During this year's WSOP, I had the extreme pleasure and good fortune to sit in on a few strategy lectures that Barry Tanenbaum gave in the Poker Stars hospitality suite. I was so impressed, and learned so much from the brief sessions, I hired Barry for a two-hour private consultation to identify and plug a few holes I thought I had in my no-limit tournament game. They helped tremendously -- even though I didn't make it far in the Main Event (my own fault for getting a case of the stupids) I subsequently used Barry's advice at a Legends of Poker preliminary event and finished 40th out of 395, and in my first WWdN after returning home from the WSOP, where I final-tabled.

In other words, Barry Tanenbaum is The Man, and when he speaks, people who want to improve their game should listen.

Every week, Barry posts a Thought of the Week at his blog, which provides insight into a specific poker strategy or concept, and every week I read it and get one step closer to growing a level in poker.

This week, Barry addresses open-limping in hold'em, and why you should never do it:

Today we will talk about a subject that comes up a lot in lessons: Why do I say that you should (almost) never open limp in limit hold'em?

We will discuss the following reasons:

· Poker is a battle for the blinds.
· Limping is guessing.
· It keeps hand selection down and forces tighter play.
· Limpers can be victimized.
· Raising helps create dead money.

In the link below, Barry goes into each of those bullet points more thoroughly at his website, and when I read them I had an equal number of "man, I can't believe I never thought of that" and "Man! I should have known that already!" moments. I strongly encourage you all to read the linked post, and explore his archives if you have some time . . . unless you plan to be playing against me anytime soon, in which case you should just watch a lot of Celebrity Poker Showdown.

Note: This post originally said Barry's strategy was about no-limit hold'em, when it is, in fact, about limit. I also messed up the links. The errors have been corrected. (Thanks, Bob!)