[grandgnu]

At these low limits, you may not be able to protect your hand, since a lot of players don't respect raises and will chase.

While it's possible your high hand could be beat, it's doubtful it will happen. If you can keep the action 6-way, then you're going to be only getting half the pot if the board brings a low possibility. But the other players might cap it with their lows, bringing in extra bets for you.

Like the others said, the question is whether you think they'll be willing to cap it on the turn. I would figure to get at least one caller if I raise anyway, and that caller will likely have a low draw. So if the low is going to hit on the river, I'm going to lose that half of the pot whether I'm against one opponent or six.

As such, I'd be more inclined to just smooth-call and allow others to stick around and pump up the half of the pot I expect to win (and maybe build the pot larger and then no low hits on the river)

Also, a player behind you might have hit trips or a smaller boat, and raise, allowing you to raise once it gets back to you, again, building the pot even larger.

I'm not a big fan of playing the A/A/A/Q in a full-table setting at low stakes. If you're against good opponents, you can likely get them to go away on a low flop, but if you expect a bunch of calling stations, you really need to hit a magical flop to continue with that hand.