playin with the chip leader

Everyone folded to the blinds. Which was me with 2200 chips on the big blind and the chip leader at our table with 3400, the small blind. It is early in the tournament like 30 min. I havent seen this guy steel a blind before, but this appeared to be a attempt right here. He raised me the min of 80. I reraised him another 80 with my A,7 off. He calls the flop is A,3,9 rainbow. He raises half pot. I called nervously. The next card was a 2. He raised pot. I was pretty sure he didnt have a straight. I thought he had either an A or a pair of nines. I was hoping if he had the ace, He had a lower kicker, or he saw my weak call of his half pot raise and was thinking his pair of nines were good enough. I didnt think he had the ace as much as i thought he had the 9 so i called. the last card was an 8. He raised me all in and i called with the little chips i had left he turned over pocket 8s.

I know i didn't play that ahnd very well at all, but this was another example of several times i regret messing with the chip leader. The chip leader is more careless than most players and will make more agressive plays than others. What would you have done on that situation? would you fold? Would you have reraised him after the flop?

IMO you played the hand badly.
Having said that your hand is reasonable in a heads up situation but your reraise is way too small.
I would have reraised 3 to four times the amount of his raise.
If he then reraised I would fold.
If he called I would be very careful for the rest of the hand.

Your call after the flop is not good because you have no idea where you are in the hand.
Better to raise then fold or push to a reraise.
Normally in this situation the SB will get the picture that you have the ace and fold.

Just my 2cents.

when he reraised i would have folded, i think, its always different when your in the situation. He hit a two outer on you... nothin you can do about it youo were commited earlier, and rightly so.

poopnuggette said:

The chip leader is more careless than most players and will make more agressive plays than others. What would you have done on that situation? would you fold? Would you have reraised him after the flop?

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You had a read on him that he didn't steal any blinds yet.
Did you raise him because he seemed to steal yours ?
A7o is not the hand I'd like to go all in with, not even after the flop with a naked A.
You put him on Ax or PP preflop but why should his kicker be weaker than 7 and no 3 ?
Chip leaders do often play a wider range because they survive being beat, but that doesn't mean that they must have junk if they're raising.
I would have folded after the turn at the latest.

If he's got 3400 chips and the BB is at 40, there's a fair chance he's got some sort of hand preflop cause there's no point stealing.

With him only raising min. you're pretty much obliged to call. Personally I wouldn't have bothered reraising a hand like this at this stage of the tournament. Defending your blinds is important later, but virtually means nothing at this point of a tournament.

If you're going to reraise, reraise properly. Min. raises/reraises are being called by any two cards. It gives you no information on his holding.

If you think your ace is good and you really want to stay in the hand.. probably raise the flop to see where you're at. Otherwise just let it go.

By the sounds of this guy he's very LAG. Probably better off just avoiding confrontations like this until you have a decent hand.. he's gonna pay you off at some point

Yeah, when someone generally tries to steal my blinds they are making a x3 or x4 raise instead of a min raise. That to me would say he is on a pretty good hand since he was asking me to call.

thanks for the help

I totally agree here. Why play for all my chips with A7? Sure, it's just the blinds but he still has two cards. At any point that he shows aggression I muck. It's that simple. You are only 30 minutes into a tourney. You can't win any MMT in the first 30 minutes. No reason at all to get committed here.

Lefty