So today I played in my first ever live casino tournament. (I turned 18 yesterday). Anyways, I was doing fairly well, and had worked my way up to the chip leader at my table. There was approx. 3 minutes before the blind level was up and a 10 minute break would follow.

I was dealt A2 and because no one had raised ahead of me, I called. Small blind folded and it was heads up with me and the big blind. The flop came JA2 and my opponent led out for 1000. I thought, and then raised to 3000. He then quickly re-raised me to 5200, which was a little more than 1/3 of my stack. I thought, then moved all-in and he snapped called and turned over AA

I lost over 80% of my stack and went broke on the very next hand. Did I play this hand correctly? I flopped two pair, and I was not facing any sort of a pre-flop raise that could have tipped me off that my opponent held aces. The more I thought about the more I thought that there was no way I could have gotten away from this hand.

Any input helps, thanks!

I suppose this depends on the players style, was he loose and aggressive or tight and passive. I agree, it's a difficult hand to get away from, and had I been in your position i'd have probably done something similar. Another option you could have had would be to call and see the turn. Since you have position you can judge what he has better from his reaction to the card. He's unlikely to 3bet you with a flush draw. Also the fact that he reraised quickly shows some strength, if he'd thought about it for a while he's less likely to have a set. In this situation it's feasible that he could've had 22, jj or aa. I doubt there would be a reraise if he had a pocket pair as your raise indicates an ace, two pair or even a set.

Hope that helps a bit!

the line you took is understandable. if i took that line i would have done the same. I may have played the hand differently with A2 suited on the button. I would have raised, and with 2 pair my money would have gone in the middle this way too. Unless I got the 3-bet from big blind and got a read that he held a huge pair based on his image.

Thanks for the input! I think the only way I could have gotten away from this hand would have been to either raise or fold pre-flop. Had I raised, the BB would have re-raised most likely with his aces and it would have been an easy fold. Shouldn't have gotten involved with the weak ace.
Thanks again.

Yea i agree, only way to get away from it is to fold or raise pre flop... but still it sounds like he was going to slow play the aces anyway. So if you raise he probably just calls... and flop comes and you go broke anyway.