another dumb question

[EvanJC]

Party NL 10$ SnG, Level 2, All ten players left. I havent seen a flop yet and have 775 chips.

I am dealt AhKh in the big blind. Utg, with a stack of about 60, raises all in. Folded around to the button, with a stack of about 625, who reraises to around 200 or so. Small blind reraises all in for about another 250.

What is your move here?

Maybe this question has an obvious answer, but I had a tough time with it. I was positive that I was beat. On the other hand, it was a chance to win a huge pot with a solid speculative hand.

Anyway, my instinct was to fold, and I still think that that may have been the correct play, as it was still early on and I had chips to work with. Howerver, I talked myself in to calling, thinking I was probably behind a hand like 10 10 or something. I was surprised and happy to see the small blind turn up A7, the shortstack Q8, and the button an A4. Everybody missed the flop except the shortstack, and I went on to win a nice pot w/my unimproved AK, minus the small sidepot who went to the lowstack who turned an 8. So it turned out well, and I guess I shouldn't have been that surprised to see crazy plan on a party 10+1.

But what do you guys think about the play? Any insight would be appreciated.

[Jurollo]

I fold here most of the time except for maybe a lapse in judgement. This early in the tournament it isnt worth putting almost all your chips into a hand that you arent going to be a heavy favorite to win. Although you got lucky in most cases you are going to be facing a PP, another Ace (which takes away 1 of your outs) and maybe either another Ace or a KQ or KJ (which would eliminate another 1 of your outs), so you would basically be drawing to 4 remaining outs to take down the hand, unless you hit a straight ot something.

[fnurt]

You have to be pretty good to put the field on exactly one pocket pair "in most cases." I'm not that good. What if you're up against 2 underpairs, or 3?

This call is certainly +EV in a $20+2, and almost certainly +$EV too. I don't mind making a call like this in the early going, since you can just enter another tournament if you bust out.

There are those who do very well with a strategy of sitting back and watching the crazies bust each other out, and I'm not really questioning that, but you do have a premium hand here.

[Jason Strasser]

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[Jurollo]

I believe I said you are probably up against at least 1 PP, a couple of important qualifiers. Early in these tournaments most people will not push like this without an A in their hand or a PP. The most common mistake early in the $10's is over playing A's early, you can't win these things in one hand but you can lose them fast in one hand.