came in second, but should I have?

Hi all,

I've been reading this excellent forum for a few weeks now and have finally a got a hand for you all to take apart. I'm pretty sure that I screwed this one up after some calculating, but let's see what everyone thinks.

I have made it all the way to heads-up in the SnG on PokerStars. I have a pretty tough table image, having come from way behind to eliminate the third place player in just a few hands. The chip leader's stack is about 8k, mine about 4.5k. Blinds 75/150, so no one is in much of a hurry.

I post BB and the CL calls. I have: J8o. I haven't played a lot of heads-up, since most of my experience so far is in ring games. Anyway, I check, and imagine my surprise: the flop comes J 8 2, rainbow. CL checks. I push all-in, he calls and turns over 22. The rags on the turn and river didn't help either of us.

I just couldn't put him on 2x, much less on 22, since he only checked. He seemed to be quite a loose player to me. I figured even low pair would get a small bet from him.

Thoughts much appreciated and thanks for all the help so far.

Did you see the Pot Limit Holdem tournament on the WSOP? Gavin Griffin won the tournament and he was playing REALLY loose for the entire thing.

On one hand late in the tournament, he called the BB. Another player at the table commented about this. Gavin hasn't checked all day. Gavin caused more of a stir by checking than he would have by raising.

Sometimes at a table, you can find a real maniac slow-playing a hand. In the right hands, this is their biggest flaw. It becomes so easy to read them that you can easily lay down the worse hand without losing any chips, and you can soak his for a lot of chips when you have the best hand.

In your hand, you were destined to lose money. It would be really tough to put him on trips, and even if you read his hand as strong, you should feel that your hand is stronger.

Hump's right. There may be some players out there that can make that fold but not me, not ever. If an uberaggro makes a set on my top two pair, he'll only be getting my chips faster if he bets. He may have just been fortunate enough to be changing gears and run into a monster.

-'rilla

Thanks for the comments, guys. Just for the record: I won a similar tournament later in the same day. :)

Cheers.