[Greg J]

You raise an intersting point. Is it better to let them make a mistake, or give them a chance to make a HUGE mistake? It depends on whether they will make the bigger mistake. Here is a hand from memory I posted several months ago.

I am in the BB with 83o. There are four callers and the sb completes.

The flop: 6 Q 3 r. SB checks, and I check intending to fold to any bet, but it's checked around.

3 bb pot on the turn: 8. SB bets, and I call, getting 2 more callers behind me. They were probably already making a mistake by calling. I didn't want to totally blast them out.

River is a brick. SB checks, I bet, get two callers and MHIG.

Most of the time raising this turn will just result in blasting out the field, even against loose passive types (plus there is the rare occasion where I'm behind to SB, which opens me up to a 3 bet).

EDIT: This kind of situation is not the norm. Usually when you have the best hand it's best just to bet/raise.