[deathpotato]

If you aren't playing with people you don't expect to play with often, increasing the size of your raise with a very strong hand when you think you are more likely than usual to be called can be very reasonable. With a hand like AQ, though, the postflop play is much easier with a slightly smaller pot, so I'd prefer a raise of 300.

In hand 2, I don't see why you want to put pressure on the shortstack. If you take him out you will have a bigger lead on the others, but the blinds are so low that you will not be able to exploit it very well for a while.