This hand has people talking

[StellarWind]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Normal flush draws should seek "horizontal" value. Investing as few bets as possible while getting lots of callers provides the best return. Raising always hurts if it means losing a caller...
Superdraws often do better with a more "vertical" approach. The total number of bets you extract from other players becomes more important and minimizing the amount you contribute matters less. Losing one caller only hurts a little and is actually profitable in some cases.

[/ QUOTE ]
This is well-articulated, and thus sounds very convincing, but in an ideal world I would be given some more basis for these statements than has been provided. This entire area is just not intuitive to me, and difficult to internalize. Perhaps someone with TTH run a sim that demonstrates some aspect of this horizontal vs. vertical theory?

[/ QUOTE ]
The basis is mathematical and it is an important general concept. Here is an example of the calculation.

Suppose that if you call UTG's bet both players behind you will also call, but if you raise only the cutoff and the original bettor will call. Is it better for immediate value to call or raise?

A typical flush draw has roughly a 1/3 chance of winning.

Calling EV = (4 * 1/3) - 1 = 1/3 SB
Raising EV = (6 * 1/3) - 2 = 0 SB

In each case your EV for the flop action is 1/3 of the total amount of money going into the pot less the money you put in the pot. As you can see calling is better.

Now consider a monster draw with a 55% chance of winning.

Calling EV = (4 * 55%) - 1 = 1.2 SB
Raising EV = (6 * 55%) - 2 = 1.3 SB

In this case raising provides more value even though it drives out a player. The stronger your draw is, the more the value equation favors raising over playing for overcalls.