AJo MTT hand

[TheHarlequin]

20 mins into a MTT with 800 starting chips. My current stack is 846 TC. I am dealt AJo in MP2.

The UTG player (A LAG with 974 TC) calls the BB of 30 TC. Everyone folds to me. I raise to make it 120 TC to go. Everyone folds to the UTG player who calls.

Flop : A /images/graemlins/club.gif K /images/graemlins/spade.gif 5 /images/graemlins/spade.gif - 223 TC.

UTG checks. I bet 150 TC. UTG check-raises all-in. I call all-in.

After the hand (which I lost) the UTG player showed K /images/graemlins/club.gif 3 /images/graemlins/club.gif which made me 77% favourite to take down this pot and double through. I called his all-in bet as he was limping with almost anything pre-flop and had so far bet small or called post-flop when he had a decent hand and tried to push people around by making huge bets or moving all-in when he was weak.

My read on my opponent was correct and although I was + EV on this play, should I have considered folding this in a tournament? I normally play ring games and have just finished David Skalnsky's book on Advanced Tournament Poker and am unsure if this fits into the category of one of those close calls that should be folded during a tournament?

Would others approach this hand differently? Should I have not played AJo in this position in the first place? All thoughts are very much appreciated.

[Superfluous Man]

Being a 3-1 favorite is not close. Period. In my time lurking on this board, it seems that people take the idea of "avoiding close gambles" way too far, and they start avoiding gambles that aren't close. Bad beats happen, man.

That said, I would consider folding AJo preflop in this position because it'll often get into trouble when either an ace flops or a jack flops. You certainly can't feel too good if one of the people in later position calls (or reraises). But it seems you had a good read on your opponents, and you were able to isolate a weaker opponent with superior position, and then get all your chips in as a large favorite to double up. That's about as good as one can hope for.

[willie]

against the player with the reads that you had and the hands that you'd seen. you went with your instinct and made the correct call, and got unlucky.

in the average situtation, i think i'd have to fold this hand early in a mtt to the reraise in. the limp and coldcall of a raise would have me thinking possibly decent suited ace or pocket pair (pessimistic) and that i'm more than likely WAY behind on the flop. but given the player you were against and how he'd been playing i'd call, but be unhappy about it.

[SossMan]

given your read that the UTG was a loose player, a preflop iso-raise is good. Given that he's loose and he didn't reraise you preflop, you have to think that he doesn't have a bigger ace, so with that flop, I'll take my chances. If he flopped a set, so be it, but since you said he's pretty lag, I can't give him credit for a better hand enough times to lay down here. good play, given the read. Against a normal or unknown player, I would probably fold preflop.

[TheHarlequin]

Thanks guys. I should have pointed out that the 4xBig Blind raise was to attempt to iscolate the LAG as the table was tight apart from the LAG. If it had been re-raised by one of the tight players I would have been inclined to fold.