Call all in with A8s

[chris_93]

Hey I haven't been playing poker for that long, recently read some books, played a few tournaments and still trying to get to grasp with the strategies. And here I have a question about a hand which knocked me out when I was in pretty good shape.

I was playing in a live NL texas holdem tournament a few days ago. The tournament started with about 25 players and blinds go up every 20min. I got to final table and now with 7 players left, blinds are 500/1000 and the top 4 gets paid. I have second largest stack with about 15000, on the button with [Ad 8d]. While the big blind is leading with 16000. He's a pretty agressive player who played and stolen quite a few pots, and willing to defend his blinds. Everyone else has stacks ranging from 10000 to 2500. So heres the play:
Seat 1-4 folds
I bet 3000
SB folds
BB raises to 6000
I call (with pot-odds of about 3-1)

Pot now 12500. Flop comes:
Kd 8c 7s
BB checks
I bet 4000 to try and get the pot. Probably not great seems that I already failed preflop, though he has folded before in similar situation.
He raises me all-in. (He has me covered and I have 9000 left)
The pot is now 25500.

I realised my hand is probably beaten. But pot odds are about 3-1 and and I thought I had 5 outs, A or 7, in addition to the chances of me hitting a flush and him bluffing or being on a draw, so I called. He turned over JJ and eliminated me from the money even though I was second largest stack.

I knew the all-in call was probably very marginal, but after having commited such a large portion of my stack, I felt compelled to call. So was my mistake simply in failing to fold or was the call reasonable and I made my mistake somewhere else to have pulled me towards this?

Thanks in advance for any help and advices

[HalfSugar]

With only 15 big blinds, you have to go all-in pre-flop with whatever hand you decide is good enough. A8 is definitely fine for this in this spot as you are on the button and all four players to act before you have folded meaning you only have to get through the blinds.

By going all-in, you put maximum pressure on the big blind and although I'm sure he would snap call with JJ, if he has something more marginal like KQ or A9, he is quite likely to fold to your all-in given that most other players are short and losing to you would cripple him when he could fold and be much more likely to get into the money spots.

By raising 20% of your stack, you are committing yourself to the hand so you might as well go all-in because it would be bad to raise to 3,000 and then fold.

As it was played, when he raised to 6,000 it put you in the exact awkward spot you want to avoid. One thing you must learn here is that calling is 100% the wrong play. You cannot put in 40% of your stack out of position pre-flop with A8 - you either have to grudgingly fold or shove all-in. The problem with the all-in is that it is never likely to get a fold out of your opponent as he has invested nearly 40% of his own stack and his raise suggests strength so unless you have a good idea that A8 is ahead of his range here, you have to fold and dump off 20% of your chips.

Next time in this scenario, you have to push or fold, there is no in between move.