[BarryLyndon]

I think that this post, followed by the next 15 posts, shows the sickening amount of groupthink that goes on in poker. There's no way this was a "good" call. At best, this is reasonable, but when considering that you are 30 minutes away from not being at Patrik's table anymore with 50K in chips, the play may not even be that.

I would smooth call preflop and, if I had to play small ball and let him price himself out of a draw in position, so be it.

Put another way, if this call was against a random LAG (assume same hand history and stack sizes), who is playing well and who wouldn't be at your table in less than an hour it would have almost immediately been criticized. However, the call was made against the male poster boy of 2+2 at a big tourney, so it's "wow, tremendous, you're awesome, write a novel and can't wait to see you at a big final table."

I'm sure that OP is a strong player, and his analytical abilities are indicative of a big success. That is, unless he continues to get wrapped up into playing unecessary big pots against famous "pros," then unecessarily calling off a healthy stack when either WB or at a coin flip.

It's just a thought. We're trying to instruct each other here, and I think that aside from this being a BBV TR, some of the new players at this site should take extreme care before thinking this was a "good" play given stack sizes, time of the event, and to some extent, opponent's range post flop. I think at least part of the reason for this play was an "in the moment" glory hunt (not all of it) and that a significant part of this post, which is entirely in want of self awareness, is self-congratulatory based on incorrect factors (results, opponent's name, nature of tournament).

Having said all of this, it was an intersting, yet questionable and -cEV call. I dare say that if OP wants to be as good as: a. he thinks he is; and, b. he can be, given his eloquent analysis of most hands, he needs to acknowledge this hand as such.