200-400 blind level 25 antes, live tournament, 8 handed table.

Dealt A9cc in middle position, raise to 1300.

Player to my left calls (this is a player who has called three of my raises already and has lost everyone and commented on the last one that he was thinking of pushing over the top of me when I won the hand on the AQx flop with JJ and he had 99). The small and big blind come along for the ride as one prices in the next.

5400 in the pot

Flop AA7 rainbow

Blinds both check, I throw out a very odd looking 2000 chip bet hoping for action. Player to my left Shoves all in (he had 19k in his stack and I had 14k). Blinds both fold and action is on me.

*My thinking process*

Pocket Kings might pull off this move if they were suicidal and he seemed to me to be that type of player. Same would go for a weak Ace.
Any AK, AQ, or AJ would have just called to try and build the pot and pounce on the turn. Same would go for the 77.
Seemed like a pretty massive overbet on a pot of 7.2k

My decision and result below.....










































I thought for 3 minutes, weighed the two options and decided to call. [mod delete - results] My opinion was that I was calling to try and give myself a chance to go very deep in the tournament and that his move seemed more likely to be made by someone with a hand I was ahead of and not one that was beating me.

My question is this. Is this, over 10,000 tournament hands a good call or should I fold. I am looking for honest LONG TERM opinions here and not just simply result driven answers ("well you lost so you should have folded obv"). Thanks in advance.

Al

Most good players turn a 9.

The best river it.



Honestly though, it's a good idea not to include results (yes even semi-hidden at the bottom), and actually a forum rule.

I'm gonna white them out or edit it or something, since you wanted unbiased replies.

Meh, it's obv from the title... bleh, I'm not gonna go crazy and edit the title too, lol

- Zach, Nazi Mod.

I probably call the all-in bet as well. If the guy had AK, AQ, or AJ, I think he would have slow played it, or try to build a pot like you said. I call and hope he don't show A and any other card lower than a 9 or A7

I think the difference between a call and a fold is your read. You had a read, trust it and call. You want to go deep, you have your suicidal maniac doing exactly what he says he was going to do, and he seems very much like the type of player who will do it irregardless. This sounds like the perfect situation given the read and previous action.

Now without that read, it is an entirely different situation, and another great question I think.

I think only a very straight forward player (a.k.a. plays their hands strong when they're strong, weak when they're weak) would push all in here w/ a better hand than A9...

It's hard to get away from, but I would need a pretty solid read that he's only doing this w/ A10+, 77 here to fold.

Meh, I find it very hard to fold trips on the flop. Esp trip aces, guys generally like to trap.

I think most of the play on the hand is fine, not a big problem with the pre flop play.


Another thing, is the guy the type of player to rearise pre flop with AK ? Coz if he is, that eliminates one of the possible hands that beats you. Same goes for AQ or even AJ or AT or 77

Thanks for the help guys. I was honestly confused for the rest of the night as to whether or not I played it wrong or should have layed it down. It's still very puzzling to me because of the all in shove.

As I see it the product of his push should produce the wrong results...hands that he's beating (badly I might add) will simply muck and move on, and hands that he's beating will obviously call and he ends up below the starting stack for the tournament. Do any of you play this type of hand the way he did? Seems to me that the most profitable play with either my A9 or his A10 would be to build a pot as we both thought we had the best of it and not take it down right there on the flop. Anyway, I'm just wondering because I guess I'm still confused after how it all played out.

Later,
Al

I'd actually put him on a fake bluff. It's a crafty play, but if he's built up the maniac image on purpose it's going to work. I know I've played a table in a MTT hyper agressive, and then when I push on the flop people will put me on a weaker hand because it looks like I don't want action.
It's easy to try and trap, but you can always end up trapping yourself. Sometimes strong just means.. Strong.

I was thinking that too: what David Sklansky calls "multiple level thinking" ("If I do X, he'll think I'm trying to make him think I have Y, so he'll assume I have Z..."). The interesting catch to multiple level thinking, though, is that it only works if you operate one level higher than your opponent (not more than one). If you are way up on the third level and your opponent just goes "oh crap, he went all in, I better fold", all your craftiness is wasted.

I never got to read results....would you post them please?

AT

I guess the tyurn and river bricked for Al? Damn shame. I'm calling here, but I'm usually met by the nuts in my face, so take that with a grain of salty goodness.

Yeah.

I'm pretty sure you can't get away from this.

Rough weekend?

The only person who has said they could get away from this is a long time live pro that I know. He used to be REALLY good, but he hasn't run as well the past few years. His comment was that he would have put the guy on AJ or A10 (after explaining how the hand went up to that point and without giving him the result). His response was that I should have known that my A9 was crushed and that it would be a tough lay down but I should have gotten away from it.

The sick thing is that he's only 66% to win after the flop...granted, I'm drawing pretty thin but I've got 3 winning outs and many possible chop outs.

So bottomline...Do you call off your stack here or fold and look for a better spot?

Well, if you're telling the story then no doubt this dude could infer that you lost. Most people don't pull their friends aside to say, 'hey man, earlier today in this tourney I had A9 and the flop came AA5. I bet, my opponent pushed, and I called. He showed A3 and my hand held. It was awesome.'

In just about every tournament structure going broke here is inevitable. You can get away in a cash game or a really deepstacked WPT tournament early on, but not here.

Ha, I just spent 15 mins typing out a response why it is okay to fold A9 here. My conclusion: It's not okay to fold A9 here.

lol, I've tried to reason it too, but I always come back to what I said as I called, "If it's time for me to go, then it's time for me to go."