By far the most common player type at any table is the limper. Anytime you see a 9 handed table with all 9 players seeing the flop you are sitting with limpers. If you check the table stats and more than 60% are seeing the flop on an ongoing basis you can probably assume at least 3 serial limpers (latin: limpus perpetuous) are seated at the table and have been for at least the past hour.
It is probably no accident that limpers have a name that bares a striking resemblance to the fish that can attach itself to rocks (i.e. the limpet). These guys are the bottom feeding scourge of the poker universe. If you slow played AA and the flop comes 6 2 J, this is often, though not always the dude that starts betting into you and making you wish you hadn’t. He has played 6 2 off suit from mid table position and nobody forced him to pay for the privilege of playing that junk.
In a tournament, the limper is the common thread in every pot. When everyone else has folded this is the dude that is still there calling, not because he is a calling station but because he flopped two pair or some obscure draw on your slow playing ass. If it’s pre flop, this is the guy who puts in his BB before anyone has raised just to ‘have a look’ at the flop.
Limpers are the easiest to play. Just bet them out pre flop. They will fold to a strong bet if they don’t have a hand. They are not to be confused with serial callers, however.
There is nothing terribly sinister about limpers. They still raise occasionally with big hole cards and they still bet good hands hard. They are not that hard to read or play in general. They can be milked heavily for blinds and turn card calls, especially if they like to fish draws, and a strong and solid player who only plays select hands will crush them gradually overtime with timing and strong and opportunistic betting. More power to the limper, I say! They taste pretty good with lemon, tartar sauce and some crispy French fries.
Crazy Snake is a professional sports handicapper and amateur poker player. He has made a profit year after year through his knowledge of Aussie Rules Football, NFL, tennis, and golf. He is a senior writer for PokerPlasm.com.
Comments 4
Do you play a lot of LIVE games? (as opposed to online). 60% flops are unheard of online at anything below .25/50 maybe but not often.
I’ve always said that online games even .25/50 are tougher then casino poker.
Posted 11 Jan 2006 at 2:43 pm ¶I have played live, though the vast majority of my games are online. The numbers are largely irrelevent. What is important is to recognise the type of player and how to deal with them. If the article helps in that regard I am glad. If not, I would be pleased to receive suggestions from you (and all) as to how it could be improved.
Regards
Posted 18 Jan 2006 at 6:40 pm ¶CS
Hey snake!
Posted 07 Feb 2006 at 12:23 pm ¶I play on full tilt poker and absolute poker
and have seen up to 60% plenty of times. So I am not sure what Grinder is talkin about. Now, about live games- i luv live games!!!! It’s a lot easier for me to read my oppenents and out play them on the flop and beyond. But, online is easy too! Eventhough there are less info to work wit online, I can still pick up on bettin
patterns and thats proved to be one of best tools utilized to pick up tells and read people! But, this article is not even about that its about how to play against limpers!!! So, i dont really know what Grinder is talkin about! Now, in reference to your article on limpers…. dead on!!!!
They are very predictable and easy to beat for the most part. Not very tricky, and usually when u get chk raised by one of these limpets, you can USUALLY lay the hand
down wit ease. There ARE NO set rules juss
guidlines, thats why i say usually. There are too many variables to have DEF. clear cut rules. Every hand is diff. and people and moods, your image, texture of board, position, etc.( list goes on and on). Sorry
I was goin on a tangent there lol. But, your article is dead on, when it comes to ‘limpers’. IF u have a weak hand but ur next to the limper and its been folded to you…. raise it 2.5-5x BB, that way you, usually take it down or know your ‘limper’ is strong or thinks he/she’s strong if they
call or reraise then u juss release the fish and let it swim away for now. You’ll catch the “BIG ONE” later, it’s juss a matter of time. Good Article Snake!!!
Limping seems to be the norm if you play on the very low-level limit tables - something like VC Poker’s 5c/10c limit tables. Unfortunately, making a limit raise pre-flop on this kind of table doesn’t get rid of anyone.
Posted 18 Feb 2006 at 3:34 am ¶Good advice, though, and this will come in handy when I make it to bigger stakes tables.
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