[cpk]

So your standard PF play with 74s from the BB is to call a raise with it? I must be playing too tight from the blinds, but this is an insta-fold for me unless I was closing the action (UTG made the raise) and 8 other people cold-called it. (Also, this post was mis-titled).

Let me show you something.

7s 4s 79116 12.02 561200 85.29 17692 2.69 0.133
As Ad 321880 48.92 330131 50.17 5997 0.91 0.493
Qd Kh 76481 11.62 580925 88.29 602 0.09 0.116
Ac 7c 57833 8.79 583276 88.64 16899 2.57 0.100
4c 9h 15060 2.29 627487 95.36 15461 2.35 0.034
Ts 9d 75880 11.53 572855 87.06 9273 1.41 0.122

This horribly contrived example is a fairly hostile situation for 74s. Yet it still manages to win 13.3% of the time. .133 * 11 = 1.463. If you fail to call in the big blind, you are throwing away 92 cents every time you do it. However, most of the time you will not be in such a hostile situation. On average, 74s is good 15.3% of the time. Reduce this a bit to account for the raise and cold calls, and call it 14.5%. This means that your equity is 1.59, and therefore you're throwing more than $1 away every time you make this laydown.

Keep in mind that I'm only talking about those cases where you face 5 or more other players. With fewer players, fewer hands are attractive. Offsuit hands remain thoroughly unattractive against a raise, and I agree they usually must be either raised or folded (usually folded).

When the pot gets this big, you have to play some pretty egregious stuff or you're giving up value. I would agree with you if the equity were something like 1.1, but giving up an entire half small bet is horrid.