Dealing with multiple limpers

A couple things -

1) don't raise to 3x, it is giving all the limpers good odds to call. Instead, make it whatever a standard raise is at the table, PLUS 1 BB for every limper ahead of you. So, if you were going to raise to 2.5x, and there are 3 limpers, make it 5.5X. This will give them a lot worse odds to call, and you can play against maybe 1 or 2 players, in position. Note that this really depends on the stack depth - if such a raise is going to cost a decent percentage of your stack, just put it all in and see what happens.

2) If you raise and get multiple callers and you miss the flop - don't c-bet. Firing a barrel or two with air against multiple opponents (especially calling stations) is just torching money. The flip side is that if you hit your hand, or have an overpair, go wild. Someone will probably call you, because someone likely got a piece of the flop.

So in general, I like to add 1 bb for each limper. So if I am on the button, and three limpers to me, I will raise to 3 + 3 = 6 bb. 3x is my normal opening raise, but +1 for each limper. Also, against a field of limpers my standards of raising go up. So I might open raise ATdd from MP myself, but with three limpers I will just limp along.

The quality of the limps are important too. That is a tight limp is different from a loose limp and should be treated differently as well.

If you don't like multi-way pots, then you need to determine what the raise size needs to be to get HU .. or just take it down. The formulas are good, but every table dynamic is different and you need to adjust.

If you have a loose/action Player on your left then may need to go pretty high, because if they call you then everyone else will as well. So it's not just about you and your range, it very well could be a case of monkey see monkey do.

Obv poker is a game of cat and mouse, so you will get tested. That's fine, just fold out your marginal raises and keep colleting those 'free' chips when you don't even see a Flop. GL

I’m old and I used to play low stakes limit games when they were common. What you describe is therefore VERY familiar - that is essentially what a low stakes limit game amounts to. While limping with marginal holdings is generally not a good strategy, there is a phenomenon called schooling that factors into such games. Essentially if everyone is passively limping, it can be ok to just limp yourself with the right range. This is because you get great direct pot odds to try to spike a flop with such hands and also great implied odds when you do simply because of the sheer number of opponents. Best hands for this are ones like suited connectors and small to medium pocket pairs. You either hit big and build a pot miss completely and fold.

Obviously that should not be your entire strategy. You also want to narrow your normal opening range, but size up your raises to try to thin the herd and go heads up when you have strong preflop hands. You should NOT be trying to overlimp with hands like offsuit Broadway cards or Ax offsuit hands - these play better heads up and if you can get limpers to fold, the dead money in the pot makes them even more profitable.

EDIT - I forgot to mention: overlimping is a strategy that should be used only when effective stacks are deep. It’s EV relies in large part on winning large pots for low amounts risked. It’s more viable near the beginning of a tourney. It works well with a 100BB effective stack, but not so much with a 10-20BB effective stack size