Punishing the Limper
In common poker situations, it is often assumed that when a player has a big hand, he will raise, and that when a player has a drawing hand that he wants to see a flop with, he will come weak. A lot of the time in tournaments or cash games, especially when playing with less experienced players, you will commonly see players trying to limp into pots with marginal hands to try to catch up.
In cash games, there is a school of poker players who prefers to play ’small ball’ poker, and to keep pots small before you have a hand, but another school would say that you should punish the limpers, and make them pay to try to make their hand, even if you don’t have one yourself. This goes much more frequently for tournament play, where you are using chips that have value only in the tournament and particularly in spots where you can afford to throw your weight around.
A general rule against common fields is that if you are limped into in the big blind, a decent sized raise will often pick up the pot. This kind of raise is often giving the added bonus that when you play just by checking your hand, you are giving away the only time you were allowed to act last.
Certainly there are deceptive poker players who will limp in early position with big hands to try to trap those who would ’steal’ in this manner, but often the general rule can apply and it is fairly easy to tell when you are a table that you can get away with this at. Watching players to see their patterns, what they limp with, when they call raises, is vital to getting away with stealing hands, but in the long run reap you some valuable rewards.
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