Pocket 3's against a short stack's all in at the final table...

[Oneiros]

OK, this is my first post here so apologies if it's a bit bumpy...
We're down to the final 5 players at a small 4 table tournament. I've been doubting a few details of my recollection, but I beleive I was UTG, blinds ~T40/80, I think I raised to 160, fold to the SB who called (I put him on another small pocket pair with some confidence) and the short stack was the BB and he reraised all in to about 380 or so (I also had a pretty good sense that he had no more than a couple of big cards, not a bigger pair). I had T1400 left. The SB is, with me, one of the three biggest stacks, though he has a few hundred more than me, about T1650. We've all just made the money after the last player dropped out a few minutes ago... what to do?

I know I was certainly ready to fold them, and there's no question it was the safe move, but I'm curious to hear some of your thoughts...

[Lloyd]

Why did you raise to 2XBB? I presume that's not your normal raise so it might show a little weakness. In this situation, you're essentially trying to steal the blinds and if you're called you at least have a shot at flopping a set. Otherwise, you fold to a bet on the flop. So you need to raise pre-flop enough to get people to fold. That amount is very table-specific but I doubt if 2XBB is enough.

In this situation, as soon as the SB called I'm done for the hand, let alone being raised by the BB. You've made some pretty specific assumptions, certainly more than I think I could do. And in both cases you're assuming essentially a best case scenario for yourself. You're assuming the SB has a small pair so perhaps the re-raise (and maybe a subsequent re-raise all-in by yourself) can drive him out of the hand and you'd be heads up against two overcards. Putting people on such a small range of hands is dangerous be careful.

After giving it lots of thought (for show), I fold to the BB raise. The biggest problem you have is that the SB's call shows more strength than your raise. So if you call here you could be re-raised all-in by the SB.

[Oneiros]

Right, for me the decision was fold or all in, because I assume if I call then the SB will raise me out, and I can't realistically call his all in... as for 2x not being my normal raise or showing weakness, I don't think either is really the case, though I'm open to thoughts on the subject... I have tended to sort of cylce the size of my raises and what hands I raise with based on a lot of factors random and tournament based, and I think at this point in the tournament all the players respect any raise from me, but not necessarily to the point of running scared from it.

As far as putting them on specific hands, you're right and I agree, I don't usually put people on such specific hands, but I had more than usually instincts in this case which as it happens were borne out. Often, preflop, I have very limited ideas about other players hands, but I was surprised in this case how clearly I felt I knew what they held... but your point is still well taken...