Clicking it back and seeing any flop (even Q-9-4 rainbow) is terrible.
Devils advocate - I don"t think clicking it back is terrible at all. If we think crazy villains will be randomly peeling 25% of their stacks with small pairs, or Ax type hands then I am happy making it 3400 or something similar. We could be missing value by shoving? Never folding and the shove is the obvious move of course.
OK, I would argue, a small raise is not OK and indeed terrible due to how easy this spot actually is. It is the nut worst play (well apart from folding). If people are calling min raises light they are almost certainly calling shoves at least as light, especially as this is live.
Hands with one over card such as AJ or AQ we don"t much care if they call or fold when we shove (we like a call more). Let"s assume the limpers are going to fold as they almost always will in this spot. Some will have AA sometimes but that will be rare and there is nothing you can do about it.
If we shove and they all fold we will 8.5BB - great
If we shove and get called by an AQ/KQ type hand then we win on average about 20BB also good. We also get knocked out 30% of the time.
If we click it back thing get all complicated and we really didn"t need to make it so complex.
When we raise it another 7BB say loads of hands that would call a shove probably call here:-
99+
AQ, AJ, KQ.
Maybe 66 - 88
Maybe KJ / KT
Then we see of flop of say T-3-3 and the hand we beat fold but would have called the preflop shove
If we see a flop of A-4-9 we still can"t really get away from our hand with what is in the middle, we may pick off a few bluffs but will usually end up losing to the hands that beat us and sometimes lose our stack. We have created a horrible complex situation which is -EV
There are a few hands that will call a min raise that will not call a shove little pairs set mining incorrectly for example and TJ suited type hands who have heard of implied odds, but not enough to make up for the value we lose against hands that would have called a shove.
Phil,
As played CRAI - this hand is really simple. The flat is sort of OK btw (much better than a min raise) although a shove is still much better. What was you plan on a flop of:-
A-9-4 or
K-7-2
PS - for fun equity please tell me he had a two and a three that would be too good *lol*