Theory question - raising with second best hand

[cianosheehan]

In TOP, Sklansky talks about raising or re-raising when you are sure you have the 2nd best hand, in order to force other opponents out and increase your chance of winning.

I am a bit confused about this concept. Isnt it better to keep others in, as this will increase your pot odds for your draw? If you are certain that hitting your outs will give you the best hand, why try and force others out when they could be paying you off?

Or is this down to having a made hand, say, on the flop, and at the same time being sure one other opponent has a better hand than you, and you are trying to force out others with weaker draws to stronger hands?

Finally, do you think its profitable to incorporate these moves into your low stakes game? Particularly the $25/$50/$100 rings?

Thanks
-Cian

[bingledork]

First, this is a limit concept. You would be well advised not to attempt this in no-limit. Try asking this in the limit forum.

Second, the idea is that every player in the pot has a certain amount of pot equity, which represents the percentage of time your hand wins. The idea is to make well-placed raises/reraises in order to get people to fold such that your pot equity increases. Basically you want to "clean up" some of your outs. Unfortunately I don't have any examples at the moment.

[Ghazban]

Its generally more applicable to limit but, in no-limit, you can use it by raising with a non-nut flush draw (say a suited connector that flops a pair and a flush draw). Then the naked nut flush draw will probably have to fold and you can win by making a flush. Specifically, if you have 7h6h, villain 1 has AsKs, villain 2 has Ah3h and the flop is:

Kh 7s 4h

If villain 1 bets and you just call, villain 2 with the nut flush draw will almost surely call behind you. Then if a heart comes, you will probably lose your stack. By raising this flop, you can force villain 2 out and clean up your flush outs.