I think you are up against ace something. If he has been raising big with the PPs then why the min all of the sudden. He could be mixing up his play but you said small stakes so I make the assumption he thinks you are stealing(you have been active) and he hopes to make you think he is strong by raising you back with his ace. I guess his lower PPs he may do this with as well.

The flop bet tells me the same thing. He has hit A with weak kicker and would rather just have you out and of course fearful of the fact that you may have a hand or has 99-22 thinking you may just go away.

Might also try with the other pocket pairs as well but I think you are ahead way more than you are behind. I like the call here since either way ahead or way behind. Why risk stack if way behind. See the turn and see what happens, you can open up some redraws on the turn as well for cheap if you are behind.

If behind, I'd be much more comfortable putting the rest of stack in a spade comes on turn or a 5 or 2 even, giving yourself an even better chance to catch up.

But pushing flop also ok as there are a ton of lesser hands calling you. Also if board texture different I would push flop too. If 2 hearts rather than 2 spades or middle range cards( like A67).

What - is it just me who doesn't get this? Why the **** hearts over spades? You have the A of spades so if you're giving a **** about flushes then spades are surely the ones you want....

If KK, I don't think it changes much than if A -rag. The only reason I think Ax is that he has reraised big with the high PPs. This was a min reraise. I guess possible as big reraise commits his chips but he is already committed so why not push reraise with KK.

Unless he has done this with AA, I don't think it chnages the hand much.

pushing wins you nothing when you're ahead, and loses everything when you're behind.

Waiting till the turn for more information:

Another bone of contention I have with certain authors is the theory that you should play your hands aggressively on the flop so as to better define your hand, and at the same time, to gain more information from your opponents. This theory is actually very effective in limit hold’em, but that theory doesn’t translate well to no limit tournaments.
The main reason for that, is simple: it’s too expensive. In limit hold’em, a raise represents just one extra unit, but in no limit hold’em, if you are going to raise someone on the flop to “find out where you are at” it will cost you a pretty penny. Let’s look at an example:

With blinds at 50-100 a player from early position makes it 300 and you call with Ah Jh. The big blind calls so three of you see the flop: Ad 8s 3h. The big blind checks and the pre-flop raiser bets out 800. If you were to raise him here, a standard raise would cost you about, say, 2400 in chips. So let’s say you do that, the big blind folds, and now the first raiser calls the bet. What information have you gained exactly? What if the under the gun player re-raises you? Well in this case, it would seem as though you’ve gained some valuable information and your AJ is likely behind. You could fold and take your 2400 loss.
Now, in this same situation, let’s look at the benefits of just calling on the flop and you’ll see that all of the information that cost you 2400 on the flop, you can get with an 800 call on the flop coupled with a reevaluation on the turn.

So now you just call on the flop and the big blind folds. The turn card is a Q and now your opponent bets 1600. You still aren’t sure if your AJ is the best hand, but the fact that your opponent bet again should lean you towards thinking that you are beat. Since you are unsure, though, you call the 1600.

Now, at this point, it’s cost you the exact same amount of chips had you raised on the flop, the only difference is that you’ve made it all the way to the river. To help you figure out the best course of action on the river you have the following information: My opponent raised before the flop and followed through with a continuation bet on the flop. I called the bet, a Queen hit the turn yet my opponent wasn’t afraid and bet once again. I called that bet as well, so if my opponent makes a big bet at the river he has to know that I have a strong hand and am not on a draw.

That’s a lot of information. Your opponent could still bluff you on the river, but the same could be said about his flop re-raise. He may be coming over the top of you on the flop with a weaker ace, or just as a bluff.

There is one other key benefit to smooth calling on the flop in this situation rather than raising: you allow yourself a chance to suck out! If your opponent has, say, AK, bets the 800, you make it 2400, and now he re-raises you off the hand, you’ve just lost 2400 with no chance to get lucky. However, if you just call the flop, you could get really lucky and spike a Jack on the turn or river. Or, you could even make a backdoor flush with the hand and possibly win a big pot.

The only thing that’s better about raising on the flop is that you protect your hand from being outdrawn when you are ahead, and you also get information about your opponents hand quicker. Getting outdrawn with AJ on an A-8-3 rainbow flop should be the least of your concerns. If you are in the lead, then you will be substantially in the lead. A worse ace can only hit one of three kickers, and a pocket pair can only hit one of two cards. The biggest threat is a total of five outs if your opponent has a hand like 8-9. That’s hardly something to be overly concerned about. As for the other benefit, who cares “when” you find out your opponent has you beat? If it costs you no less to see the river, but it takes longer to come to the conclusion that your opponent has you beat, how could that hurt you in the least?

Ok, I did a move very similar to this one yesterday in an 18 man SNG. I was 2nd in chips. the CL raised it to either 2x or 3xBB. Anyway, I minimum reraised him with AQ, I was in the cutoff. With my minimum reraise I was basically telling him that I also had a very good hand and would be more than willing to put my chips in the pot IF I was forced too, I know AQ isn't AK or AA but at this stage when blinds were escalating AQ is pretty good. So like I said, I was telling the CL that I also had a big hand so be careful if he tries to pull a continuation bet without a made hand. Well, I missed everything, but so did he and we actually checked it down all the way. CL had AJoff.

So just from this little example, it could mean that villain does have a something like AQ or AJ. I definitely don't think he has a big pair or even AK. I think he would shove with hands like that before the flop. His minimum bet on the flop does mean he has an Ace, like I said maybe AJ or AQ and he just wants to get to the river as cheaply as possible also.

That's just my opinion of the situation.

Push.

If we have him beat and just call, we give him a free shot to suckout. Also, he won't bet the turn UI if he won't call our flop push.

If he has us beat, are we folding to a bet on the turn when we have invested 1/2 our stack? After calling the reraise pf (I actually like pushing pf here), is there any way we are folding when an A hits the board? I would hope not.

I we have him beat he is drawing to, likely, 3 outs. I'm willing to give him a 12% shot to draw out on me in order to get more chips. Yeah, he may have a flush draw, but that seems very unlikely because he would have to have a hand like KsQs, which seems unlikely. I'm not saying i fold on the turn either. If he bets on the turn we're committed and we will probably call unless our read tells us something is up. But pushing the flop lets the hands that we beat fold and the hands that beat us get all of our chips. Calling seems to make way more sense.

This is wrong. When people say this, they forget to realize the amount of times people will call our pushes when we have the best hand. Is AQ, AJ, AT, going to fold this flop? Is a flush draw going to fold? The only hand that I put the other player by his pre-flop min. raise that has AQ beat is AK, or Aces. If they have pocket K's-5's they most likely will fold to a push, yet they will likely check the turn if we call.

Instead of pushing, I like to make a raise to $800.

Push.

If we have him beat and just call, we give him a free shot to suckout. Also, he won't bet the turn UI if he won't call our flop push.

If he has us beat, are we folding to a bet on the turn when we have invested 1/2 our stack? After calling the reraise pf (I actually like pushing pf here), is there any way we are folding when an A hits the board? I would hope not.

I don't think that raise makes sense either. Your only two options are calling or pushing. I still like calling better than pushing. I think you put hands like kings or queens in a tough spot because they don't know if you have the ace or the flush draw, so they might be inclined to put more money in.