Hmmm I made the pot big now what?

[Mook]

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Given that we are going to end up folding on the flop a large percentage of the time and that our opponents are likely to play their hands the same way after the flop regardless of pot size, I'm really confused as to why a preflop raise is good. While I understand that we likely have a preflop equity advantage against that many opponents, our position sucks, our image apparently sucks, and I really don't think we gain anything out of it long-term except higher variance.

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For purposes of raising 99 here, position doesn't really matter much, and in this case our crazy image works in our favor. If we do flop a set, both the larger pot and our loose image are going to ensure we get paid off on our PFR many times over.

I disagree that people are "likely to play their hands the same way after the flop" whether we raise or not. In a live game, 14 SB's on the flop looks like a lot of chips. You'd be amazed at the kind of junk that will peel a flop there against your flopped set for 1 or even 2 SB's that would never get involved in a 7 SB pot, especially when they think the OP might be betting / raising with anything.

I think I'd raise down to about 77 in this spot. Below that, and with this many limpers, there's the spectre of set-over-set - which is a low-percentage event but a huge equity swing - and I'd probably just complete.

Mook