Limp Shoving in Tournaments

About the Limp Shove

This move is straight out of the tournament textbook, and is a beauty to master on the tables.  It involves flat-calling/limping with a premium hand AA, KK or AK, and re-raising against a LAG opponent to steal his chips.

It’s a bold move that screams power and will change your image at the table.

Using the Limp Shove in Tournaments

The limp shove works best on a table of loose laggish players.  Limping with AA-QQ allows you to take advantage of the looseness at your table, and earn more chips than you would have with an ABC 3-4BB range from early position.  The move works best at higher level tournaments with a buy-in of $30 or more, especially in the mid-late stages.  One important principle is to not try limp shoving with something that can be easily dominated like JJ or 1010. 

Along with earning chips limp shoving is an effective way of reasserting yourself at a table rifled with loose deepstack players (best in re-buy and high stakes MTTs).  Your limp is taken as a sign of weakness which your opponent tries to exploit.  By re-raising him however you force him to fold or call with a dominated hand.
When does the move work best?

There is not point limping UTG with KK on a dry table where everyone wants to see a cheap flop.  Limp shoving works best at fast agressive tables and preferably from early position – including SB and BB. 

Another factor to bear in mind is your stack size.  The limp shove works best when you’re small stacked because it makes it easier to jam your stack preflop without making others fold. 
Limp-Shoving without Premium Hands

You can limp shove to great effect with lesser hands such as 67 suited or 10J, however it’s important to make sure your stack is big enough. The limp shove is an act of agression and there is no point risking your entire chip stack on Jack high etc.  This said limp shoving with less than premium hands is a great way to mix up your play and is particularly useful for defending the blinds when SB or BB.  Limping then 3betting from early position shows massive strength which is partially why defending the blinds using this technique is so effective.
Problems of Limp Shoving in Tournaments

The limp shove works best against “thinking” players, which makes it less applicable to low stakes tournaments or tables with poor player quality/tight players.  Even with Lags it is still risky to limp with premium hands because there is no guaranteed someone will re-raise.