Early in the tournament, blinds are 25/50. 8 people at my table.

I'm UTG with QQ. 1600 chips. I raise to 200.
MP1, 3000 chips, re-raises to 600.
MP2 folds
MP3, 450 chips, all-in
CO, 350 chips, all-in
Button folds
SB folds
BB folds

What would most people do in this situation?. I thought MP1's most likely holdings were A,K or KK or AA. The way he was acting screamed big hand. His play is what you describe as TAG I think, he waits for good hands and plays them aggressively. But I couldn't throw away QQ when I'm getting 4 to 1 odds to call. I figured there was no way he would fold if I went all-in, so I decided to just call and take a look at the flop. My thoughts were that if an ace or king came on the flop, I would check-fold, but otherwise I would push the hand and pray it was A,K he was holding.

As it turned out, I flopped quads, check-called (all-in) and he turned over pocket aces.

I'm not sure how I would have played it if there wasn't an additional 800 chips from the short stacks in the pot. QQ seems like a marginal hand against a re-raise, at least at this stage of a tournament when the blinds are low. TBH I'm not confident when it comes to re-raise situations. I haven't been in these situations often enough to be comfortable (only 3 months playing poker).

Any advice or comments welcome.

The pot was 1600+ and you were asked to put in 400 more for it. I'd say it is definitely a call just based on pot odds. Your opponent may have AA or KK, but AK, AQ, QQ-TT reraise PF are also standard.

Even better when all of them show strengths, the As and Ks are pretty much all in their hands, so there aren't so much chance it is going to fall down on the table.

I'd have done the same thing.

I just push in that spot. Without the extra chips it's a tough decision tho

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if you push you lose! you want to rely on your read! if you push based on hand ranges its mathimatically a good desicion if you disclude the read. but as soon as you add the read its not so good. you need to determine what sort of player he is as soon as you sit at a table with him. how did he get his stack size? if he won it with good solid play, or with good solid hands - he's holding aces! you say he was possibly TAG who overbets strong hands. well he just reraised you. if he's a good player who see's ur a tag he would most certainly be re-raising that with AA, or KK. i cant remember the last time i saw somebody re-raise with AK at these blind levels. if hes doing it with AK either he's loose or you're loose and he knows this.
so first you call
when the flop comes down, and lets say you don't hit. if he shows signs of strength, (typically all-in) its screaming big hand. because you red him to be TAG.

i think you are already on the line of making the correct decision, everything you have stated i would be thinking with the exception of putting him on AK, and i would call then fold if the flop didnt help me!

My desicion is totally player dependant. this opponent im cautious but if he was a little looser (making poor bluffs, overvaluing starting hands, chipstack up and down etc.) then im calling all day long!

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You're right Lego, what I meant was online (ie no physical tells)

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Yeah it's a good point that I should trust my read. Deep down I knew I was behind when I made the call, but I couldn't bring myself to fold because of the pot odds.

The table was mostly weak players that limp into pots constantly. My opponent with the aces was the only other player at the table that was folding a lot of hands and raising with good ones. If he had any kind of read on me, he would have feared my UTG raise, so a re-raise from him spelt danger. Also the way he said it when he announced re-raise to 600, it sounded forced like he was making some official statement. This more than anything is what convinced me he had a monster.

if you read my statement orion, at what point do i incorperate physical tells. its all data based. you can read online players to a large extent by the way in which they play! i have been doing it for a while now and it works a treat!

when i say 'sit at the table with him', i dont mean it literally. it works without having to see the player.

i myself have never played live poker!

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So we reraise with AA and KK following an UTG raise every time, letting know everybody exactly what we have? Sure this might work in low buyin tournaments, but in any decent game you get crushed if you play like that

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well like i said its player dependant. if they didnt re-raise with AA or KK and just flat called you have a different situation don't you? i am giving my opinion on this situation given what i have been informed by marty!

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