Caught stealing on bubble...

[ZBTHorton]

Playing in the 20+2 on stars this evening. Started with around 650..we are nearing the money with top 63.

67 are left. As usual with Stars all of the money is in the final table, and I have very little interest in anything but the final table.

Reads: Table Chip Leader is to my left in the BB. He doesn't play many flops, and plays aggressively. He has caught me stealing 3 times since moving to this table and I've layed them all down. Player to his left also caught me once stealing. So although I have a tight image...it's somewhat weaker than my normal table image I'm used to.

I'm in the SB. Blinds are 400/800. I have 18K. Villain has 32K. I am in around 25th at the time(out of 67)

I am dealt AJ. It's folded around to me. (table has tightened up near the bubble) I raise to 2000. He pushes.

Can I call this? I know he knows I've been stealing. He appears to be a pretty decent player, and vaguely understands why he should make this push with any decent cards...but I REALLY think I'm ahead here....and more importantly...know if I win the hand I'm in the top10 chip count wise...

Thoughts appreciated...

[LethalRose]

[ QUOTE ]
but I REALLY think I'm ahead here...

[/ QUOTE ]

trust your read, if you feel you're ahead and want to gamble here call.

[Paradigm]

if you yourself said that your main goal is the final table, then you have to call, because you can limp into a small profit, or you can set yourself up to take down the tournament, and put the pressure on others like he's doing on you.

[dfan]

I'm a relative novice so ignore what I say. But it seems to me that villain, even if he thinks you are stealing is unlikely to put 60% of his chips at risk to find out for sure. If he just wanted to knock you off the steal why wouldn't he just raise you since that has worked for him previously. I'm guessing villain had TT+ or AK.

[captainzodiac]

he's pissing me off just reading about it,so i'm sure you were real happy,lol.it would just be my luck that i'd call him the one time he had me beat,and i had him beat the other 3 times!
it's one thing to push with aj,but calling with it is pretty tough here,alot of hands are ahead of you here.

[ZBTHorton]

Yeah, well. I called. He had AA. Cya.

I'm not really results oriented at all, but it made me wonder whether my call was totally donk-like. I still think I was ahead of him at the time...so...it's just another one of those days.

[pottie]

How do you like Villains play here? Well it worked out great for him here but probably a call or small raise will be better?

[JFM]

I think the villan made a superb play.
The hero have to take a stand and by pushing he fools him to think he don´t want to see a flop.
As For calling/miní-raising i don´t like it.
Wait untill you see the flop with the fancy plays.
NO hand are worth slowplaying PF imo!

[schwza]

this is an easy call, imo. in a battle of the blinds only ~22x deep, AJ is plenty of hand to go to war with. the fact that this guy has successfully restolen from you 3 times makes it more of an obvious call. i'd call with hands as bad as A9/KQ and maybe worse.

[captainzodiac]

yep,would that just be the luck,every other time he probably had junk,of course you never know he just might have been catching good hands in the bb every time,but it seems unlikely.