KJs in SB after many limpers

[toby]

Party .5/1, This happened twice (different tables) within about 10 minutes and wasn't sure how to play it. Each table was almost full, 8 or 9 players. Each pot had 6 or 7 limpers, both times I completed in the SB. Should I raise the field here to help my odds if I flop a flush draw? (Since I expected all limpers to just call).

[MarkD]

Should I raise the field here to help my odds if I flop a flush draw?

This statement is completely wrong. Raising does not help your odds, it doesn't even make sense. I see this type of statement every so often and it just does not make sense.

Now, after 6 or 7 limpers in the SB with KJs you should raise because of pot equity. Your hand plays well multi-way and you expect to win more than your fair share of pots and hence by raising pre-flop you collect a lot of fractiosn of bets that will add up in the long run. There are other reasons to raise but this is the main one.

[toby]

Can you explain "pot equity"? I thought that statement was correct because if I put in an extra SB, this results in another 6 or 7 SB's added to the pot. Therefore if I flop 2 of my suit, there's no doubt that I will chase, and I'll still have odds to chase to the river (barring some out-of-character raises.) Not entirely sure where I'm going with that argument. Anyway, you recommend raising? Could you go into further detail pls, thanks

[Nemesis]

Building a pot with your money up front so you can chase a weak draw on the flop isn't the way to go about making money at poker. That said KJs will win much more than 1/7 times that is your "fair share". So whenever you raise something like 20 cents on every dollar (i don't know this number making it up) instead of the 14 cents of every dollar which is your ammount that you put in preflop. So in this example you have an overlay of 6 cents for each bet your opponents put in one time. So you raise and get 6 callers you made 1.80 in EV. That's why you raise preflop.

[MarkD]

What nemesis said is waht I meant by "pot equity". Pot equity was probably the wrong terminology for this exact situation but what Nemesis has stated is exactly why you should raise.

[toby]

Gotcha. Thanks MarkD and Nemesis