Merits of MinRaising

[Mercman572]

This is controversial and I don't know how I feel about it myself. Hopefully it generates some really good discussion.

We have always discussed why minraising is bad in many situations; it allows draws to correctly call, misses out on value when we're best, can be "obvious," and often has little to no fold equity when we are behind. However, many PR players frequently min-reraise and at first I was at a loss of what to do. This got me thinking that in certain situations by taking game theory into account it has potential to be an effective play.

The situation I am referring to is HU, in position. Most times this will be a board without significant draws. The key to this would be a thinking player capable of folding, and selecting the correct frequency. For instance, a player in EP raises a standard 4BB and you call with whatever. The flop comes 8 high. As the player is prone to do, he makes a PSB, you minraise him. Continuation bets with missed overs basically have to fold, and its cheaper than a PSR if he does in fact have a solid hand better than yours. The key for this to work is that it is a PSB, and you will do this with a piece of the board as well, so that the opponent cannot possibly know when reraising is correct. Also, with solid hands you build a pot when called. If he calls and checkfolds to a turn raise, he most likely would have slowed down anyway when flat called.

How is this different than flat calling with a good hand, or flatcalling with intentions to take away on the turn? Well it can be much more flustering, and as a result the opponent may C-bet with too little frequency as a result and make his flop play more obvious, and he is much less likely to fire again on the turn with missed overs than if we had cold called so we more easily know where we are at. Or, the opponent may get angry and 3 bet when you have a legitimate hand a mistakenly play a large pot OOP. A flat call still takes the EP player out of the drivers seat.

I wouldn't mind having this immediately disputed since I haven't got a chance to implement it myself, but have fallen victim in bad sessions to the minraise and noticed when it seems to be harder to counter. Thoughts? And with explanation, and (optimally) ev calculations.