should I have been more patient?

[Harry]

Partypoker 30/3 Blinds at 200/400 3 handed

Loose BigStack ( $4180 ) - Button
SmallStack ( $1225 ) - Big Blind
Hero ( $2595 ) - Small Blind

Hero gets Ad Td
Loose BigStack raises [1000].
Hero is all-In.
SmallStack is all-In.
Loose BigStack folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3h, 9c, 8d ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2c ]
** Dealing River ** [ Ah ]
Hero shows [ Td, Ad ] a pair of aces.
SmallStack shows [ Ac, Kh ] a pair of aces.
Hero wins 1370 chips from side pot #1 with a pair of aces.
SmallStack wins 3450 chips from the main pot with a pair of aces with king kicker.

Thanks in advance for all the comments

[codewarrior]

Nothing wrong with that...

[parappa]

This is just fine.

[Jason Strasser]

Looks perfect.

Whatcha gonna do?

[housenuts]

did smallstack have 1225 after posting the blind or 825? i'm trying to make a case for calling here. if he had only 825 left, you'd have to assume he's going to go all-in with almost any 2.

by raising all-in, you are driving out bigstack who could have potentially had a winning hand that would take out smallstack. you guys could check it down.

the problem with this is you could lose to bigstack. but if that happened then smallstack would be out too.

worst case scenario is you call and smallstack folds, and then bigstack (who had a worse hand) ends up winning...but i think you have to assume smallstack would call when he has a chance to triple up.

does anyone agree with this? when i first started typing this i was just trying to be the devil's advocate and look at things a different way but now i'm starting to convince myself this could be the right play.

[Harry]

I have to say that at the moment I pushed all in, my focus wasn't on the short stack. Big stack's been pretty loose and being that I was right next to him, I guess I might have been a bit frustrated. Even in retrospect though, I think on this particular situation, all in was the right play. I guess I'm looking for confirmation(s) from 2+2ers.

But it seems that I crash & burn with these type of hands once in the money. AT's KQ's on similar spots. I mean the short stack with AK was going to call no matter what, but should I be pushing less with these type of hands when 2/3 handed in STT since there's no danger of finishing out of the money anymore for other people? If so, what would be the type of hands that would be in similar predicament as AT, KQ? Is AT/KQ going to be the favorite enough of times or not run into big hands enough to justify this play when blinds are at this level(200/400) and up in 2/3 handed situations?

Thanx in adavnce,

[Harry]

Small stack's 1225 was before he posted the BB. So he had 825 left after posting BB.

[housenuts]

what you did was take a small gamble at attempting to finish 1st. it's been said time and time again that you should try to do this as opposed to folding your way to second. a first and a third, is worth more than 2 seconds.