Dilemma

[crankalicious]

This hand happened at my table, but not to me, early in a 60 person live tournament. However, it generated the most discussion I've ever seen among players who weren't involved in the hand AND players who were. Here's how it went. Position relative to the table isn't that important as only these three players were involved. Blinds were 100/200. Player 1 and 2 know each other. Player 3 is an unknown, but has played solid. All folds to Player 1 with Player 3 on the BB.

Pre-flop

Player 1: raise to 600
Player 2: call
Player 3: all-in
Player 1: all-in

At this point, Player 2 began agonizing over what to do. After about two minutes, he calls, putting himself all-in also. Here's what they turned over:

Player 1: 99
Player 2: AKs
Player 3: AJo

Player 1 makes his set and wins the hand. Since Player 1 and 2 know each other, 1 gives 2 a really hard time saying "you knew you had to be a dog to one of us, you should have folded." Player 2's response: "I had 3-1 on my money. I had to play."

How do you see the hand. There was much discussion about this, split pretty evenly between it being a good call and a marginal one. Personally, I liked the call. Perhaps it will be as good for discussion here as there.

[Mingdu]

stacks?

[SonofDjugashvili]

Assuming it's the usual low buy-in, fast live tournament, call with AK because you might not see a better hand all day.

[crankalicious]

Sorry! I always omit some important information. Stacks were virtually even. I'm probably forgetting something else because the hand seemed so much more interesting than I'm describing it, but I've got the basics. I actually think Player 2 was the short stack of the three because he was also saying that he'd be down to too little if he folded. Feel free to ask any other questions and I'll try to improve my donk description.

[crankalicious]

Okay, let me be more specific. My memory of the stacks prior to betting was:

Player 1: 6000
Player 2: 3100
Player 3: 4500

Player 1 probably just called instead of going all-in as described.

[Uitje]

player 1 is button?

[crankalicious]

Player 1 was on the button.

[TFGoose]

First of all, Player 2's move should've been push, not call. Calling off 20% of your stack out of position is not good poker, especially when the button could easily be stealing.

Assuming he just called though, yes he technically has the odds to call here assuming he knows the other two hands. If either player has JJ-AA he's almost totally dead. However, if he believes it's a lower pair and a better Ace (as it is here), then he needs about 3:1, which is what he's getting.

Still, I say the call is marginal at best, and it's irrelevant because he should've been all-in before Player 3 even got to act.

--TFGoose

[Uitje]

You are aware of the fact player 2 held AKs not AJo?

[TFGoose]

Oh, whoops, for some reason I was thinking he had the AJ when I wrote that reply. My bad. In that case...

Still shove preflop.

As played, beat them in the pot. Player 2 has crazy odds unless one of the other two has exactly AA or KK. Even assuming one of his Aces or Kings is dead, it's still a huge call.

--TFGoose