Long time lurker, first time poster, this hand has me stumped and I wanted some input!

Background: We were down to roughly 40 players in the Mega Millions Tourney at the Bike last night, $150 buy-in (5000 chips) plus one $100 rebuy/add-on (7000 chips).

I'd just moved to a new table, so I didn't know too much about Villain's play. He seemed like a solid player, and was arguing with this idiot that was complaining about "unlucky dealers" that there's no such thing as luck, knew percentages, etc.

The last time I was the BB, he min-raised me UTG, I called with suited connectors and missed the flop and check-folded. He also min-raised UTG+2, so it seemed like a somewhat common move for him.

Anyway, on to the hand in question. Blinds at 1200/2400 ante 400, going up to 1500/3000 ante 500 in six minutes. Hero has stack of 36000, Villain has 44000. Hero in the BB.

Villain makes it 5000 UTG. Fold around to SB (who has both of us covered, the idiot from before talking about unlucky dealers) who calls. With KQ, Hero makes the call as well.

Flop comes K J J.

SB checks, Hero bets 10000. Villain shoves to put Hero all-in. SB folds.

Hero has 21000 left with 49600 now in the pot.

Call or Fold?

Seems like a no-brainer call to me. Over 2-to-1 pot odds, plus lots of drawing hands he could be on. I don't see how you can possibly think about folding, but I'd be interested to see if others on here see it differently.

Thanks for the input! Also interested to see if others see it differently.

Easiest shove pre the first time. Now you're probably beat but can't fold.

I agree with this. Even readless I'd like it, but it's especially sexy given the read you provided about villain being active and 2x'ing with regularity. You negate positional disadvantages post flop, have good FE to win like 14k w/o showdown, and can chase away a lot of aces and low pairs that have you beat.

I agree with Tom that it feels like you're beat, but at this point pot odds don't allow for a fold IMO. There's still the reasonable chance he's on some kind of draw, which is compounded with the more UNreasonable chance he's taking a bluff line with a pocket-pair-turned-bluff or something.

Not huge alts of fe here given stacks, but still eeeazy shove pre.

As played, snap call and hope he has multidraws rather than the j we all know he has.

Interesting, both of my good poker buddies said the same thing, shove pre. Looks like I'll have to work on this... to me, I'm shoving pre here with a pair or an Ace, but KQ I'm happy to just see a flop and see if I can spike one. Great point on positional disadvantage though.

No question once he shoves that I can only beat a bluff at this point, and am crushed by anything that beats me. That's where I get tripped up, and maybe you guys can help me out:

If he has Jx, AK, or AA I'm 10-13% to win the hand. Getting 2 (and change) to 1 on my money isn't enough... is the deciding factor for a call the chance that he is bluffing/drawing, the fact that I've committed so much to the pot already, or the fact that I'll be crippled at 21K after a fold (or all of the above?)

so he never has spade draws? you cant just name the hands that beat you currently. i mean he prolly isnt folding QQ at this point and AQ with As sometimes. people suck and its real shallow. just cause you bet doesnt mean you have a K or J automatically from flatting from the sb. plus maybe he feels he has fold equity still. versus crappy random live players its prolly true.

True!

For those interested, I called, Villain had AA, so obviously this tourney wasn't meant to be for me no matter how I played it. Ace on the turn took away what little sweat I had.

Thanks for the feedback! Seems the consensus is I had to call after the way I played it post-flop. Anyone make a case for folding there?

Whatever case is made, it would include a range for villain far too narrow to be convincing in order to compensate for the great pot odds he lays you. =) In all honesty, you would have to have some serious time logged at the poker table with this villain and have him dead to rights on a read in order to profitably get away from your hand post flop.

Thanks for posting!

I felt bad after the fact having called "knowing" I was beat to end my tourney... but on the flip side, if I fold there and get knocked out a few hands later when I'm forced to shove with K8 or something, I'm probably feeling stupid about having folded top pair strong kicker at 2 and change-to-1.

Just wasn't meant to be for me in this one!

Fold, he has AA

usually sb has no real hand here so we can concentrate on the villain... against an active villain raising your BB twice in two orbits a KQ shove pf has merit. unless you think he is incapable of folding a weak ace. going to the flop 3 way isn't ideal oop.

shove pre. as played, i like leading, then call off the shove