AK in the BB - Check or Raise Preflop

I'm having difficulty deciding what to do when I'm in the BB with AK with limpers. I was playing $5/$10 limit at a local casino recently and this situation came up twice. Each time, there were 3 to 4 limpers when it gets to me in the BB. Each time I decided to check.

I was torn between checking and betting for the following reasons. If I check, I conceal the strength of my hand and if I don't flop a pair, I can fold cheaply. However, I'm not getting maximum value out of this hand by simply checking and if I do flop a pair, I'm not going to make that much money from this premium hand. If I raise, I'm charging the limpers for coming in with weak cards, but I'm also building the pot, giving the limpers proper odds to chase to any draws that may come.

Thoughts?

[damaniac]

Raise. You have an equity edge. Postflop, you can fold just as cheaply if you like for 0 bets. Often you'll call because the pot is so large, but then you are doing so because you have correct odds, and those were made by bloating the pot preflop, but while you had an edge. This is different than say bloating a pot preflop with a weaker hand and giving yourself odds to draw on later streets b/c of it. If you are correct in terms of equity and odds to make a certain decision, then make it, and don't worry about losing a few bets: you're gaining bets in the long run by taking it.

[sean c]

Hi shean your giving up to much value by not raising this in the bb with multiple loose limpers already in.

[BoxLiquid]

SSHE!

Even if you hit your King or Ace it's a very weak hand. I would prefer if I can raise and get callers, then when K or A hits I really want them to fold right away.

[damaniac]

While it's true that in a large field I will want folds on the flop, flopping top pair with AK in a multiway field is not "a very weak hand" on most boards. It's decent, when you flop it you will win a good portion of the time. Nonetheless, you have a good equity edge (this has been PStoved before countless times) so you should raise. You may have to be creative postflop in finding a way to protect your hand (being the raiser and OOP will make this difficult) but you probably shouldn't be passing up an edge this large.

It's also worth noting that in a lot of super multiway pots (7, 8 handed in the live 3/6 games) the pot is going to be big enough for everyone to draw anyway, even without the raise. So you may as well bloat it, earn money on your edge, and give the oddball who folds a pair or draw on the flop a chance to make a bigger mistake.