Open Limping – What is an Open Limp

Open limping is one of the absolute worst moves that you could make in poker. An open limp is when a player comes into a pot without a raise, or a raise ahead of then. They just call the blind and attempt to see a flop for as little money as possible. It is rare to see a player open limp with a very strong hand, but this does happen from time to time. Players who open limp with strong hands will usually blow their cover if they are raised, so it makes no sense to even try it. The majority of the time you will find that players like to open limp with marginal hands. Open limpers like to play hands that are not quite bad enough to fold, but don’t have enough strength for a raise. This makes sense at the surface, but it is a terrible play. It is much more beneficial to decide whether you are in or out, an open limp is like a half hearted decision. What an open limp says is “Hmm, I have an ok hand, but I really don’t know if I should play it.” Not only is this bad for the open limper, but any other player in the pot will be able to pick up on this. It isn’t hard to tell when a player is really weak, and this weakness will be exploited. A transparent style of play is the worst way to go about playing poker. You need to try and be deceptive whenever possible, and open limping does the exact opposite.

Alternatives to Open Limping

You have two, and sometimes three, alternatives to open limping. If no player has already raised the pot you will be able to start the action with a raise. This is the best move when you have any type of legitimately playable hand. If you are dealt a hand and really think that you should be playing it, go ahead and make the raise. There is no point in limping into the pot if there is some money than can potentially be made. If you open limp you will be sacrificing any of the money that you could have earned from the other players if they decided to call. Why give this away? It makes no sense whatsoever.

The second alternative to open limping is folding. When you are dealt a weak hand you should just throw it away. There is no shortage of players who are compelled to play every single hand they possibly can. This is not the type of player that you want to be. Players who play way too many pots end up losing a lot of money, it’s just a little bit at a time. The fact remains, however, that playing weak hands will hurt you. An open limp might cut your losses (as opposed to raising), but why play a hand at all if it is a long shot to take down a decent pot?

The third option will require that a raise has already been made ahead of you. This doesn’t really substitute for open limping (as it will be impossible in this scenario), but it is still a spot to consider. When a player raises ahead of you there is no reason that you can’t re raise them. Players often get timid when someone opens the action ahead of them, but their raise doesn’t always decrease your hands strength. If they raised with a a decent hand, the fact will still remain that kings (for example) are still going to crush a large portion of their hands. Play against your opponent’s range and don’t be intimidated by an open raise.

SUMMARY: Open Limping Has No Value

Open limping is a terrible move in poker, no matter what situation you are going to use it in. If you are going to play your hand, make a raise. If you have a weak hand, just throw it away. Open limping is a weak and unprofitable play.