DECISION POINT: In the early stages of a multi-table Tournament with blinds at 50/100 and no ante in play the action folds to the player in the Cutoff who open limps into the pot. You are on the Button with K♦J♦ and action is on you. What do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: We are in the early stages of a multi-table tournament. The blinds are 50/100 with no ante in play and we are dealt KJ suited on the Button. The players in Early Position, Middle Position, and in the Hijack all fold. The Cutoff open limps and action is on us.

When an opponent limps into the pot in front of us, we must ask ourselves the question of whether limping behind will be profitable. Our specific hand, King Jack of diamonds, falls into the range of hands we would normally raise first-in with from the Button.

Given we will have position through the remainder of the hand and our hand is a suited connector with high card value, we can also elect to play it as a speculative hand. Typically with speculative hands, such as this suited one gapper, we can often call after a limper as long as stacks are 20 or more big blinds deep. So calling would be profitable

While we know that calling in this spot is an acceptable option, with a strong broadway hand that has high card value we can also play this hand aggressively by raising with it and isolating this limper. Given the factors outlined in this hand, how do we determine which of these options will be more profitable?

The key to determining which play will be more profitable in the long run is a clear understanding of the Cutoff’s open limping range.

If the opponent is likely to be limping a weak and wide range that looks something like, Ax, plus broadways and any suited cards, we should tend to play our hand more aggressively. Against a more condensed limping range with stronger holdings there is more value in limping behind and playing our hand speculatively.

Since our opponent limped into the pot from the Cutoff seat, we can assume that their hand range is wide and weak by default. This makes raising with KJ suited a more profitable play than simply calling.

Raising gives us the ability to potentially take down to the pot preflop, or isolate the limper and continuation bet with a high frequency to win uncontested pots postflop.

Raising is the best play.