Min-raising late in MTT's

Straytfrush brought this up on another thread just recently, but thought I might post the question here. We were railing for skllzdatkills just now (who took 3rd for almost $20k, woot) and were noticing that the standard raise was a min-raise, and it was usually taking down pots, even when a bigger stack was in the BB. At the level we were watching the BB was getting 4:1 odds to call, which in theory justifies calling with any two cards. This is not specific to this tourney, I'm sure you all have seen it elsewhere, particularly late in MTT's.

So what's the theory here in min-raising? Or perhaps the question is what's the theory in folding to a min-raise when you're in the BB? Is it just about chip preservation? You don't want to put your stack at risk when you hit middle pair or TPNK with your marginal hand? Seems like there wasn't a lot of desire to play post flop. I don't pretend to play at any stakes above about $2, but seems like as a big stack I might be tempted to abuse middle stacks min-raising me by 3-betting pf and/or playing aggressively post flop. Unless they hit the nuts they don't want to donk off a bunch of their chips or bust out with shorter stacks hanging around.

Anyone care to comment on the theory here?

I think it has something to do with position, but I still think with a hand like 87s you might just call instead of 3 bet.

congrats to skllzthatkillz! If the ft is nitty min raises should take down most pots, but in most tourneys its an invitation for the small stacks to shove overtop. I would only minraise at a ft to persuade would be callers to shove on me

It's a weird adjustment, but given the stack to blind sizes late in MTTs it's fairly appropriate. You have to consider how different types of players will respond. From the min-raiser point of view, assuming you're relatively skilled: Fishy players will be obvious in their response by folding weak stuff and raising good stuff. So you commit to least to achieve your goal against them. If they happen to flat-call it's okay because the you have initiative/position/skills. On the other side, good players tend to know that a min-raise represents a lot of things from you. So they can't expect the min-raise to be the end of the betting...it becomes a reverse implied odds thing. Calling with marginal holdings for good PF odds isn't justified because of future bets and being OOP against you. Good players will 3-bet more often however and you'll have to be prepared for that. Occasionally a light 4-bet will be needed or you have to stop raising certain people.

That's kind of the rationale behind it. The rationale behind not calling is the reverse implied odds stuff.

I personally like to go just above min-raise. Like 2250 in 500/1000 limits. or 20750 in a 5000/10000 type spot.