Hands that Play Better HU in Multi-Way Pots

[stinkpaw]

I am familiar with the concept of not bloating the pot with a good heads-up hand on the early streets when there are multiple villains and you don’t have a chance to get anyone to fold. For example, 5 people call the bring-in and I have a big pair with a live kicker, no point in raising as I am bloating the pot which will encourage people to chase all the way. And nobody is folding to a single bet here.

What I am struggling with is how far to I take this concept. If I have a big pair on 4th street and there are 5 people in the hand. I know everyone will call a single small bet. And I know there isn’t any way I can get anyone to face 2 bets (either by betting into someone that raises or c/r’ing) Do you ever give a free card here and wait until the bet size doubles before you fire?

Or if I have an unimproved big pair on 5th or 6th street in a multi-way pot and I know everyone is calling for 1 bet, do I every just check?

The LHE player in me feels sick giving free cards, but I guess I’m just having problems figuring out my equity in these situations to determine if a bet is +EV.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.