When players have limped in front of you, raising more becomes prudent as to deny the players already in the pot the odds required to correctly call. In the previous article, a raise of three times the big blind was suggested as a standard open raise. With limpers, there is a rule of thumb for the increase of the size of your bet. For every limper in the pot in front of you, increase the size of your raise by 1BB. For example, if two players limp, you should now raise to 5BBs instead of 3.

The question now becomes: How do their limps affect your decision to fold/call/raise?

First, big unsuited cards lose value with more opponents. A hand like AK has significantly more value as a heads-up type of hand than a multi-way, which forces us to make a larger than average raise. (Allowing the blinds in cheap would make a pot very difficult to play without a raise for the same reasons it is correct to raise a hand like AK when first in the pot). Weaker aces like ATo, or AJo become folding hands. Your hand is a little too weak to be committing an appropriate raise, even in position, and a flat call will leave you in the dark where you are at after the flop when you flop top pair. ATs or AJs, however, gain value because of the possibility of flopping a flush draw in position (or a flush draw with top pair or a gut shot as well). The price you get to flop these draws becomes so great with all the limpers that simply folding would be a mistake. Even more marginal suited hands like 68s or A5s gain substantial value for a call as well; just don’t get confused about the strength of your hand when you flop just a pair.

Small pocket pairs (22-77) gain value for limping when other players have limped in front of you. When you flop a set (odds of flopping a set: 7.5-1.) you have a monster hand, and will often get a good price to draw even if you run your set into a flopped straight or flush. The price you get by the end of the hand (implied odds) will average FAR greater than 7.5-1 when you flop a set in a multi-way-pot.

Medium pocket pairs (88-TT) can be simply downgraded to small pocket pairs when there are multiple limpers in front of you. If you don’t flop a set, don’t bet. It keeps you out of trouble with hands that, early in your tournament career, are incredibly marginal. While playing these hands more aggressively can net you moderately sized pots more frequently, they also are notorious for causing players to bust out of tournaments early when they run into higher pocker pairs or lower sets. Proceed with caution if you choose to play these more aggressively.

Large pocket pairs (JJ-AA) want to punish the limpers with a raise. It is imperative that you don’t see a 4+ way flop with these hands. With JJ-KK if an over card flops in a 4+ way pot you can just concede your hand as beat, but even if you do flop an over-pair, the amount of players will make it very difficult for you to accurately evaluate your hand. The following example should help:

You limp or raise less than suggested and you see a 6 way flop with Ac Ah. The flop is 6d 8d 9h. What’s your play? If you bet and get raised, what do you do? It will be very difficult to evaluate what players have hands that beat you, and what players have cards are just drawing to beat you. The biggest mistake you can make with a big pair is losing a big pot by paying off a now better hand. The second biggest mistake is folding a winner after investing a lot of chips. Both of these scenarios occur the most often when you don’t properly protect your hand before the flop. You don’t want to over-bet your best hands and get no action, however, so I suggest making similar raises with hands such as AKo, to keep your opponents on their toes.

Armed with these standards, you should be able to stay out of danger. But, when you think people have started to figure out how you play, you can try some creative plays. It would be reasonable to make the same raise with a medium pair if you believe you are likely to get the pot heads up. If it doesn’t work and you get multiple calls, you can still flop a set, but heads up, you can very frequently continuation bet and take the pot. This is a dangerous, but profitable play, so use it sparingly and selectively.