[Felipe]

[ QUOTE ]
*n00b question*

OK I can understand raising with hand 4. But why 1 and 2 ? We already have position, surely there's no advantage in forcing the blinds to fold, we want as many as possible in this pot don't we ??

*edit* i guess a free card is one reason, but its unlikely with this many limpers surely ?

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey Mug; This is how I understand the issue:

If you are up against 3 opponenets, your "share of the pot" is 25%. (4 players, you contribute 1/4 of the money in the pot, let us ignore the dead SB and BB for now...) If your hand expects to win, lets give figure, of about 31% of the time, now a raise from the button with JTs is going to show a good profit. We contribute 25%, but win 31%. That's a good number, and a "VALUE" raise is in order. This is what value betting and raising is all about (and this is what Expected Value is about too) Betting for value also means betting or raising to induce calls, not folds.

So if we play 10/20 limit hold'em, get 3 limpers, we raise with JTs, we'll win 31% of the pot worth $80 (ignore SB BB) = $24.80 we only contirubuted 0.25 X $80.0 = $20. We've made 4.80, or 6%. see? We can also include implied odds to further up this number, but also subract extra bets we need to make on every street. blah blah