Behold - the minraise!

[mcatdog]

Let's say blinds are 50/100, you have around 1300-1500 chips and a hand in late position that you'd like to play. People left to act are a standard mix of SnG players some good some bad but no one absolutely terrible. Min-raising is better than standard raising IMO.

-you're not really giving anyone implied odds because your stack isn't very big
-your raise usually still limits the number of callers to 1 or 2 because the blinds aren't that small so a bigger raise isn't needed for isolation
-when you raise to 300 a c-bet on the flop will pot commit you usually but if you minraise and get one caller, you can c-bet and get away from the hand easily if you're raised and you have nothing
-bad players in the BB will call you with more weak hands which is a good thing because you get to play a pot in position with better cards than them, also they usually fold to your c-bet anyway
-most people will re-raise you preflop with the same range as if you'd raised to 300, so you're risking fewer chips to win the same amount

This is something I do all the time with the right stack size, but the only other person I've ever seen do it is gabe who hardly ever plays tourneys. Any thoughts?

[taipan168]

I've seen this done at a few very high buyin SNGs that I've railed, including some top players at 2+2. I guess it might work at very high buyins or where there are no totally terrible players because the fold equity of a minraise would be just about as much as a 3x BB raise - mainly because the BB won't call you with QTo once blinds hit 50/100. In fact, I would imagine that at very high buyins a minraise would be very scary indeed.

Do you think that the 2.5x BB raise once blinds hit 50/100 is a compromise between not bloating the pot with a 3x BB raise but maintaining some FE in case BB is a donkey?

[Zee Devee]

^^^^^

Why wouldn't this work with terrible players as well. A BB will call 300 if they will call a minraise.

But then again- by assumming the person minraising is terrible, like most are at the 6.50's, should I still be calling with worse hands because I am getting decent odds?

[mcatdog]

I guess it might work at very high buyins or where there are no totally terrible players because the fold equity of a minraise would be just about as much as a 3x BB raise - mainly because the BB won't call you with QTo once blinds hit 50/100. In fact, I would imagine that at very high buyins a minraise would be very scary indeed.

If the BB calls me with QTo I really don't mind because he'll be folding to my c-bet most of the time, and in general I have an edge on the flop if people are calling me OOP with hands that weak. I do mind if my min-raise regularly gets 2 or 3 callers, but in my experience this doesn't happen at 50/100 or later, even at small stakes SnG's.

I think a min-raise is scary at high buyins because it makes it harder for someone to re-steal. They're committing their whole stack for not as big of a gain as if you'd standard raised.

Do you think that the 2.5x BB raise once blinds hit 50/100 is a compromise between not bloating the pot with a 3x BB raise but maintaining some FE in case BB is a donkey?

It's better than 3x but I still prefer a min-raise because even at 2.5x a raise and a failed c-bet costs you almost half your stack. In high-stakes MTT's I've noticed that lots of good players use a 2.5x raise late in the tournament and that's with antes.

[Jack Sawyer]

I use the minraise too. But more for tilting effect.
As always, sometimes I have it, sometimes I don't. People see you minraising and automatically assume you don't have it, and reraising you.'
Then you go for the kill.
Obviously, this works w/ shallow stacks only (M< 15).

[LeFou]

This is something I do all the time with the right stack size, but the only other person I've ever seen do it is gabe who hardly ever plays tourneys. Any thoughts?

I do this all the time versus players that don't suck, but who are on the average worse than me. It's a value raise that prevents my having to make any difficult decisions later.

[bjsaust]

Every time I see donks min-raising from anywhere on the table and getting all folds for a number of orbits, and then my 3xBB raise gets shoved over I get tempted by this.

Maybe its also less of a resteal target as its less chips?

[givememyleg]

Hmm... I think this is going to be a good discussion.

I think one thing we will run into here is our cbets will be called more often, and pretty much impossible to fire another barrel.

Would you ever min-raise a made hand in this position? Not quite sure what you mean by "a hand in late position that you'd like to play." Just any hand you would normally go 2.5 - 3x with?