[Collin Moshman]

OK, let's be a bit more concrete. Stacks are moderate-deep (50 BB+), no ante (agreed cwar, that is an important distinction). Early in the match so no real reads. You have J 4o on the button. What is your play?

I dislike the raise here, since you are building a pot with an easily-dominated hand that plays poorly post-flop. But getting 3:1 immediate odds with position and an average hand heads up, I dislike the fold as well. If he checks behind and checks the flop, you can make a 1-1.5 BB bet and usually take it as a steal. Occasionally you'll connect and get value. And if Villain isn't so compliant, you at least get some info. E.g., if you limp several times early in the match and routinely get raised, then you have lost only several SB chip investments, and you can now limp some of your better hands and let him make the bigger mistake of building a pot OOP with an inferior hand.

So getting 3:1 with position, if you don't have a raisable hand (e.g. a low offsuit jack), I would say that limping is generally a higher EV play than sacrificing your button.

I would like to see the counter-argument that folding is the higher EV play in these siutations.

-- Collin