One NL hand from a long time ago

[SoCalPat]

This was my first ever live tournament, almost two years ago. I'm in Vegas at Sam's Town. Some of the details are sketchy (thanks to time), but the jist of it remains the same.

It's a 40-50 player tourney, top five paid. There are 7-8 players left, and I'm hanging around T-4,000. There are a couple of periously-close-to-the-felt short stacks, a couple of super stacks, and I'm ecstatic about being on the verge of cashing in my first-ever tournament.

Blinds are at 400/800 (?) and I'm dealt KK. I'm almost positive I'm in EP, and I raise for 1,200-1,500. One caller (a blind), two to the flop.

FLOP: A33 rainbow.

Blind (a quirky character with a Unabomber-like beard, enters the tourney late, has a giant and quite fresh gash on his fist and loves to put people at a decision for all of his/her chips) goes all-in, and I don't have him covered, so I fold, fearing he would have called a raise with a big A, or any A for that matter.

There's no way I should be laying down KK on the flop. I'm guessing I didn't raise enough, and perhaps should have gone all-in in hopes of just picking up the blinds. Or did I do the right thing and just get unlucky by having an ace on the flop (and making one hell of a laydown as a result)? Or should I have just called BS on this guy and gone all-in?

I ended up finishing 5th and cashing, but I've always wanted to hear from others about this hand. Fire away -- I chalk it up to the misfortune of inexperience.

[Greg (FossilMan)]

Well, if the blinds were 400-800, a minimum raise would've been to 1600, not 1200 or 1500, so it's hard to know your situation exactly. However, if you really had about 5x the big blind, your only play, even with KK or AA, is fold or go all-in, which you didn't do.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

[Martin Aigner]

Greg,

I guess he ment he raised 1200 more (up to 2000).

I agree with the all in or fold strategie with this small stack.

Best regards

Martin Aigner