need advice - lost in tourney

[Pure-Evil 0]

ok. here is the situation. blinds are 75/150 and a fairly tight player raises to 500 chips. a very weak and radical player goes all in with about 1200 chips...so i have 1200 to go or fold. i am not yet in this hand. it is still pretty early in the tourney, i have a decent stack but i want to build. i have about 2800 chips at this time.now, i am holding A J. the guy who went all in could be holding anything, he has busted out 3 times already playing stupid hands and rebought back in. buyins are now over though.i decided to go over the top to hopefully make it just heads up between me and the other loose guy so i went all in. now i was really not sure if i should do this or not. i was not involved in the hand, i was last to act though. i could have laid it down, but hell, it is pretty hard to lay a hand like that down with a crazy player all in right?the next to call is the tigh player. he is really debating because i have established myself at the table as a solid player. he even say this to me...then he says " there are only about 2-3 hands that have me beat right now" and i knew, uh oh. this is al pre flop btw.anyways, he calls and low and behold he has pocket J J, and the loose cannon from somewhere has A A, so now i'm almost drawing dead. flop comes out X K 10...so now i have straight draw, but never got the queen. next two cards were X K.now here is my question. hopefully Daniel will answer this fellow Canuck....did I make a major mistake going all in? is it better to lay down a big hand like that? I mean, I realize that A J is a drawing hand at best, but i honestly thought the other tight player had a small pair or something else. I know that's poker, but i would like to learn from this mistake so as to not make it again.WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE DANIEL??? thanks in advance for any advice!

[Pearl 0]

wrong call to make with AJ, especially when you said first raiser is tight, and the other guy went over the top. i might even lay down pocket 9's and below in this situation - depending on the environment/feel.you can push with AJ. you cannot call with AJ - even AQ is borderline - especially early in atournament. my 2 cents. if you are short-handed down to 5-6 players, thats a different story.

[Awful 0]

1. A lot of players push any 2 during rebuys then play well afterwards. From now on, remember that rebuys are a good time to advertise, to put a lot of chips on the table and to secure a big stack if you can play one well. There's some definite changing of gears pre and post-rebuy period. Be more observant of post-rebuy actvity in such tourneys.2. You don't want coinflips unless you concede that you are a worse player than the field. Just attack the tight player's blinds in the next couple rounds, chip up with superior play. 3. With a known tight player behind you and rebuys over, you may want to fold. Chances are the tight player has something very solid given that he's jacking it up from early position, and if you're convinced that the reraiser is a maniac, the other guy probably knows it too and is less worried about the 1st reraise, and if the tight player is knowledgeable, knows that you'll try to isolate mr. maniac with worse hands. Beyond that, he has very favorable pot odds by the time it gets to him (1200+2800+75+150+500=4725 to win if he calls 2300, over 2 to 1) assuming he has a good hand (which he will). If he assumes the maniac will call behind him, he's getting 6325 to 2300 or nearly 3 to 1.4. AJ isn't a big hand when someone tight pumps it up in early position. Every hand that's a "Premium Raising Hand" that Mr. Tight would be pushing has you OWNED. What would he be in there with that you have more than a 30% chance of beating?5. By going over the top all-in, you're giving up positional advantage. It does minimize the preflop liability of being between the 1st 2 raisers, at least, and was probably neccesary when you decided to play because of the pot committed aspect of the chip counts, though. It was push or fold, you had that part right. I think it's more of a "fold" though.The main thing is, though, dispel the notion that AJ is a big hand. Look at where, as well as who the raises come from, and remember the pot odds you are offering before you assume someone will get pushed off of the pot. He's getting far more than 1 to 2 from the selection of hands and probability (the chance that someone has QQ, KK, or AA is 1.5% per person, maniac could have A-x or TT or below, he has a 1.2-1 edge over unpaired overcards), the overlay by the pre-all-in pot size makes it hard for him to get away from JJ.

[Pure-Evil 0]

thank you. that was a very informative reply, and i'd say you hit the nail on the head. i realize it was a poor call...i think i have a tendency to overplay AJ, AQ, even AK at times....i shoulda laid it down. i just didn't figure the manian for A A, but then, neither did anyone else at that table. thanks for the thoughts!

[holman3rd 0]

thank you. that was a very informative reply, and i'd say you hit the nail on the head. i realize it was a poor call...i think i have a tendency to overplay AJ, AQ, even AK at times....i shoulda laid it down. i just didn't figure the manian for A A, but then, neither did anyone else at that table. thanks for the thoughts!

For what it's worth, I would have folded AJ in a heartbeat, and put the all-in re-raiser on AK or AQ. Reason being that he went all-in, which would look like a move designed to knock me out (you, in this case) and isolate the original raiser. Such a large raise is not usually done with a big pocket pair in this type of situation. The fact that he had AA would surpise me, but also make me that much happier with my laydown.

[Pure-Evil 0]

ya. it would have made me happier too, if i had laid it down that is.... LOLi'll know for next time... i think i knew as soon as i did it.

[masterock 0]

Usually you have to go with your original gut instinct.

[Petoria 0]

AJ is not a big hand, and AQ is the biggest sucker hand in the game, i fold both of those, and give alot of thought even to folding TT and AKo. You always want to be the aggressive player, but you shouldn't be in the hand with a raise, and a reraise. Nobody is quite as maniacal after the rebuy period ends. In fact, i've seen that kind of play run many times, appearence of maniac then turning to a rock as soon as rebuys end. People will remember you more for putting in raising than for folding. If that was his plan, then it worked.