need advice - lost in tourney

[Pure-Evil 0]

ok. here is the situation. blinds are 75/150 and a fairly tight player raises to 500 chips. a very weak and radical player goes all in with about 1200 chips...so i have 1200 to go or fold. i am not yet in this hand. it is still pretty early in the tourney, i have a decent stack but i want to build. i have about 2800 chips at this time.now, i am holding A J. the guy who went all in could be holding anything, he has busted out 3 times already playing stupid hands and rebought back in. buyins are now over though.i decided to go over the top to hopefully make it just heads up between me and the other loose guy so i went all in. now i was really not sure if i should do this or not. i was not involved in the hand, i was last to act though. i could have laid it down, but hell, it is pretty hard to lay a hand like that down with a crazy player all in right?the next to call is the tigh player. he is really debating because i have established myself at the table as a solid player. he even say this to me...then he says " there are only about 2-3 hands that have me beat right now" and i knew, uh oh. this is al pre flop btw.anyways, he calls and low and behold he has pocket J J, and the loose cannon from somewhere has A A, so now i'm almost drawing dead. flop comes out X K 10...so now i have straight draw, but never got the queen. next two cards were X K.now here is my question. hopefully Daniel will answer this fellow Canuck....did I make a major mistake going all in? is it better to lay down a big hand like that? I mean, I realize that A J is a drawing hand at best, but i honestly thought the other tight player had a small pair or something else. I know that's poker, but i would like to learn from this mistake so as to not make it again.WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE DANIEL??? thanks in advance for any advice!

[Wilderness 0]

I think it was a mistake for you to get involved in the hand. AJo is just not a very strong hand when facing a raise then a re-raise all-in. You said yourself that the first raiser was a fairly tight player, so you've got to figure you are behind to his hand at the very least. Granted, you said the all-in guy was playing like a maniac, but since the tight player is in the pot, you have to just lay down your not-looking-so-good-anymore hand.

[FromTheRail 0]

You should have laid this hand down, and quickly. Remember, after A-K the equity in your kicker drops expoenetially. Calling early position raises with less than A-Qs is going to cost you more money than it will win you. After identifying the first raiser as solid, it is difficult to even call one bet with A-Jo, calling with A-Js with position is marginal but can get you into trouble if your opponent is tricky and can out play you post flop. The only other option would have been to call and hope the first player only calls the bet to see a flop. After the flop your only hope would have been for the first player to check, maniac to check or raise and you to go all in (aka...the squeeze play). It would have been hard for the first player to call your all in raise based on what unfolded with one live hand behind him that had raised pre-flop and with an overcard on the board.

[DwayneWayne 0]

Easy fold, you have a solid, tight player opening up for a raise and another player that granted has shown to be loose still must be given credit for some kind of hand, at worst a medium PP which you are behind. The other player is more likely then not killing some of your outs if he is not completely dominating you (AK, AQ, AA, KK,QQ, JJ) The only hands you are ahead of here are KJ, KQ, I would have had a hard time putting the “tight” player on any hand that you are ahead of here which should have been the first warning bell to fold. AJ is not a great hand, and it tournaments why would you put your life on the line hoping that the tight player will fold a better hand. Basically that’s what your were betting on. Trying to isolate the “loose” player was greedy and you got caught.Easy fold, you could probably safely fold this without the loose all-in player involved. Tight player open raises in early position......YOU ARE BEHIND! So Fold, Save your Chips. Last to act means nothing if all your chips are in the middle.

[Aburame Shino 0]

I'd have folded that hand as fast as humanly possible. If you are going against a raise and a re-raise, A/J is not a very pretty hand. For all you know the other players could have had one of many hands that would've made you a serious dog (which they did). You should've saved your money for a hand which you would've had more confidence in.

[EgyptianMagician 0]

You should fold AQs in this position too, let alone AJo. You said that you thought the maniac had a small pair.. well guess what, your AJ is slightly behind a small pair and if a tight player raised then one of your cards is probably not even live assuming you can get him to lay down his better hand. You want to isolate a maniac when you know you have him dominated... not when you're potentially coinflipping at best.

[JohnnyCache 0]

The big bet from the tight player tells you he's got something good but not the top. I thought 'queens' when I read it. Didn't turn out to be a perfect read, but hey...I was close enough, cause I'd have folded it :wink: Maybe you could have chased either one of them with that hand, but it's not something you want to be swinging at two people with . . .