What is with the pre-flop mini-raising

[needcash]

After about 500 SNGs at $20+$2 I still cannot figure out what the point of mini-raising pre-flop is. It's not like I see people mini-raising with AA either. It's usually crap like A/10, a/rag, k/q, k/j, etc. The best is when it's early on, there's 6 or 7 people limping in and button mini-raises to 30 chips. What's the point?

[11t]

Tryiing to figure out what awful player's thought patterns are is like tryiing to nail jello to a wall.

[david050173]

[ QUOTE ]
After about 500 SNGs at $20+$2 I still cannot figure out what the point of mini-raising pre-flop is. It's not like I see people mini-raising with AA either. It's usually crap like A/10, a/rag, k/q, k/j, etc. The best is when it's early on, there's 6 or 7 people limping in and button mini-raises to 30 chips. What's the point?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not much. It does make it more expensive to put in a real raise. I am betting the general rational is I read a book that says that raising is better than calling so I should always raise.

[bmxreed36]

Sometimes early when there are 4 limpers, you're in the small blind and call with a suited connector and then the big blind min-raises, it's fun to min-raise again when it gets to you. The original "raiser" usually just calls. It's fun and stupid and I usually do it when I'm on the verge of tilt and the the min-raise has just pushed me over the edge.

[djj6835]

Probably the thing that infuriates me more than anything else in SNGs is when I try to limp with a small pair in level 1, then the BB min raises his own blind. Then to my dismay, some other limper puts in an actual raise and forces me to fold my pair. Of course the initial min raiser folds when it gets back to him, and I'm left thinking "what was the point of that??"

[AlphaWice]

1. I routinely do this with 99 TT JJ etc. to get value from my sets in 11s: the pot is usually 1.5x bigger as a result of a 30 chip minraise and I have a much stronger chance to stack TPTK/2Pair.

2. Donks often do this with KQ / AT to get "value" from their 'good cards.'

3. If a donk folds to one bet, which routinely happens, it is +EV for you. If he calls one bet with a vastly inferior hand, it is also +EV for you because he called the original bet with a crap hand and now you are making your +EV larger, by forcing him to put additional money in the pot which you will take later with a potsized bet on the flop.

[djj6835]

[ QUOTE ]
1. I routinely do this with 99 TT JJ etc. to get value from my sets in 11s: the pot is usually 1.5x bigger as a result of a 30 chip minraise and I have a much stronger chance to stack TPTK/2Pair.


[/ QUOTE ]

This will happen regardless of whether or not you min raise pre flop. Except if you don't min raise then you don't give someone else a chance to re raise and blow you off the hand.