At last weeks home game ($5 buy in sng)an interesting hand came up.

To set up the situation, earlier on, when relativly shortstacked, i raised K2s on the button. with 2 callers, and 2 checks to me on a 567 flop, i move all in, hoping no straight draw will call me. 78 does call me, but a lucky K on the turn keeps me alive.

Later on, I raise AQo preflop, and the BB calls me, who is a thinking player. The flop is QQJ, and he bets half of the pot. Hoping he has a J, and that he saw my bluff earlier, i push. He folds and tells the table that if he had anything at all, hed call me. I want to show that im not always bluffing, and table my AQ.

Heres my question-should i have pushed all in to show i will sometimes push with a monster, or just raised to give him a chance to play back? given his read on me, he might have pushed if i had raised a lot.

So given the situation, would you try to win a big pot right there, or maintain the ability to steal some pots later?

jeff