DECISION POINT: In a Tournament, the player in the Cutoff seat limps into the pot. What do you do with KJ suited?

PRO ANSWER: Whenever a player has limped into the pot in front of us, we can ask ourselves the question of whether limping will be profitable.

Typically with speculative hands, such as this suited one gapper, we can call after a limper as long as stacks are 20 or more big blinds deep. So calling would be profitable here.

However, KJ suited is also a legitimately strong broadway hand with high card value. We can play this hand aggressively by raising with it and isolating this limper. Which option will be more profitable?

To answer this question we want to look at our opponent’s hand range. When their hand range is weak and wide, we should tend to play our hand more aggressively. When their hand range is narrower and stronger, the more value there is in playing our hand passively by calling.

Since our opponent limped into the pot from the Hijack 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 win this pot uncontested preflop or on the flop with a continuation bet.

Raising is the best play.