Trying to look scary and failing miserably
 

100 sng, blinds at 50/100

I'm UTG with AQs and 750 chips. I raise to 250, hoping to look super-scary and maybe get a few mid pairs to fold instead of calling. My plan is to put all of my money in at the next opportunity no matter what happens.

A very tight player with 1200 chips UTG+2 thinks for a bit and min raises to 500. Ruh-roh. It folds around to me. Time for a new plan?

I usually save the 1/3 stack raises for big pairs in the hope that someone will come over the top. But for some reason this time I decided that it would be blatantly obvious and no one would mess with me without a good hand. Something in that logic must be wrong.. My two questions are:

1. In the situation above, do you figure that you're committed with AQs and shove it in getting 2.3 to 1, or do you consider laying it down?

2. Do you think people are more or less likely to call you when you raise something ridiculous like 1/3 of your stack?

Re: Trying to look scary and failing miserably
 

How many players in the the game?

And btw, min-raises are usually reflective of a very very narrow range of hands, whereas a push is wider. IME.

Scuba

Re: Trying to look scary and failing miserably
 

It was a pretty full table still, say 9 players. A raise of that size, from that player, in that position was about the scariest thing I could think of.. I had him on a very very tight range.

Re: Trying to look scary and failing miserably
 

I think there were a couple polls earlier this year, about what are **your** minimum pushing standards for the situation you're describing. I'm certain that AK was the predominant drawing hand for this scenario. And I think that AQs was a very distant 2nd.

Anyway, another thing to think about with a full table like this is that you still have time to be patient. AQs UTG is pretty vulnerable. It's a very pretty hand, but vulnerable. This is even more important due to your stacksize.

Now, with 9 players left, and 500 chips behind(or 350 after the impending blinds), you now have to make a more serious decision. Pot odds are such that you need to win this hand 30% of the time. So I couldn't fault you for pushing and hope you're up against KK or less.

Re: Trying to look scary and failing miserably
 

Hmm, I'm folding AQs here approximately 0% of the time. I honestly didn't even think of that, so I'd better backtrack and make sure..

In SNGPT with everyone on the average range (which is probably looser than most people would play facing an UTG raise), it's pretty clear that I have to play this hand. Putting them on more realistic ranges, it would be a terrible fold.

Maybe it's being a little results oriented, but given the action I really think I could have folded after the min raise. And I definitely would have folded to that min raise followed by another raise.

I have a feeling that I'm overthinking this and should just stick to pushing, but I think the fact that there are situations where I could probably fold correctly is an argument for raising small. I definitely don't want to make a habit of making "good folds" after committing 1/3 of my stack, but this may be an ok spot for it. Anyone else have an opinion?

Re: Trying to look scary and failing miserably
 

You don't have enough chips here to make any play without being pot committed. It's a call you have to make.

I think you have three options from when you open.

1)You can limp and hope for the limp rr, or a good flop.

2)You can go all in and win the blinds or get knocked out by a monster.

3)You can raise to three fifty and hope that any caller won't realize that you are pot committed and fold to your push on the river.

I would go with 2 or 3 depending on how I read the table...

Re: Trying to look scary and failing miserably
 

I've seen this donkish min-raise or normal-raise-with-less-than-10bb a lot, and I just consider it the same as an all-in and act accordingly.

By the way, I push AQs here 100% of the time with 7bb.