who folded.

More often, in the above scenario, one of the other players will raise the bet. You then have the choice to fold, call, or reraise. If you aren't prepared to defend your hand and call the raise, you have wasted chips by limping in.

From any position, limping in is considered to be a beginner's move and weak or passive play. But you might use it as a tactic if you are prepared to call any raise.