Deep Stacks Final 10 Spots AA vs. Chip Leader Bullying Table

[Knockwurst]

FTP Tournament -- 10 players left and 9 make the final table.

Villian has been running over the table since becoming chip leader for the last 30 minutes -- raising 3x big blind from any position every 3-4 hands, betting out or check raising every flop he sees. Players are rarely playing back at him -- maybe 1 out 8 hands he's in someone plays back at him, usually a short stack, so even if he loses the hand it only nicks his stack.

I'm in the top 5 in chips, and have been playing few hands, but generally play fast after the flop when I get a good piece of it -- pretty straightforward.

Blinds are 1500-3000

Villian -- utg (120,000)
Hero -- sb (72,000)

Villian raises to 9,000, folded around to Hero with A [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] K [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 4 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

Do I reraise the maximum here, basically tipping my hand, do I reraise less than the maximum, do I just call?

I reraise the maximum, and Villian calls.

Flop (79,000 approx)

10 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 3 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

Hero?

[glass_onion]

Depends if you want to win or play safe. The textbook play here would be a min reraise, if you ever would do that without AAxx, or flat call. Tourneys pay out primarily to #1 & 2, so I'd just reraise here. You have enough chips to seriously hurt him, especially on the flop.

Flop, 3/4 to full pot, call any. His range seems pretty wide. Not a great flop, but you may as well put the pressure on him. Again, you he has to think seriously about calling you for 60-79k.

[guilt_trip]

Post flop you shove. You have ~30k left behind and the pot is 79k which is more than enough oddswise to put it in with AAxx here.

As Glass Onion said if its all towards #1 and #2 then go for it all and pot it with AAxx

[CrushinFelt]

Shove flop.

You played it fine (stacks are short enough)

[shpongled]

I either reraise max and push no matter what comes on the flop, or if he c-bets most of the time, just call and then c/r all in no matter what comes on the flop.

I would never min-raise. Just gives him great odds to call, and tips your hand.

As a side note the tournament strategy you outlined isn't the greatest at the final table IMO. Main way you win these things is by frequently stealing the blinds. Most players start to play too tight at the final table, so it's time to gamble it up.

[RoundTower]

With these stacks, I think raising less than the max pf is a clear error.