Was this punishment fair ? (longish)

[nummerfire]

Playing in a UB 20+2 NL tournament 1. prize around $450 2. and 3. a little less and some consolation prizes to the rest on the final table.

Blinds 150-300 16 players left. I am chip leader in the small blind at my table with 8100 , the button has 7500. The rest of the table had 1000-4000.

I am dealt Ah 2h.

All fold to the button who makes a standard raise of 3 times the big blind. I normally do not play marginal hands against the chip leaders, but this time i get flies in my head and call leaving me with 7350. I think I should either have made a pot sized raise or folded. Any comments ?

The pot is now 2100.

The flop comes 3h 5h 5s, giving me a gut shot sthraight flush draw.

I bet the pot leaving me with 6150 but now the button moves all in. I think it is very unlikely he is bluffing here so he has a big pair or a 5. I think I have to call. I have 10 outs (the heart that makes my opponent a full house dont count) and if an ace is an out I have 12 outs. I cannot get raised anymore and the pot is laying me around
2:1 on a little worse than 1:1 shot.

I call and my opponent has Aces killing two of my outs so I only have 38% chances of winning with my ten outs. I lose and soon blinds out of the tournament.

Is the pot odds thinking here flawed ? If I win i will be in great shape to get one of the three first places. If I fold I will still have a good chance of getting there.

But should I take that kind of marginal chances in a tournament (especially late in the tournament). I think it would be a clear call in a ring game.

Kim

[HonestPete]

If he was the other big stack, no point in calling. You are out of position and putting a reasonable amount of chips into a pot which you are almost going to get outmanouverd on.

Calling with A-2 out ofposition against another big stack, what can you hope to hit? Ace comes, you will doubt your kicker, straight draw comes, then do you realy want to go all in on a draw? (if your opponent moves in, in this case he did) same as flush draw. Only thing you can hit to be fairly confident would be 2 pair or something like that, but even in this case, againast AA it's quite hard. lol.

I think fold preflop, you can get your blinds back later when YOU have position / cards.

[Greg (FossilMan)]

You are correct in that preflop, your only plays are to fold or reraise. Calling just isn't going to be a good play with A2, even suited. But you know that.

On the flop, I count T2100 in the pot, and you're holding T7350. So, a pot bet should put you down to T5250, not T6150. Either way, you are getting in the ballpark of 2:1 on the call of his reraise.

As long as there is very little chance he has 53, 55, 33, or 54, you have 12 outs to win. I wouldn't fold at this point, as it doesn't seem very likely he has one of the four hands mentioned above. Like you say, an overpair seems most likely.

Of course, you wish you hadn't gotten into this spot in the first place by the preflop call. ;-)

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

[ohkanada]

Pre-flop, I agree with thought that this is a raise or fold situation. I normally would fold with A2 being that you are the chip leader. If I was lower in chips then I would tend to re-raise.

I agree with the call on the flop. You have a lot of outs and you have no reason to believe the button has 2 aces which takes a few of your outs away.

Ken Poklitar

[jamesburke]

let the pot go preflop, his raise in this position means that he either has a big pair or A-paint, there's no point in getting involved with the other big stack unless you have a power hand.