Why Can't I Limp or Make Players Limp?

I've logged into the 5-Card PLO Trainer, but I don't see an option to limp for any of the players?

This isn't a bug or a mistake - sometimes in online games and often in live games, you will see players limp or open limp to enter a pot.

When a solver is calculating the best action for each hand, it takes many factors into account and one of them is rake - how much the casino or website takes from each pot. Some environments have very high rake, while others don't take as much.

Our simulations are run with a variety of different rake structures - but in cash games where a rake is always taken, open limping preflop is not seen as a good strategy. Of course this can depend if there is an Ante or Straddle in play (additional dead money in the pot along with the blinds), or depending on the game environment and dynamics/meta of the game you are playing.

Some poker rooms have splash-pot type mechanics as well where a random amount of big blinds are added to the pot preflop before anyone else acts which also changes the strategy.

Taking all this information into account - based on the simulations we have available for different rake structures and blind structures, you won't find open limping from any position in the 5-Card PLO Trainer.

Why shouldn't I limp in these high rake environments?

• Raising preflop gives you the opportunity to take down the pot preflop when everyone else folds - resulting in winning 1.5bb without even seeing a flop. If you could win the blinds every hand uncontested, you'd have a winrate of 150bb/100.
• Raising preflop makes it more likely you'll be in position postflop. There's less incentive for players behind to call when they have to call 3.5bb instead of limping behind for 1bb - so you're more likely to play a hand in position when one or both of the blinds defends giving you an advantage postflop.
• You're more likely to play a heads-up pot when you raise preflop - equities run close in 4-Card PLO, and even closer in 5-Card PLO so it's a bigger advantage to play more pots with less players in them. It's also easier to navigate postflop when you are playing heads up instead of multiway.
• The goal of poker is to make the most money possible (by making the best decision you can at each decision point). By raising, you are increasing the size of the pot allowing you to win more money.
• If you are limping with certain hand classes and raising other hand classes - it becomes easy for your opponents to figure out which types of hands you are doing this with, and makes it easy to play against. When a passive player who limps starts taking aggressive actions (preflop or postflop), it's much easier to fold when they suddenly start firing.
• Limping allows better players who are acting behind you to isolate you and raise preflop, putting you at a big disadvantage postflop - they know your relative hand strength, and have more control over the betting and size of the pot and have an easier time handling flops, turns and rivers when they are in position.

There is a time and place for limping - especially in tournaments and possibly in games with a straddle or an ante, but in high rake cash games, it's often not a good strategy to open limp.