[MisterKing]

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The obvious other big reason to raise with a hand like K9o is the chance to steal w/o seeing a flop. I'd much rather steal every time than ever see a flop with K9o.

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I would too, but remember, we're talking about very loose blinds. For theoretical reasons, lets assume they never fold to a PF "steal" raise. Then what? There are plenty of players in the Party 3/6 that come very close to fitting this defenition. If we cannot steal via a raise, the next logical question is how do we get the most value for our hand. For K9o, it seems we're probably best off raising anyhow, but for some other hands (see my post above) we are likely best off calling when we cannot steal.

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I hope you have read The Theory of Poker, and if not you should, and if not recently, you should re-read it. There is a lot of attention paid to raising & the reasons you should raise.

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Or in this case the reasons you should *not* raise. If you raise A4o, are called in two spots, and the flop comes without an ace your hand is worth very little. You've likely wasted one small bet, and inflated the pot so that if its checked to you, a continuation bet will offer SB and BB ~7:1 to continue. Not pretty.

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For me, limping in w/o the intention of a c/r pre-flop, is about a 2% of the time play, mostly in the SB with hands I want to see the flop for cheaply.

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I don't understand what you're saying here.