Raising Preflop

your hand is strong regardless of how many players are in, and how many outs your opponents have, and you are obviously getting the right price to play, but you'd have higher EV from fewer opponents. you are going to hold in this scenario approximately 22% of the time, so lets give you four to one, receiving 4 to 1 from your bets here on out plus the pre flop action (assuming the 2 and 5 outers remain in)...
it is still a profitable play...

now lets say you were able to isolate by making it 3 with 5-7 being an initial limper, and 4-4 being the donk raiser... if you making it 3 would eliminated the K-10 and 10-9, you are now only fearing seven outs, while having a much higher expected value despite only getting 2 to 1 the rest of the way

Thinning the field is when you open from UTG and hope to get say 2 or 3 callers (you hope to thin the field).

When you open raise on the button with AK and the BB has 89s you may want him to fold (I am not sure about this actually, since he will miss the flop so often). That is the difference.

[private joker]

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Yes you want AJ [and KQ] to fold but it won't.

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Not true. I, and most 2+2ers, fold AJo to a raise. I play Party 5/10, and there are usually at least 2 TAGs at a table. I try to sit to their right, and get the fish to my right. If I have achieved good seat and table selection, there will be plenty of times better hands fold when I raise PF, and I find myself in position against weaker hands held by worse players. Welcome to poker.

Ok, but again this is not 'thinning the field' and the amount of times this happens preflop is small (that you have A10 and your opponent has and folds AJ). Note Ed Miller in SSHE recommends cold calling with AJ and KQ and that was why I did not think these hands would be folded.

Regardless, this is not 'thinning the field'.

and again, if you look at my initial post, the thing that baffled me is why you would want less players with a hand that gets the majority of it's value from strong draws

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your hand is strong regardless of how many players are in, and how many outs your opponents have, and you are obviously getting the right price to play, but you'd have higher EV from fewer opponents. you are going to hold in this scenario approximately 22% of the time, so lets give you four to one, receiving 4 to 1 from your bets here on out plus the pre flop action (assuming the 2 and 5 outers remain in)...
it is still a profitable play...

now lets say you were able to isolate by making it 3 with 5-7 being an initial limper, and 4-4 being the donk raiser... if you making it 3 would eliminated the K-10 and 10-9, you are now only fearing seven outs, while having a much higher expected value despite only getting 2 to 1 the rest of the way

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Your example is so contrived it is tough to give it any serious thought.

[private joker]

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Ok, but again this is not 'thinning the field'

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When did I ever mention 'thinning the field' in my post(s)? I never used that phrase.

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Note Ed Miller in SSHE recommends cold calling with AJ and KQ and that was why I did not think these hands would be folded.

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No he doesn't.

[QTip]

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Thinning the field is when you open from UTG and hope to get say 2 or 3 callers (you hope to thin the field).

When you open raise on the button with AK and the BB has 89s you may want him to fold (I am not sure about this actually, since he will miss the flop so often). That is the difference.

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I really don't think the distinction your making exists. You're describing 2 different scenarios.

There are times when a raise UTG is to get people to fold. There are times when a raise from UTG is for value.

There are times after 1 or 2 poor limpers that a raise is to get people to fold. There are times after 1 or 2 poor limpers that a raise is for value.

There are times when you open from LP that a raise is to get people to fold. There are times when you open from LP that a raise is for value.

These are certainly not concrete in every example, but nonetheless, example exist in each situation.

Meh, you're the boss. I'd check the section on cold calling preflop before you say that though. You're probably right... what do I know?

(I mentioned thinning the field in my post initially, I'm happy you agree with me that it doesn't exist)

i'm still wondering what the point of the post is... i've spent a half hour trying to explain that top pair holds up less often than a straight or flush to this ninkenpoop, and why you'd want better pot odds when drawing to a hand with J-10 suited...