Limping in poker is usually a sign of weakness. It normally means that a player wants to play a hand but they are not terribly confident in its value if they raise with it. Also players who have hands that they want to play in early position but do not want to raise tend to limp. My favourite form of limit Texas Hold’em is six max. It is here where open limping is rarely a good play.
If you are going to enter the pot then you should do so with a raise. I will leave off why that is in this article but suffice to say that there are several strategic advantages to raising. So when you see someone limp in limit hold’em six max games then you can rest assured that this is not a strong player.
Attacking limpers is something that is far more effective in pot limit and no-limit play than it is in limit play. If you attack a limper in no-limit then you can raise whatever amount you like. This cuts down the pot odds and implied odds of anyone who may have been thinking of coming into the pot. This will allow you to either get the hand heads up with position or will allow you to win the pot pre-flop.
This will not always be possible in limit hold’em and in fact it will not be possible to do this at all. If a player limps in no-limit then you can attack from the button with a hand like As-4s. But in limit play, both the big blind and the original limper will almost certainly call due to the pot odds and implied odds being so good. In fact the small blind may even call as well so your chances of winning the pot post flop will be reduced by extra players entering the pot.
So you will need to have the best hand far more often to win pots in limit Hold’em than at no-limit. The knock on effect from this is that attacking limpers with weak hands or mediocre hands is not a good poker play at this form of poker. In limit play then you have several objectives, one of your main goals when you consider playing a hand is in asking yourself if your hand has good equity in multi-way pots.
This is because more players will enter the pot in limit than in no-limit. If your hand does not play well against several players then you should fold. The exception to this rule is if you can get the pot heads up. A very aggressive player may find that a 9-6 can be profitable against a very tight playing rock with K-10 if their post flop aggression helps them to win the pot.
Usually the 9-6 will not be profitable but the superior post flop play of the aggressive player can turn losing and marginal hands into slight winners.