[Entity]

[ QUOTE ]
if 4 or more people call, then if ANY overcards come on the flop, youre almost surely beaten. whats the point of raising when 4 people have already called if you arent going to get any of them to fold? even if the flop comes without overs, many will still call down with hands like AK KQ KJ etc.

[/ QUOTE ]
Ugh. The same holds true for TT and JJ, then, right? An ace, queen, or king is going to come on the flop over 40% of the time when you're holding JJ, so why raise JJ preflop?

99 holds up just often enough unimproved and still has an equity edge vs. the average hands opponents are calling with. This line changes when an opponent raises preflop (suggesting AK/AQ/KQ/etc are possibly out there), but you've got a decent equity edge against the standard hands low-limit players play preflop. Your equity edge against 4 random hands is 32%, over double what the random hands have in equity. Even against opponents with decent "limping" standards, you've got too big of an edge not to pass it up, especially when you have the button. I raise 99 from any position in an unraised pot.

Additionally, playing 99 postflop is much easier when you are the preflop aggressor.

Rob