[Aaron Lovi]

The John Biggs and GuyOnTilt responses are on the right track, even if I doubt they've quite got the technique down. The big key in these games isn't "textbook poker"...it's maximing the payoff on your big hands and minimizing the amount you're paying off someone else's big hands. The reason this is so important is that with the increased number of players seeing flop, big hands are more likely to be out there--no matter how unlikely they look. And both John Biggs and GuyOnTilt are right...AKo, AQo, and KJo type hands quite often turn into the hands with which you are paying off.

So in this context, how should your friend look upon that hand with the 98o? If the preflop raiser is on his direct right, quite often on the flop everyone will check to the raiser and the raiser will bet. Now if the 98o flopped a gutshot or a weak top-pair hand, what can he do with it? There are so many players left to act that he is often stuck in raise or fold situations with a marginal hand. In other words, he can neither minimize the amount he pays off nor maximize the amount he will get paid off. This is an artifact of his position relative to the raiser. He would rather there be several players in between himself and the raiser whom he can just call with a marginal hand, or raise with a big hand/big draw without driving players out. And this is the way that you have to think about almost every decision at the low limit tables.