But they know that someone with a better hand is going to squeeze them out with a raise further down the line , so the argument for cheap entry is negated . Every card you allow your opponents to see , the more chances you give them to outrank your hand . If you feel confident in your cards and wanna thin the field , raise preflop . If you don ' t , you risk getting your pair of nines decent hand get outrank in the flop by two pairs another player with 23 suited who thought the playing price was low and got lucky . Besides , there ' s no downside on raising preflop . Sure you may end up headsup real quick but you ' ll be geting more bang for your buck if the opponent decides to call your raises with less chances of someone outranking your hand . Hope I made my pont clear !