Awful, when the alternative is clicking (should you even wish to play those hands), retaining the initiative, creating an image and better defining opponent ranges.
Dave - I don"t think this can ever be awful. There is a strong likelihood when we click open that we will go multiway. Retaining the initiative is far less important then, I don"t know how many flops we will be C betting when we go 4/5 ways. We will still create our aggro image when we open chunks from mid position onwards. I am also not sure we really define our opponents range much if at all with a raise as opposed to a limp. There are some hands that villains will fold to a raise that they would call a limp but in these tournaments they are far more concerned with there "pretty hand" rather than how strong your raise looks. When we open,cutoff calls, button calls and the blinds come along - ranges are still going to be really wide.
Open limping is not generally not what I do but it"s a great discussion topic, what is the plan? Limp/Call and hit big or get out? If there is a raise/3-bet we fold right?
Limp call would be the plan >90% of the time. We would very rarely be getting the right price not to call. Limp raise basically never - we don"t want to turn these hands into bluffs unnecessarily. We can fold very occasionally, for example, we limp the 89suited UTG at 25/50 and a really good player makes it 275 on the button. Would be folding suited connectors there and calling pocket pairs as we would still be getting the correct price.
I won"t go through individually what we would do with those options you gave. Essentially we would be looking to make bets if we think we can get people to fold better hands or call with worse.
How profitable this is will rely on your post flop skills, are they sufficient to minimise losses in the inevitable tough spots you now create?
This is the crux behind doing this. In the majority of times we reg up for a $5 tournament or a £25 live tournament we consider ourselves to be the best player at the table. I don"t think that"s unreasonable either by the way. My edge is much bigger post flop, I will have played these tough spots over and over and will consistently make better decisions than opponents.
FWIW, I have never adopted a strategy like this. "Always be opening with a raise" is a decent thought process to start with in poker but it shouldn"t blinker us from making plays that might be even more +ev. I am still most definitely undecided on this and am looking for more feedback.
Awful when compared to other options.
Basically this is concerned with maximising implied odds, and works best against level 1 opponents (little/no consideration of Hero"s hand strength). Whilst these players do exist, they"re naturally biased towards the lower end of the buy-in scale. Did come across one utter retard in the £220 I played last night who fit a level 1 description (if that!), but that"s one player out of 10.
There"s a reason why plenty of poker resources includes the hands you"ve specified in an UTG folding range - that"s because they"re nigh on impossible to play profitably. Yes, it"s a valid strategy you can get away with if you"re playing a freeroll or a low stakes donkament populated by dribblers. You don"t find a great deal of those.
Any good player will only need to see one occasion where you limp/call and not end up playing it like an overpair to get an idea about what you"re doing (what else could you possibly be doing outside limping mediocre holdings?). You also define your UTG opening range as a result.
I"m coming at this from the higher buy-in end of what you"ve specified. You don"t always get multi-way pots, retaining the initiative is really important against the average-good players and you certainly can narrow down ranges. I saw loads of limping from K9o, 52s etc yesterday - but not in raised pots, the mentality of some players is such that even a click will shut down a bunch of trash you can"t possibly read.
I don"t think you"d particularly get into a load of trouble if you"re disciplined, however you"re making it much harder to win the big pots out of position.
But just fold, it"s so much easier.