flopped set with deep stacks

[M.B.E.]

Why push the flop exactly?

In my view there was very little chance I could force out the original preflop raiser ("Villain") and get it heads-up against the all-in. I really do not think that Villain thought to himself "okay, I am going to call this huge bet of 2800 chips and then I can fold if the player behind me raises 5000 more".

When BB made that all-in bet, 2800 into a pot of less than 800, you would expect Villain to either fold or push. When Villain calls, it indicates quite a lot of strength: a made flush, a set, or a straight (i.e. A2, although I'd actually expect him to push with a flopped straight rather than call).

Generally, on that flop, if Villain wants to play the hand because he thinks he is beating the all-in, then unless Villain has a monster he ought to raise to ensure that I fold if I have a big heart (or a straight-flush draw).

The exception to that is if Villain has the singleton ace of hearts with no pair (e.g. A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]J[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] or A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]), then it makes sense for him to just call.

As I said before, if Villain has QQ or JJ, with or without a heart, I'd have expected him to push the flop, not call. If he has TT/99/88/77, I'd expect him to fold the flop, especially without a heart, but possibly push. So when Villain calls, I can't quite rule out that sort of pocket pair, but it becomes pretty unlikely.

If for some reason Villain did just call with JJ or TT and I now push, if he is holding a heart he is going to call. If he has JJ or TT with no heart he will fold, but that isn't much of an advantage for me as he'd only have two outs against me.