Info on the hand: villain had the #1 stack out of 125 left in the tourney, and was raising every hand. The previous two hands I had seen, he check raise shoved for 20k with 88 on a Q high board, and spiked an 8 on the turn against AQ. The next hand, utg, he was in with A 10 off.

I am currently 65/125, with blinds about 5 minutes from 400/800/80. 20 minute levels. In this hand, I figured I was at worst a 50/50 against his wild range, and made what I feel was the right call. A win puts me top 10 in chips, Is it okay, and just unlucky, or too spewy, even though I know the villain is super loose?

GAME #1887581632: Texas Hold'em NL Tournament 2008-11-28 23:53:40
Table ECOOP III #5 $350,000 GP, 230735478, 1972781151 (Tournament: ECOOP III #5 $350,000 GP Buy-In: $750+$50)
Seat 1: pescefresco ($20,356.00 in chips)
Seat 2: mrkahn35 ($79,044.00 in chips)
Seat 3: TKO76 ($47,003.50 in chips)
Seat 4: Silva4 ($12,720.00 in chips)
Seat 5: Puck67 ($30,840.00 in chips)
Seat 6: tchopi ($29,153.00 in chips)
Seat 7: FF7BIGFAN ($18,185.00 in chips)
Seat 9: JakeTheDogg ($21,650.00 in chips)
Seat 10: superroger47 ($11,024.00 in chips) DEALER
pescefresco: Post SB $300.00
mrkahn35: Post BB $600.00
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FF7BIGFAN [S9 H9]
TKO76: Fold
Silva4: Fold
Puck67: Fold
tchopi: Fold
FF7BIGFAN: Raise (NF) $1,500.00
JakeTheDogg: Fold
superroger47: Fold
pescefresco: Fold
mrkahn35: Raise (NF) $78,984.00
FF7BIGFAN: Allin $16,625.00
*** FLOP *** [D3 CJ H6]
*** TURN *** [D7]
*** RIVER *** [D5]
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $97,949.00 Rake -$120.00

Edit out the results.

I don't think I call off this much with 99 here... but if villain is uber loose... I might gamble to get a big stack.

Since he was big stack im pretty sure opening utg with A10 is just a standard play nothing too crazy but the 8s hand seemed strange but without details in some situations the check raise allin can be good too. So he is possibly less loose and crazy as you see him. So for the hand itself u open the hijack with a short stack which any competent player knows u have a real hand since you need to tighten up as you get shorter. Additionally if he is a good player he's paying attention to what his image is and since he just showed down possibly questionable hands he might lean towards a play that screams "im a wild crazy big stack puttin pressure on u punk" with good to monster hands. So if your confident that he's not competent or aware of his image 9s is not a great hand to gamble with a bad player even though u could be 70/30 favorite against a small range of his hands. However, if u think he's even slightly aware of what he's doing Jacks+ and AK are pretty much the only things u can call with to have an edge on his range beacuse he knows your raising tighter. So in both situations i think Jacks+ and Ak only are calls. Lastly, some people still fail to realize while a big stack raises more liberally, he definately tightens up signifcantly for 3 bets.

I'm thinking it's a coin flip and you better be ready to gamble if you call...I hate going up against a lucksack with a middle pair...An A always hits.

Fold if you value your tourney life. There will likely be better spots and, while you're "short", you still have a lot of life left.

I hate the expression "waiting for a better spot", cause it's just total BS - you call if you think you are ahead. In this case however, I am leaning towards folding (even though I think we're slightly ahead of his range). He's obv very spewy so I'm saving my chips and will use them to isolate this guy as much as I can (this works out best if no one else is going to do this so the decision is depending on the dynamics of the table as well).

It's not total BS in a tournament. If you're confident that you can find a better edge later in a tournament then you should strive for it. The problem is that this edge may never come. You obviously agree with this line of reasoning too, because you recommend folding here even though you grant that we're ahead of villain's range.