Hey RIO crew,

I'm playing $1/$3 (200NL) at Crown Casino. Competition can be very soft. I am starting to struggle against a particular type of table that seems to be happening... well more than it should.

Usually theres about 1-2 others on the 9 ring table that are regs. The others are different forms of recreational players (calling station, maniac etc).

There seems to be many tables at Crown Casino where people just love to limp. Everyone just loves to limp and catch a sight of the flop. Now normal poker strategy would dictate that you should raise and punish these limpers but here is the issue...the limpers won't go away. The famous line is "Now i got value, I have to play...."

So here are some typical tough spots that you can run into:
4 limpers before CO and you have A7s, do you raise? do you limp? If i raise here, it is almost guaranteed that 3/4 limpers will most likely call (without even taking into consideration Button and blinds). When they call, it's very hard for you to put them on a range. Many of these players could be playing a better A than you but decided to limp (purely because they haven't figured out a decent opening range).

Is a potential strategy to raise a higher amount when you do open (I usually make it $12... perhaps making it $16-18 will push more of these players out).

This is one area I am having huge issues with and I know and I am playing many hands WRONGLY because of this very reason. More often than not, i find myself limping in to catch a flop and outplay them post flop (because many of them are calling stations).

When the flop doesnt favour me, I usually check/fold because with 3-4 other players in, it is very unlikely you can push everyone out.

Some other table dynamics - A 3Bet on these tables usually indicates Qs and higher. A 4-bet is indicative of Ks and As.
Ranges are quite polarized on these table when it comes to 3 and 4 bets.

So I guess in a nutshell, my question is how to play optimally on a table similar to this. It might be a tricky question and I've tried to list down a lot of the table dynamics I find when playing on these tables. If you have any additional questions, please do ask.

Keen to hear from you all,

Tutor