Its a raise....

[closer2313]

and its not even close. I remember reading this as a response to a hand where KQ was being played in EP and he asked if he should raise or just call in that spot. As a reader of this forum for the last couple of months, I realized that Im not being aggressive enough before the flop (postflop too). So this brought me up to a question, why do we raise preflop anyway?

I've come to a somewhat conclusion that we raise because
1) We have the best hand and want to get more money in the pot
2) To isolate a bad player to exploit his poor play after the flop
3) We raise in late position with a marginal hand to fold out the blinds and thus steal the pot

When we are in early position, we have no information on what everyone will do on this particular hand. We have a general idea of what some of the players will do (whether they are tight or loose, passive or aggressive) but we dont have a definite answer. So lets say we are at a 10 handed table with KQo and are UTG. Whats the best play? If we raise, its because we think we have the best hand and want to get more money into the pot. But how good of a hand is KQo compared to some other hands?

I was using a chart to compare some pot equity of what I consider marginal hands. KQo, KJo, ATo, QJo, AJo, etc.
ATo, AJo have very similar pot equities versus the same number of opponents. For one opponent 63.6 vs 62.9 for 9 its 14.3 vs 13.4. Most of us would raise AJo preflop (I think) and muck ATo. Why? High card strength is pretty similar, Connectivity is similar, Suitedness is nill, and their equities are very close. Why is AJ considered a much better hand than AT?

Comparing something like KQ and KJ. 1 opponent their equities are 61.4 vs 60.6 vs 9 its 15.1 vs 13.9. I dont think anyone is raising KJo UTG but in response to that thread KQ was a raise "and its not even close" Both hands have an equity advantage vs 9 opponents. Both have High card strength, lack suitedness and have similiar connectivity. Why is KQ such a better hand than KJ, that you would raise with one and probably muck the other. Its like the difference between night and day, but Im just not seeing why.

KTs is actually a better hand then KQ in terms of pot equity but I dont know anyone who is raising that UTG (at least I haven't seen a hand like that posted).

Why is it a sin to open limp in MP? Why is ok to limp in EP but not MP. LP makes sense to me because you can fold out the blinds and steal the pot, plus your added advantage of position makes or saves you alot of money. What is the difference between UTG+1 and MP1 that makes the difference between open limping with 66 or raising it?

So why are we raising preflop? Thanks for any thoughts you can give me. I try to think of the hand in a specific situation but the true reason for raising vs calling vs mucking is just eluding me.