550 person NLHE tournament $200+25 buy in.

Payouts are
1st $27,500 6th $5,500
2nd $16,500 7th $4,400
3rd $11,000 8th $3,300
4th $7,700 9th $2,200
5th $6,600 10th $1,100
11th-20th $900
21st-30th $750
31st-40th $500
41st-50th $270

You have 27,000 chips with 56 players left, avg stack around 14,700.
There are 9 players with less than 3,000 chips and the blinds are at 500/1000 with a 50 chip ante.

You are under the gun with KK and raise to 3,000 a player to your left (pretty tight but getting shortstacked) raises all in for 5,800 and another player (A very strong tournament player, very aggressive) reraises all in for over 55,000. Your image at the table is very good.

What do you do and why?

I call.

Short stack doesnt bother me, I was calling him regardless of what I thought he had. But the big stack. hmmmm.... He's cleary making an Isolation move. He wants this heads up. He doesnt like his hand enough to allow you to come along. That rules out AA. With AA he would have done a minimum raise to hopefully get you to come, but if you fold, oh well. He really doesnt want a stack of our size mixing it up with him in a pot. This is an isolation move. We call.

Money doesnt get good enough until top 10. We need the chips. I think folding this here is too tight. He's called an aggressive player, I know I would fish a little to bring along a good sized stack if I had AA, as insurance against the all-in player.

But that all depends on his history of isolation bets. If he tries top bring along people with AA, then I call. But IF you've seen him push in with AA, doing a 10x raise, then I may be inclined to fold, but would have to look at other events in his history.

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I would call because

A. I suck.
B. I HAVE KK ALL-IN!
C. Dan Harrington says that folding KK PF is -ev - ALL-IN!

A+B+C= ALL-IN!

More seriously - and has been pointed out else where I believe.

If this guy had AA, he probably would just call, no reason to blow you out of the pot. He is trying to isolate with a HUGE over bet, you have the best hand, or you will win a giant side pot.

This is a play to win move. Of course, Phil Hellmuth would fold.

I call because MHIG here. 55k could easily have an AKish type of hand and want to get it head-up with the short stack. If I do run into AA oh well, if I get out drawn oh well.

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“There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about.” - John von Neumann

The 55K guy could have anything... he's just trying to get you out of the pot. Don't let him. Call.

Shutup Beavis I gurantee Phil would call here. He folds Kings when it is the right laydown, not just cause its a "big laydown"

My thinking in this hand was exactly like everyone elses.

But I actually lied about this hand in 1 particular way, I was the 55K all in.

I had AA, he called and I busted both of them. the shortstack had 77 BTW.

The reason I moved in was two fold

#1 I was pretty certain the UTG had QQ or KK, his raise was too small for this stage of the tournament and he wouldn't play a marginal hand up front such as AQ, 99,or KQs. a bigger raise would represent JJ or AK where he really doesn't want to be called. His raise is screaming please call me or come over the top on a steal. I was almost certain he would call putting me on an isolation reraise.

#2 there were 4 players behind me still to act, 1 has me covered, if I just call this may bring 1 or 2 of them along, which i really don't want unless they want to put all their chips in the middle hence my all in.

If I had only raised I think my hand looks stronger than if I move all in, and anyone who is willing to call a raise, a reraise all in, and another reraise is probably willing to put all their chips in the pot anyway, so if someone behind me has AK or some other strong hand they may call an all in more than if i had only reraised.

worst case scenario everyone folds and I lose the hand costing me 5,800 chips

most likely scenario I get the UTG to call and bust them both.

Best scenario another player puts me on an isolation reraise and calls as well.

what do you think?

so hellmuthpoker, I would have busted your hero!

No! Phil folds kings when its the right laydown HE IS S)kfd;fGood at tournament pOCOR he can tell when U have t3h Ac3S!

Yea this post was obviously made in no serious whatsoever. Get off Phil's cock. He is good, not great.

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“There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about.” - John von Neumann

Actually, I usually go ahead an push with aces in this spot too, but not for the same reason.

The players I play suck and rarely fold to re-raises. I bet for value with AA if there are a few people in the pot already.

I have read about good players making the move you did against other good players for the same reason. This is one of those spots where you and UTG both played it well, he was just out-gunned.