Tournament Strategies
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
Practice Matters
Limping the Button
Limping the Button On the button, facing overly aggressive opponents in the blinds, you should strongly consider limping if you want to see a flop, assuming they’re likely to re-raise before the flop. If you have Q-8 on the button, you raise to 2.5BBs out of your 50BB stack and the small blind re-raises to 8BBs, you should either push or fold, and neither is an attractive option. In this situation, you are better off limping and calling a small raise if your opponents in the blinds decide to make a play at you. So, you limp with Q-8 on the button, the small blind raises to 4BBs out of his 50BB stack and you call. Remember that to even consider limping, you need to know your opponents in the blinds are overly aggressive. The flop comes Q-7-4. Your opponent bets 6BBs and you call. The turn is the 4. Your opponent checks and you check for pot control. The river is the K. Your opponent bets 10BBs. The king is a decently scary card and your hand looks fairly weak, so you should call. If you totally miss the flop, you can fold. Notice that since the pot is so small, when you have any equity, you should consider floating because most opponents will give up on the turn.
Limping is a fine play
Limping is a fine play if you know your opponents are hyper-aggressive. If they are just a bit loose and aggressive, you are much better off raising and taking down the blinds before the flop.