[jjacky]

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Your reasoning makes little sense. You seem to think that you are ahead pre-flop, but that your outs are tainted post-flop. How did that happen?

Also, you say that the only people that will fold are weak pairs, gut-shots, and backdoor draws, and that your only chance of winning is to go to a showdown.

This is EXACTLY why you raise. You would love hands like Q 3 (or K 3, and yes, at least on e person here has a hand THAT bad) to fold, because if you do hit your Q you want it to be good.

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hey, that's confusing: at first you ask me how it is possible to be ahead preflop and having tainted outs post flop and a moment later you tell me you want to get hands like Q,3 out. i think you know why some outs might be tainted...

[ QUOTE ]
Hero has outs to call. Raising is almost always better because:

1) A small percentage of the time he has a better hand than the bettor
2) Each fold he induces improves his chance of winning dramatically (again, how much is it worth in pot equity if he gets Q3 to fold? That probably doubles his chances of winning the pot)

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point one is no reason to raise.

lets look at point 2:
yes, if you get a small pair with an A or Q kicker to fold, you will probably double your chances to win. but at the same time you double your investment. that means a raise is only a good play if all the following conditions are met (that's a little rough, but valid most of the time) :
- a call is better than a fold (if a call has negative expectation, a raise with twice the price and twice the chance to win shoun't have a positive EV either)
- a small pair with a A or Q kicker is out there
- the small pair with A or Q kicker would fold if you raise

not very likely that all these circumstances are met.

i want to point out that i dont even think that a call is better than a fold because you may very well be drawing dead or almost dead (against two pair, a set or a straight) and you are exposed to redraws if you hit your pair on the turn. and to make matters worse we have big reversed implied odds here.