[curtains]

raise/calling is worse than open pushing with a typical prize structure. I don't care how deep it seems. If you felt he was going to reraise you with everything, than it was a probably a blunder to play as you did, regardless of whether calling is correct after the reraise. I believe he would definitely fold ATo, and probably even AJo if you simply opened allin, due to big strategical advantages to keeping the action going and due to huge fear that you opened allin for 50x the BB!

You could open limp, because it makes it more likely that if he raises your limp it won't commit himself. Of course the downside is that the BB gets to see a free flop. Probably min raising is better than your raise because again he might not make a committing raise and you will lose 4k less but it has close to the same affect on the BB.

Anyway if I was in your spot aganist the SB that you described, I'd either limp or fold. If I had to rank plays:

1. Limp or fold
2. Min raise with idea of folding if they are committed but MAYYYBE moving allin if SB isnt committed, but probably just folding.
4. 2.5x raise with idea of folding to committing raise
3. 3x raise with idea of folding to committing raise
4. allin
5. 3x raise with idea of moving allin against a committing raise.


Against typical unknown player the best play is almost surely to raise to around 2.5x the BB and simply fold to an allin.

But the key to the entire hand is that you want to avoid a big pot unless you have a monster hand. This is true no matter how much you feel like you are being abused or how loose the guy is going to be. You simply must avoid getting all the chips in without a huge edge and your play, from the start of the hand, should reflect this.