[Buckeyepride]

There are 141 people left in the tournament out of 981. First prize pays out 17.5k, 2nd pays 9600, 3rd pays 6300. I am sitting at around 22k in chips with the chip leader at 102k and my table leader at about 65k. Here is how the hand goes:
Antes: 50?

SB post 400
BB post 800
UTG folds
Me: A10s raises to 3600
#5 folds
#6 folds
#7 folds
Cutoff folds
Button Reraises all in (stack was at 9300 before matching my raise)

I call, he shows AK and I lose the pot. This player had been relatively loose all tournament. I noticed this since I had been playing with him for about 2 hours or so. In retrospect, I think I made a really poor choice in playing the hand. I was in early position with a relative bigger stack and playing really well. Mathematically, after his raise I was getting about 2.4:1 on my money (9300+5250 = 14500/5700) and thought about the move for a bit. I decided I was getting a good price on my hand given the player I was up against so I called. The problem I see now is not so much what I put him on, but where I would be in the tourny if I lost the hand. That had run through my head but I figured getting my stack over 30k would have been a real boost to finish high in the money. I now realize that the proper move would to not have even raised in the first place with a vulnerable hand such as A10. If anyone above about 7500 in chips moves all in, I am investing over 25% of my hand with at best a coin flip. Not a good choice looking back on it. Anyone have any thoughts or comments? Specifically, what would you have done and why? Im a good cash game player but have only started playing big tournaments recently. Thanks for the input!

[fxrenegade]

With a hand like A10s, I'd have folded. You need a stronger hand to call a raise than to raise in the first place. You raised and he re-raised all-in. He's practically saying that he's got 2 high cards or high pairs. You're the underdog here with A10s.

Another thing he might be thinking. You're in UTG+1, he figures that you got a strong hand to raise in that position. If you've been percieved as a tight player, he'll probably figure that you've got strong enough hand to do that. He's got to have something that beats you, before raising you all-in.

Fold.

[Buckeyepride]

Thanks for the quick reply. Replaying in my head after the hand, that is the conclusion I came to. Im reading Harrington's volumes I-III right now and he had almost a clear cut example of this. Same hand, relatively same position and timing in the tournament. He said simply to fold it immediately and pick a better spot. Oh well, I took a lot of notes during the tournament so If I play that well Ill be in the running to win one of these big tournaments before long. I just like the fact that I never had to get lucky at any point of the tournament. That and a BAD decision like this will help me stray away from doing it again when faced with something similar.

[fxrenegade]

Harrington's good. Learned much from it. I'm newer to Holdem than you are, I'm sure you'll pick up MTT fast. good luck man!

[Beat The Fish]

Buckeye, interesting hand post. I think that you caught it pretty quickly, but I'll make 3 observations in order of what I feel hurt you the most to least. Surprisingly, I don't think that the actual decision to make the raise was the biggest problem:

1. Calling the reraise. You made a decision that I used to make frequently in tournaments: calling the bet based on pot odds. I realize that Dan Harrington and tournament professionals you see on television often stress pot odds or that they were "priced into" a call. Yes, pot odds are an important tool in making tournament decisions, but when the stacks are so large it should become less of a factor. The reraiser has almost half of your chips and even if he has pocket 6s (which I don't feel is all that likely here) you stand to lose a huge amount and possibly your confidence. I think that he likely has a better Ace or at least one card larger than a 10. If so, you really aren't much of a favorite to win. You're definitely getting the right pot odds here, but I've learned to throw this hand away pretty easily in a similar spot. The worst move here was to call the reraise, in my opinion. Call me too tight, but I try to avoid these situations and just fold with so many chips at risk with a tough decision. Of course, it is easier analyzed than done when you're the one in the heat of the moment.

2. Making such a large raise. If the blinds are 400/800, you don't need to make a 4.5x opening raise unless that is the standard raise at your table. When the blinds are so large, usually a 3-3.5x raise is just as effective and it doesn't put as much of your chips at risk preflop.

3. Making this play out of position. A10s is a trap hand. It certainly could be worthy of opening the pot, but not in such early position. There are too many players behind you that will make you want to call a large reraise.

At least, those were my observations here.

[Buckeyepride]

Thanks to all who posted. The fact that I learned quickly what I did wrong is both a blessing and a curse. Blessing in the fact that I wont make that mistake again but curse in the fact that Im quite a learned poker player who probably should have recognized the situation much more quickly. Alas im new to tournaments so the logic synapsis in my brain didnt fire immediately and it cost me a shot at good money. All is not lost though, cash games are still going well (havent moved up to 2-4 NL yet, but Im making enough to regularly play in the 50+5 MTT which bring in about 700-900 players and a 70K prize pool. Top 10 places usually pay about 500-17000. Im still trying to qualify for the LA poker classic. Is anyone else trying to do that? How bout you Josh? I know youre out in Cali and I was interested if you were going there to possibly play in the main event or some of the smaller tournaments. Its been going on since the 1st of january and runs until the 1st of March (thats the tentative date of the final table for the 10k championship) I believe bodog has super satellite 250+20 tourneys running until the middle of february. The main event starts on the 24th of Feb.

[jslavi01]

Ugh, couldn't help throwing this in, but my brother has been beating it into my head recently.

"The better your decisions are before the flop, the easier your decisions are after the flop."

This is a great example of Harrington's mantra.