perhaps you could manage to look at the image in the OP
Guess what, I still think its a raise.
Edit:
Shat, this is learning poker so I'm not supposed to be an ass...
Typically when players limp preflop, they have speculative
hands that require lots of money behind in order to be profitable. By raising, you accomplish several goals:
1) You screw up the SPR so that they cannot profitably play fit or fold on the flop.
2) You put in more money while ahead.
3) You set yourself up to have a very profitable c-bet.
4) Players will likely check to you on the flop, so when you want a free turn you often get one.
Run a filter in HEM and check out your win rate when you c-bet the flop in position against a limper. Its insane how high it is.
Also, when you limp a hand like 99, the types of hands others are limping usually have pretty good
equity against a set (suited connectors, suited baby aces, ect.). So when you flop something like 953, the guy with 76s is actually putting you in a pretty RIO spot. You're going to win a small pot when he misses and get stacked when he hits on the turn. People are much less likely to stack off with top pair/over pair in a limped pot, and they're playing hands that don't often make top pair or over pairs. And that's generally the hand you're looking to stack off against when you have a set.
The moral of this story: punish limpers whenever possible.
Sorry for being a dick in my first couple of posts, forgot where I was posting.