A Rare Open Limp

I pretty much never open limp, with the occasional exception of being in very early position, usually UTG, at a full ring table. This is particularly true in tournaments, because there is so much value in stealing the pot pre-flop and stacks aren’t generally deep enough to play a wide range of hands this way. In this case, though, based on the players and stack sizes behind me, I thought this would be the best course of action:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $200+$15 Tournament, 7500/15000 Blinds 1500 Ante (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (MP3) (t495306)
CO (t112184)
Button (t95700)
SB (t581685)
BB (t193605)
UTG (t345760)
UTG+1 (t293030)
MP1 (t634248)
MP2 (t277758)

Hero’s M: 13.76

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with Q, K
4 folds, Hero calls t15000, CO raises to t110684 (All-In), 3 folds, Hero calls t95684

Flop: (t257368) J, 10, 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t257368) K (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t257368) 3 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t257368

Results:
Hero had Q, K (one pair, Kings).
CO had A, 8 (high card, Ace).
Outcome: Hero won t257368

Basically, there was a very aggressive big stack on the button and two pretty passive players who both had small enough stacks that I’d have to call their shoves if I raised. I didn’t want to play a big pot with the top stack, and I thought that since I was going to call a shove anyway, my open limp would probably induce the short stacks to shove much weaker hands than if I raised and made it clear that I’d call their shoves.

The real cost here is a reduced chance of stealing the pot pre-flop, but I thought someone would make a play often enough and regardless playing KQs with position post-flop has a posititive expectation in its own right.

This, by the way, was from yesterday’s Sunday Million, in which I finished 61st out of 7513 runners. That was good enough for a modest score but again so frustrating to be so close. I didn’t have nearly as many crazy suckouts as I did in my last deep run. The hand above was key, but this is the one that really catapaulted me:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $200+$15 Tournament, 5000/10000 Blinds 1000 Ante (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP2 (t182816)
MP3 (t206468)
CO (t187480)
Hero (Button) (t192306)
SB (t105170)
BB (t421789)
UTG (t721312)
UTG+1 (t198309)
MP1 (t136645)

Hero’s M: 8.01

Preflop: Hero is Button with 8, 8
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to t20000, 2 folds, MP3 calls t20000, 1 fold, Hero calls t20000, 1 fold, BB calls t10000

Flop: (t94000) 8, 9, 10 (4 players)
BB checks, UTG+1 bets t70000, MP3 raises to t185468 (All-In), Hero calls t171306 (All-In), 1 fold, UTG+1 calls t107309 (All-In)

Turn: (t619924) 6 (3 players, 3 all-in)

River: (t619924) Q (3 players, 3 all-in)

Total pot: t619924

Results:
Hero had 8, 8 (three of a kind, eights).
UTG+1 had A, A (one pair, Aces).
MP3 had 10, Q (two pair, Queens and tens).
Outcome: Hero won t607918, MP3 won t12006

Against more loose and aggressive players, I’d probably just shove pre-flop, but in this case I thought UTG+1 at least probably had a hand to call and the risk/reward just wasn’t there. Obviously I’m pretty happy with the result!

For what it’s worth, if I’m UTG+1, I’m probably checking this flop. If all hell breaks loose behind me or a bad turn card comes, I can fold. If just one player bets, I’d probably check-raise all-in, or if it checks through, I’d try to get it in on safe turns. Making a huge lead into three players on such a bad flop is about the worst option.