Was this a bad Call?

[DeadWallet]

Last night in a 5+.5 SNG on UB,

Its down to 3 people (Im estimating the stacks, but their close), Blinds were ~ 150-300 I think.

UTG: ~1650 Playing solidly, no real reads
SB: ~4200 Has been the big stack most of the tourney, and throwing that weight around.
Hero (BB): ~4150

Im dealt QQ in the BigBlind.

UTG goes All in, SB raises all in, I call.

As it turned out UTG had AT, SB had AK and my hand held up, but Im not sure if my call was a good idea here,

any thoughts?

[37offsuit]

Well, in a usual situation you're beaten but this is unusual, in that the SB is looking to push you off of marginal hands. The problem is that your hand is not marginal. Putting either the SB or UTG on AK isn't difficult here, or I'd say it is much more common than KK or AA.

Since you have UTG covered, if the SB wins this hand, then you finish second because you had more chips going in. If UTG wins the hand but you finish ahead of the SB, then the SB will be at T50, UTG will have T4950, you will have T5000.

Of course, if your hand holds up you virtually win the whole thing, leaving SB with only T50.

You're either facing a small pair against overcards or two sets of overcards. Ideally you'd be against AK and AK, so that your opponents would only have 4 combined outs against you, and AK, AQ or AX lower than a king cuts those outs as well because of your holding, especially if UTG is the one with the higher kicker.

I call here because it's very likely that you have the best hand going in and also very likely that they are blocking up each other's outs, it is unlikely that they will both get there unless an ace happens to fall. When ever you can get all your money in against a 4 or 6 outer, you should probably take it. When you have so many other ways to improve both in chip count and stack position, I think you should take it.

[Beavis68]

Down short handed, I think this was a great play. People put a lot of value on A-x in this situations, and it is very common to see two of the poeple with Aces in there hand, this makes the pair more powerful. Something to consider when you are in this position but have AK instead of QQ.

[HUSKER'66]

I like it.

I don't think that the CO would have made a move like that with KK or AA. He would have wanted to raise less to win more...make sense? So maybe medium pockets (9/9,T/T)or A/x suited.

The SB's all in reraise would probably lead me to believe he held something along the lines of A/K, A/Q, or maybe A/J. He thinks that the CO is on a blind steal, and wants to keep you out of the pot.His A/K holding will do much better one on one, and he gobbles up 1650t in chips, giving him a decent lead and some room against you heads up.

Against those holdings your anywhere from a 45% favorite (vs A/K and 9/9) all the way up to 67% (vs A/K and A/K).

Good play IMHO, glad it worked out for you. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Play well,

Husker