Hi guys,

this hand came up in today's 50K freeroll on Stars. We're on the bubble, 182 players remaining, 162 getting paid. Table has been very tight in general.

Villain, however, is a preflop LAG (33/33/0 over 15 hands) who seems to like making moves, but that feeling is only based on a few hands i've seen him play.

I have been tight during the last hour or so, but on this orbit this the third time the table has seen me raise preflop. I raised on the cutoff and took down the blinds, then again from the hijack, got called from the big blind, a weak-tight player who folded to my cbet on a 8-high flop. Now this hand happens:


Poker Stars Freeroll No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t200/t400 Blinds - 9 players
2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked

UTG: t16482
Hero (UTG+1): t7815
UTG+2: t5987
MP1: t8851
MP2: t4380
CO: t2407
BTN: t2213
SB: t5617
BB: t2694

Pre Flop: Hero is UTG+1 with A J
1 fold, Hero raises to t1000, 5 folds, SB raises to t5592 all in, Hero ?


I have trouble putting the guy on a range here. I have him covered, so he can't be shoving light, i think. But it's the bubble, and he can cripple me, so this looks like a good spot for a resteal. What do you think?

Given your read I think I like calling here, he could easily be doing this with just about anything. My only concern is that if I were him, given the stack sizes, I would be worried that I didn't have much FE. All in all, I think his range is very wide, and folding is gonna kill your image, so look him up.

What is this tournament ? Do the 162 top players get a seat for a 50k gtd, or is this a tourney with normal prize structure ?

normal prize structure

Weekly freeroll, 162th gets $80, structure is flattish, with 27th place paying $200. Money is at the final table, of course, with the winner getting >$10K. At the time i'm around 90th place (which pays $95). If i call and lose, i might still make the money, but my chances are maybe 50%. If i call and win, i move up to (i guess) 50th place (which would pay $125).

If he is as loose as i think it should be a call. What worries me is that he is putting his tournament life on the line, which sounds more like AK,99+ to me.

I don't think I like this situation if I'm hero.

I put him on 99+, AQo+,AJs+ and we're behind.

I think the mistake here was raising AJo UTG+1. Now you're in a tough spot (due mainly to stack sizes) with at best a marginal hand. AJo is not a strong enough hand to play from UTG or UTG+1 at a full table and nothing about this situation really changes that.

I suppose, given the read and the numbers for villian it's a call but I wouldn't be smiling when I made it.

Against the other players i can raise pretty wide, even from EP. These guys fold almost everything this close to the bubble, so if get reraised by any of them i can safely put him on QQ+,AK. Maybe even QQ+ only, and they will not have that often. But raising a hand that i'm not happy to get it in with, with a loose thinking player still to act was wrong. No matter what he has, what i do, or how the hand plays out, i should not give him an opportunity to put me to this decision.