Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Volume 1 (19 page)

Fold any hand not listed above if someone raises in front of you. Even in position, you should rarely play hands like K-2 unless your opponent will check-fold every time he misses the flop, which you will not encounter too often in today’s games. If you are lucky enough to run into one of these super-straightforward players, you can call in late position with a wide range of hands with the intention of picking the pot up post-flop. But don’t get carried away with this play. Even the most standard opponents will adjust over time.

A few books suggest never re-raising pre-flop. You can win this way if you play very well post-flop, but I don’t think it is optimal, especially against competition at a skill level similar to yours. In the high-stakes tournaments I play, I do not believe anyone has a big enough edge over anyone else to never re-raise pre-flop. If you are a world-class player with terrible opponents, you can get away with never re-raising pre-flop because you will be able to outplay every player in the tournament after the flop. I am not nearly so egotistical as to think I can outplay everyone in the world.

When There are Limpers

When players limp before the action gets to you, raising, limping, and folding all become options. The positions of the limpers, as well as your position, are important. The first thing to do when you see limpers is to determine their limping range. In general, there are two types of limpers.

The first type limps with premium hands from early position, hoping someone will raise so he can re-raise to lock up a small pot. Clearly, this is not the optimal way to play a monster hand, as you would rather win a big pot. For example, someone limps from second position with A-A, the button raises to 4BBs and the limper makes it 15BBs to win a whopping 5BB pot. Against this type of limper, you should limp behind with connectors, both suited and unsuited, pairs, and even hands like A-Q. You must be very sure of his limping range to just call with hands like A-Q because if he limps with weaker hands, you will miss a lot of value by limping behind with strong hands. Basically, you want to get a good flop so you will be happy putting a lot of chips in the pot. Limp behind in early position only with small pairs and suited connectors. In later positions you can limp with hands like 10-8o and 8-5s. Suppose one of these limpers calls under the gun and you call on the button with 8-5s. If it comes 8-6-2 and he bets, you should probably call with the intention of folding if he bets again on the turn or if an ace or king comes. Remember that most of your value will come from making a hand like two pair or better, and then getting your opponent to put his entire stack in while drawing almost dead.

If you call a limp and a player behind you raises, you should never fold hands that have great implied odds unless he raised to a huge amount. Suppose a tight player limps from first position, you limp with a 5-5, 7
-6
or 9
-8
in middle position, another player limps from the cutoff and the button raises to 6BBs. If the first limper folds, assuming you have more than 100BBs, you should call, hoping to flop a set or a good draw. If you limped behind with a weaker hand like 10-9, you should fold if it looks like the pot will be heads-up, but call if you can get multi-way action. Limping with the intention of folding is one of the worst plays in poker. While you should fold hands with high reverse implied odds, which you probably shouldn’t have limped with in the first place, you should usually call with hands that have huge implied odds.

The other type of limper calls before the flop with hands such as 9
-7
, K
-8
and A
-5
, which he thinks are too weak to raise but with which he still wants to see a flop. This player will tend to limp with these hands from any position while still raising all the hands he thinks are good. You should aggressively raise against these limpers whenever you have any semblance of a hand.

Suppose one of these limpers calls from late position and you have 10-9, K-7, A-2, J-8 or a premium hand on the button. Raise every time. Your hand doesn’t matter because most of your value will come from picking up the pot pre-flop. When there are limpers and everyone is deep-stacked, I raise to 4BBs + 1BB for each limper. So, I would raise to 5BBs here. As stacks get shorter, I raise a little less because I don’t need to raise as much to get my entire stack in on favorable flops. Some of these limpers always call and some usually fold. Either way, you should make a continuation bet on most flops. Their ranges are so wide that no specific flop is favorable for them. If one of these players limps and a few other people limp behind, you can still raise with a fairly wide range because when people limp after a loose limper, they usually have weak hands as well.