lol i swear i didn't see this thread before i made my remark about raising the flop with 88 in the other thread.

i don't know how to put this in a way that isn't confusing, so i'll just say it how it is in my head now:

assuming that everything worse folds AND that raising is +EV, one of the following needs to be the case for this to be a good play:

1) screw balance and we're raising absolutely any two cards that are 88 or worse in this spot because it is +EV to run a bluff here with a two outer (we have no more than two outs to any hand that beats us on this board) in a vaccuum.

2) we're merging our raising range to compensate for a wide bluffing range so that villain can't simply call down with 77/A4/AJ for the times we hold a bluff. in other words, shit we shouldn't be worried about since this isn't a 400nl HU match.

so, in short, on the assumption that villain never calls with worse, we might as well raise with 72o here if we're going to raise with 88, and the only reason you singled out this hand to raise is because of the fact that we can profitably call with it, which is SUPER counter intuitive from a theory standpoint.

i would also like to point out that this REALLY isn't a good example of a spot where things are made tough if we simply call rather than raise, seeing as how we're in position and facing a player that we don't expect to fire many double barrels, on a board that is bone dry. just call, and sometimes he'll hit his 6 outer, but whatever