Last night was the our weekly home game. We play NL Hold 'Em w/ .25/.50 blinds. The buy-in is $25. On this night we were playing 5-handed.

On the 4th hand I was in the Big Blind and I look down to see AA.

UTG, who is a tricky player who plays a lot of random cards (esp. short-handed), raises to $2. It folds to the SB who is a very loose-aggressive player. He raises to $7.

Now the decision comes whether I make a big raise, or just smooth call, either trying to induce UTG to re-raise, or wait for the flop and make a big bet there. I decide to take a little gamble and smooth call. Unfortunately UTG just calls as well.

So there's $21 in the pot as we go to the flop. The flop comes down 59Q rainbow. SB immediately moves all-in for about $18.

What is your play here?

Will post results later.

Push preflop.....honestly just calling is horrible.

Call on the flop.

1. You're likely to get at least one call going all in preflop. Push.

2. I'm guessing AQ, KQ etc. Call. You might run into QQ or (more likely) 99, but that's a risk you have to take.

Push preflop.

Call the bet. Unless he is really tricky, who is pushing with a set there without trying to milk some extra money from you?

So I admit that I played the hand in a very Hellmuthian way. Meaning I took a big gamble b/c I thought I would get supremely paid off it it worked. (read, double or triple up on the 4th hand of the night).

Now onto my read. I've played tons w/ both of these players. Once a week for over two years, to be exact, so my reads on them are usually dead nuts.

Once the SB moved all-in I knew I was beat. He would bluff at a pot like this, but not w/ 2 players who called big raises yet to act. I also don't think he would do it w/ a hand like JJ or KK. I was almost positive that he had hit a set.

I know it sounds weird that he would push w/ a set, but his thinking is, "I'm way ahead, there's a lot of money in the pot and these guys have hands that are hard to get away from, so I'll push." Like I said, I've played countless hours w/ this guy.

Then he started talking and he was not nervous at all and I could just tell he was praying for a call. He was just too confident not to have a set.

I folded, then after some posturing UTG folded JJ face up. I then flipped over my Aces and the SB said, "wow did I get lucky there," as he flipped over his 99. I had pegged him for the set of Queens, but I wasn't too far off w/ the set of 9s.

In hind sight I wasn't happy w/ how I played the hand pre-flop (though I was changing up my game a bit, so I'll chalk it up to experience). What I was happy about was that I had enough discipline to lay down the Aces in that spot.