Good evening TPE,

Here was a critical moment on/near the bubble in a 10$ turbo where I really don't know how I should range this pretty tough aggressive player.  We both have awkward stacks but are doing well relative to the field.  After 170 hands he plays 28 VPIP /25 PFR /9.4 3bet, (Is that the correct X/X/X?). He shows 30% steal, 77% fold to steal, 6% resteal, 1 of 1 call resteals.  I've seen him playing SitNGos and hyper turbos, so I think he knows his push/fold game.

When he 3xes here I don't know what to make of his range, and therefore cannot tell if I should feel confident my play or the results.

HAND DETAILS – $10+$1 No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 6 Players

Preflop: Hero is BB with A 8
3 folds, BTN raises to 6,000, SB folds,

Hero?

He has 18BB and 3xes what is usually either a minraise or at least 2-2.5X.  I can't remember what his previous sizings were.  What does the 3x mean?  I figure he's capable of this with lots of decent to strong hands (low pairs, AX, broadway), up to all of his strongest hands, with only KK-AA being more likely for him to minraise/induce, although I can't count out KK-AA.  I think my first instinct was to fold because I figured the bigger bet generally meant the top of his range should be considered heavily.  But then I said “how low can his range get here?”  When I thought about that I figured there would be many medium strength and strong hands that he might be inclined to try to discourage folds with in a 3x, because the hands are too good to open/fold the button, but he doesn't want to play for stacks.  For this reason I decided that I had both reasonable showdown and fold equity.  But I only decided this because I had to click one of the buttons.  How do you range villain here?

Hero raises to 32,448 and is all-in