HU with 44

[pgil]

5.50 on stars. even chip stacks (~20000) 400/800 blinds w/ 50 ante. the guy has been pushing a wide range of hands ever since the bubble started, and has continued through to HU. i raise my 44 from the SB, and he pushes over top of me. Any hand he has I am a coinflip at best, if i lose i am out, if i win i take 1st. what do you do??

I called, thinking that if I didnt i was gonna get run over, and i may as well call his AI with a pair and take my flip now instead of later.

[IslandAK]

Am I reading this right, you both have about 2o,000 in chips? If that's the case you are under very little pressure to call the all in. You raised to what, 2400? Steal his blind a few times and you're back to even (if this is an option). There are only two pockets you're beating too. Seems to me like you can outplay this guy. Why play his game and call a coin flip.

I've never been heads up with such a deep stack. Consequently, I have never folded a pp all in preflop. But if I can steal blinds from this guy, I would let this go. Why not find your AK vs. Ax and have this guy dominated. <- Obviously this is a little wishful thinking, but you understand.

[AHiltz]

I'd fold. You can outplay this guy.

[Fortune 500]

I lean toward fold. It's likely a race... but you've got no reason to race if you think you can outplay him.

Even if it IS a race, 44 doesn't race as well as 88 due to it's chance to get counterfieted. They're both basically flips, but you can buy yourself a couple percentage points waiting for a slightly higher pair.

if blinds were higher, I gamble... but your stack is so deep, there's just no necessity.

[aleksandr]

agreed. If his raise is say, only 3 times yours and he is all in, then you take this flip all day because there are 4 bets in the pot, and you have to call 3 bets, therefore, you are getting 4:3 on your raise, and it's a flip, so you're getting a nice 1.33% * 2nd prize/1st prize (usally about double), unless you plan on annihilating this guy from behind. In this case it's not alot of chips, so basically f it.

[gabe]

i call allins with pocket pairs headsup

[pgil]

i was slightly mistaken in my recollection of the pf play. he raised to 2000 from the sb, i reraised to 4500, then he pushed.

[Muxy]

yeah i call.

[Fortune 500]

Even with the reraise, I still don't know if I HAVE to call this... Blinds aren't that high relative to chip stack. I may look for a better spot.