Why Raise with Suited Connectors? (NLHE)

[jeffnc]

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This makes a certain amount of sense with one stipulation - you're against very bad opponents. You may have the choice of playing a worse scenario for higher stakes, or a better scenario for lower stakes, but they're both still very good because your opponents are very bad, so you'd take the higher stakes.

My advice was in the context of much better play.

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But on the other hand, playing better opponents requires more deception, and that's exactly what raising these gives you. If you NEVER raised suited connectors against really smart opponents, you'd be too easy to read. The better your opposition, the less likely you should be to raise SCs for actual hand strength value and implied odds on hitting a hand, and the more likely you should be to raise them for implied odds on disguising your hand (getting paid on unexpected 2 pair or trips more so than flushes and straights, or getting paid on bluffs).

[jeffnc]

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It's just that it's very hard already to draw profitably in NL against a tough lineup. Hell, you could go your whole life and never try to do it except on a semi-bluff and be a winner.

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On the contrary, it's very easy to raise in position preflop and then get a free card on the flop, giving you infinite pot odds on your draw.

[jeffnc]

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Not to be a nit, but remember that the EV of any hand increases when there are more people in the pot, simply because there is more money in the pot (obviously assuming hero voluntarily puts in the same amount).

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That's clearly not true, in the general case. There are many hands (or should I say scenarios or situations) where your EV is higher with fewer people in the hand. Two obvious counterexamples are
1) big pocket pairs in NL (not necessarily limit) where the majority of play will be post flop with deep stacks, and
2)utter trash, where your only hope of making money is based on your ability to win the pot with a bluff.

[SplawnDarts]

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It's just that it's very hard already to draw profitably in NL against a tough lineup. Hell, you could go your whole life and never try to do it except on a semi-bluff and be a winner.

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On the contrary, it's very easy to raise in position preflop and then get a free card on the flop, giving you infinite pot odds on your draw.

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Any time you take a free card and then a draw hits, observant opponents will notice. You may have infinite pot odds, but your implied odds are shot to hell. This may be the best play in certain circumstances, but usually the semi-bluff is better.

[SplawnDarts]

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But on the other hand, playing better opponents requires more deception, and that's exactly what raising these gives you. If you NEVER raised suited connectors against really smart opponents, you'd be too easy to read. The better your opposition, the less likely you should be to raise SCs for actual hand strength value and implied odds on hitting a hand, and the more likely you should be to raise them for implied odds on disguising your hand (getting paid on unexpected 2 pair or trips more so than flushes and straights, or getting paid on bluffs).

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There's some merit to what you say. However, I believe there is a MUCH better ways to disguise you hand than raising with SCs when you have no bluff equity. Clever use of pocket pairs and an appropriate preflop bluffing strategy is far superior.