Unbalanced limping range in early position

[Mark_Porter]

First couple of levels of an MTT, no antes, lets say buy in is<$20 online or <£150 live.

Thoughts on having a limping range solely from UTG and UTG+1 that looks like this:-

8,9 suited, 10,J suited, Q,10 suited.
22 through 66

Opening 77's and above, KQsuited and above. I think A10 off would be the line.

Intention is to be completely unbalanced, 4xing our big hands.

As a generic strategy before we assess table - good/bad?

[youthnkzR]

Bad IMO.

These are hands which can potentially flop v well. If we raise UTG with these hands in the first level we can still call a 3bet (assuming we're deep enough - if not i wouldn't be opening them to begin with) and have a chance of getting stacks off which is in theory a very strong 3betting range to our UTG open pre ante. However if we limp, people will iso lighter therefore even if we flop well we're most probably not getting stacks as they have a wider range which is harder to extract from (unless they have the very top).

Open smaller and leave yourself room to call a 3b e.g. Open to 60-75 @ bb30...etc,rather than limp.

[youthnkzR]

Bad IMO.

These are hands which can potentially flop v well. If we raise UTG with these hands in the first level we can still call a 3bet (assuming we're deep enough - if not i wouldn't be opening them to begin with) and have a chance of getting stacks off which is in theory a very strong 3betting range to our UTG open pre ante. However if we limp, people will iso lighter therefore even if we flop well we're most probably not getting stacks as they have a wider range which is harder to extract from (unless they have the very top).

Open smaller and leave yourself room to call a 3b e.g. Open to 60-75 @ bb30...etc,rather than limp.

Also we have 'initiative' in the hand when called and often win the pot with a cbet, as well as flopping OK top pairs with some of our Q10 type hands.

[Mark_Porter]

Lets take a random Big $5.50, or a 25XXL at DTD - do you think we will get isolated a lot in these types of tournaments if we limp EP?

Think its way more likely whether we click or limp that we will just go 4/5 ways to the flop. Initiative not that important then?

[youthnkzR]

Lets take a random Big $5.50, or a 25XXL at DTD - do you think we will get isolated a lot in these types of tournaments if we limp EP?

Think its way more likely whether we click or limp that we will just go 4/5 ways to the flop. Initiative not that important then?

If you put the big 5.50 or 25xxl in OP I could have answered for those specifically.

22 10k on stars at 6pm for e.g. Yes you would get ISO'd most likely. Don't think I'm that qualified to comment on live MTTs as its rare I play them.

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Don't mind over limping the hands but open limping meh in the big 5 probably can't be bad but I think I still prefer to open small for reasons stated.

[AlexMartin]

think its probably better live

[Rexas]

This is imo absolutely viable in a live tournament structure. Say we're in the first level of the 25xxl, Whether we open to 200 or limp for 50 isn't realistically going to affect the number of people that decide to see that flop. Often we'll be 4/5 ways or more. C-betting would be pretty foolish, as again people aren't going to be inclined to fold if they've got in their car, driven to a casino and sat down to play the first level of a 25. However, this does mean that we're going to have no problem building a big pot if we do make a set. Having the betting lead preflop really isn't that necessary, just get in cheap with those small pairs. All this balance your range crap really isnt going to be relevant here, there are so, so few players even going up to the 500 that are going to consider your range enough to make it worth balancing.

fwiw, I don't open 77, I limp 22-99 and don't play many, if any, of the suited connector hands. These things are effectively live 180 man turbos, every chip counts!