[AMadison]

Is raising this flop really the best choice? The only logical reason for raising this flop is to pump it up. Nobody is folding to a flop raise here. The worst odds you're laying is the 15-2 to the small blind (and even a smart small blind player would see it as 18-1 assuming the BB doesn't 3bet). So all it serves to do is put 5 more small bets into a pot that you are very vulnerable to lose.

Whats more is consider a flop raise here and then a blank on the turn (as opposed to the 9[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]). Then because its a blank we can assume no one got help and thus we get checked to. When we bet here we lay 11-1 odds to 4 players giving the proper odds to draw to even the worst of draws.

No consider a flop call. Assuming the SB still calls (as we can easily assume since he called 2 bets) there would be 7.5 BB in the pot. Now assume a blank again as done before. When it gets checked to us and we bet here we are only laying 8.5 -1 odds making it a mistake for people to draw to certain long shot draws. And since we make money when they make mistakes, we need to give them every opportunity to make such mistakes. By raising the flop we prevent them from making a mistake even if they have no knowledge of pot odds.