Into the Toolshed for some new tools.

In my last post, I discussed the need to work on my game in cases where there are several limpy-limpersons at the table. I know that the standard strategy is to isolate limpers, but I wasn't sure when to do this - with what hands, against which types of players.

So last night I did the work. I found a great forum post on isolating limpers, and read it three times. I also made several changes to my HUD, adding several stats - many of which help in these scenarios.

Limp-Call% - percentage of times a limper calls a raise behind him.
Fold to Flop bet% - percentage of times a player folds to a c-bet.
WTSD% - went to showdown percentage.
$WSD% - percentage player wins at showdown.

These stats can help you decide if a limper is worthy of isolation. Some limpers are willing to speculate with all kinds of garbage, but will fold preflop in the face of a raise. Others will pay the price of the raise to see the flop, but then fold once they see it and miss. Some players will call to the river with pocket threes even if the board is AQK58 with four hearts. The stats above can help identify these players and choose a course of action.

After getting my shiny new HUD all set up, I fired up two .10/.25 CAP tables to take it for a spin. It would be sweet justice and a good story to say that I won 100 big blinds in 300 hands, but sadly this wasn't the case. My two pair all-in was cracked by a flush draw, and my own flush-draw semi-bluff shove didn't come (Mr. Pietzak called my shove with ace-high, and was ahead of my KQs, to add insult to injury).

So I ended the night down $17.58 - the second down night in a row. I was able to employ the limper isolation strategy once or twice - my new tools didn't help all that much on this night, but I am 100% sure that they will add to my win rate over the long haul.