PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t50 (8 handed) converter

MP2 (t4970)
CO (t2385)
Button (t3220)
SB (t1195)
BB (t3545)
UTG (t3135)
Hero (t1180)
MP1 (t575)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with , .
1 fold, Hero raises to t150, 4 folds, SB raises to t250, BB calls t200, Hero raises to t1180, SB calls t930, BB folds.

While normally I wouldn't raise with this hand, the table had been pretty tight with the exception of SB. He had been playing a lot of hands...He had been raising almost any hand he had...specific examples would be A7o, 87s, K2s. I had been playing very tight, and this was the first hand I had that was decent. I had played a coupld hands but none to showdown.

I was fairly sure that if I put in a small raise, SB would play back at me. The only raises he respected were significant. When he reraised me and BB called, I figured an AI would get the SB to call. He had been all in several times with very marginal hands and had gotten very lucky. His stack had fluctuated to as high as 4k and this was as low as it was. He was getting stacked by UTG recently and had lost the last several hands he had played to showdown, so I factored in a little tilt to help induce a call.

BB had been a solid player and I figured he would read SB the same as I did so that's why he called SBs reraise (didn't give it any respect), by my AI would probably force him out, but even if it didn't, I would have some pretty good odds against his possible holdings for calling my original raise.

Flop: (t2610) , , (2 players)

Turn: (t2610) (2 players)

River: (t2610) (2 players)

Final Pot: t2610

Results in white below:
SB has JavaScript Kc (high card, king).
Hero has 8c 8d (flush, ten high).
Outcome: Hero wins t2610.

My question is, should I have been AI from the first. I had thought about it, figuring if SB had any type of hand, he would call, or was I better waiting to see what the rest of the table did. If a couple of them had called my original raise (other then the SB) I probably would have just called any move by SB. Was it better for the smallish raise PF to see what the other people had then made my move when SB acted predictably?

When I was thinking of how to play this PF, I was thinking of the advice I had gotten on another hand where I was counciled to get my stack in there when I figured I had the best of it. As stated earlier, I'm still very new to tournament play as far as trying to take it seriously, and I'm trying to apply what I learn as I go...was I a little too reckless in this hand?

Why would you want to go all-in from the beginning?

Your goal here is to get all-in against your opponent's marginal holding with some dead money in the pot hopefully to make it an even better situation. A callable raise that you're sure the SB will re-raise gives you the perfect opportunity!

You got an extra chunk of chips and ASSURED that you get the call from the idiot. A lot of people on here would council to avoid these situations where you're quite likely to get stacked... but I think aggressively seeking out situations where you will profit significantly where you have an edge is by far the best way to go. If he calls with KJ he calls with A4 also lol...

An all-in from the get may get a call if he has a hand... but he may fold to that move, and then the only money you're making easily is the blinds, and you risk someone else waking up with a big pair.

From memory the other hand was AK?

I think that there's a big difference between making a move like this with AK (or occassionally AQ) and 88.

With 88 if you are called you are a coinflip to all sorts of garbage, and with the pot odds he had a maniac is going to be calling with all sorts of garbage which at very best is going to be one overcard Ax Kx etc.

There are only the low pairs that you dominate.

With AK you are usually at worst a coinflip versus a pocket pair and very often are up against AQ or worse where you are significantly ahead. Only very occassionally will it be AA or KK and even V KK you have outs.

I'll push AK all day in this circumstance but low-mid pocket pairs are for reraising allin usually only either against passivity or when a short stack demands it.

Definately a very aggressive move and it appears you had a good read on the SB.
Getting into a race with small and mid pp vs overcards is a strategy I reserve for building a short stack when I'm under 5M. Otherwise I'm more conservative and try not to risk my tournament life if I can help it. I see small and mid-pairs going all-in all the time even when early on into the tournament and always shake my head at the risk taken when it wasn't really necessary - except that's the way a lot of players like to play! Too much training off TV I guess. Most times a pot sized bet would accomplish the same thing and leave a stack to carry on if you lose. In this case it looks like the SB is an All-in kind of guy and you might have ended up there anyway but I still shake my head at going all-in pre-flop! Sure he only had K-J this time (and missed) - next time he'll have pocket rockets!

Thanks for all the comments. I won't defend my move other then to say that I wanted to get as much as I could off SB before he busted out. Against any other player, I wouldn't have made this type of move. I will, however, be a little more careful in the future...

Limp, bet the flop hard.

And yes thats what I would do even with this stack size.