Can I please get some feedback on how I should have played this one. I'll tell what I actually did later, because telling the ending before hand always seems to change people's answers.

I'm doing this from memory, as it was a live tournament.

Blinds are $200/$400.
I have about $8,000, in 2nd position.

I have 8-8.

1st position raises to $1,200.
I call.
3rd position calls.
Small blind folds.
Big blind goes all in for $3,800 more.

1st position calls the all in.

The all in player, I have not seen play that many hands, so his all in is a little scary. But then the deep stacked 1st position calls. He has been playing pretty loose. Also, the guy behind me in 3rd position plays a little loose too and he is yet to act.

Hopefully I've given enough info for someone to give me some informed advice. If not, please let me know.

What do I do?




What do I do?

I think you either need to fold to or raise the first raise.

If you flat call 1200, now *BEST CASE SCENARIO* you're heads up for a 2400+ pot with a stack of 7000. The pot's a little too big and your stack is a little too small to make calling better than raising or folding. And, just calling means you're not in great shape if someone re-raises.

If you flat-call the second raise, now the pot is entirely too big for you to not see 5 cards. That means you're in a situation where you have to go all-in at some point with a mid-pair against an EP raiser and a preflop all-in over a raise and a call.

From EP this is a fold. For one their is a good chance you're going to have to put in more $ to see a flop and second off what hand is UTG raising with that you have beat. Sure he might have AK or AQ. But AA-99 just as likely. I'm folding to this reraise. For 4k more its just not worth it. You're going to be playing a mediocre hand 4 way 2/3 your chips if you call.

This is an all-in or fold from your first decision. I wouldn't want to deal with the stress of playing a mid pair from bad position if others come in in LP. Take your read of the player who raised, and go with it. If he's a loose guy, I'd probably move in. I think calling was pretty bad.

I'd reraise to isolate him right away.

From there let's hope your postflop play is good

What was UTG's chipstack? If you have him easily covered (say 4000 or less), this is a pretty good spot to push him all-in, on your first action, because you are probably looking at a coinflip. If he's close to you in chips, or has you covered, I'd just let it go, because you are probably looking at a coinflip.

After the initial mistake (calling) and the reraise/call behind you, this is an easy fold. Your best case here is probably opponents with AK and AQ, with your worse case being two overpairs. At any rate, you are probably looking at dodging three overcards if you don't need to spike an 8.

UTG was chip leader and had me well covered....


Okay...I can see that it looks like I made the mistake of just calling, rather than reraising on the first action. That would have probably made 3rd position fold, and possibly made BB fold as well (but I doubt it). There is no way UTG was folding, so if I just re-raised 'some', then he would have put me all in anyway. Looking at hindsight, this would have been a good thing.

What actually happened was that I folded the 8-8 to the all-in and call. The guy behind me folded as well (he showed 6-6).

BB had A-Q.
UTG had A-K.

** Flop was, of course 8-3-3, so I would have flopped the boat. ***

So, I know I made the mistake on the first action, and it looks like the 2nd action is a split decision with some people saying all-in and some people saying fold.

Thanks for the help all!!!