Harrington on 22

[Aisthesis]

Very good points, which I think also point in the tournament direction. I at least find this kind of PF aggression much more common in tournaments than in cash games, where a re-raise usually does signify a pretty big hand.

The stack depth issue is of course critical in both cases, and there's an additional problem even in cash games with loose raisers. Even if you do hit and AJ was the raiser, then you have to hit AND have your opponent hit in order to have any chance of getting correct implied odds.

I pretty much agree with all of your concerns, though.

Just as (generic rather than actual) example from cash game not in LP: I limp UTG with 22, get a raise to, say, 4-6xBB and a few callers in LP. I'll definitely continue with the hand given some healthy stacks (particularly on the part of the raiser) and actually HOPE the raiser has AA simply because he's going to have serious trouble getting away from his hand.

But, the way a lot of tournaments play, you're likely to get a raise from AJ, then a huge re-raise from TT--at least at a lot of the tourneys I've played. If it's early and play is pretty civilized, though, it seems to me again much like a cash game, and I might indeed try to set given the opportunity (although the bleeding concern is also very real in a tourney).

My own general guideline is that I don't like to get more than 10% of available stack depth (depending on what the raiser has--I usually keep a fair amount of stack depth in order to have plenty of potential when I hit big) in on any of the little pairs. I think that's at least fairly reasonable, since it's obviously not a guarantee that you stack someone whenever you hit--they may have AK and miss, and you might also be oversetted if there's any big card on the board. Actually, 10% is probably a fairly aggressive amount for those reasons.