when to min raise instead of bigger

I was wondering what most of you would do in this situation. This is not a real hand history, although it might as well be since it happens often enough.

Micro NL ring game.

Holding 77 in late position. 4 limpers, including you. Flop is KJ7 rainbow. Pot sized bet in front of you and the rest fold. Do you min raise here?

Here's what I think. I say yes to the min raise as opposed to a larger raise, because if he hit top two pair he'll probably re-raise all in. Hell, he might do it with only KQ from what I've seen in the past few weeks of micro NL. If you do a massive raise, he'll probably fold and you'll miss out on some good money.

Relay to me your wise thoughts.

Oh, they just LOVE to think the min raise is a bluff and push all-in to show you who's boss. I do this often when I hit a set on the flop, and a LOT of the time they come slamming their chips all-in. Love it!

Smooth call if there are others behind you (who may chase and build the pot for you), raise whatever you think the player will call if it is already heads-up...

- sed

I generally hate to min raise but I might start using it. Last night I'm in a ring game and in MP w/ :jd: :jc:

Guy to my right does a min raise. So I'm like screw it and go 4x his bet everyone folds and he re-raises me back (min of course). Curious if I would hit a decent flop I just call and a rainbow of :qh: :9c: :ts: comes down. He goes immediatly all-in...now I'm like he got aces or kings. Best case senario I got 10 live outs (2 jacks, 4 kings, 4 eights) so I say screw it and he shows aces (STBM). Turn and river come up blank (RSTBM).

In your situation combined with simular situations like this I'd say yeah do it if for nothing else to disguise your hand and extract an extra bet...just be careful because if the player does call your read needs to be accurate if the board pairs (does he have 2 pair thus giving the player a better boat or does he have TPDK thus giving him sucker's trips).

In this situation I like a min raise. To me a min raise is a test-bet to see if a person is bluffing or not. Many times a player will have the mental thought process of, "Oh yea? Think I'm bluffing?" and will proceed to try and bully you by pushing their chips in. Take advantage of this.