This hand occurred before the break, and i have a very healthy stack. Also, i feel like i am better than the players left and can outplay them down the line....with that in mind how do you go about this hand......
The raiser has been opening quite a few pots, ive 3bet him light a couple times, and he has folded. Also another dynamic of this table, is that we are 13handed playing for a decent amt. of cash, i dont really recognize the names and i feel most of them are trying to climb up the money ladder. Ok, so the pot is opened for a lil more than 3x from the cutoff, the button and big blind are very short stacked, and thus the raiser only has to really be worried about me.....so how would you have played this hand?
In hindsight i should def have moved in preflop, but also once i 3bet and called his allin, i felt the hand he had was at the very top of his range......Also, once i 3bet can i fold? Ill be left w/ 19 bb's and a pretty weak tight table imo....so can i pass this situation up and hope for better ev down the line?? (although i was pretty sure i had him better than a coinflip....)...

pokerstars Game #14061963205: Tournament #70445303, $200+$15 Hold'em No Limit - Level XX (4000/8000) - 2007/12/23 - 23:54:42 (ET)
Table '70445303 129' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: bballin04 (262855 in chips)
Seat 3: hung 15 (62304 in chips)
Seat 5: MrCasino (369145 in chips)
Seat 6: BIG BOY HAND (129476 in chips)
Seat 7: fergwrx (358172 in chips)
Seat 8: Kuzak (311226 in chips)
Seat 9: Bergowich (93115 in chips)
bballin04: posts the ante 400
hung 15: posts the ante 400
MrCasino: posts the ante 400
BIG BOY HAND: posts the ante 400
fergwrx: posts the ante 400
Kuzak: posts the ante 400
Bergowich: posts the ante 400
bballin04: posts small blind 4000
hung 15: posts big blind 8000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bballin04 [8c 8h]
MrCasino: folds
BIG BOY HAND: folds
fergwrx: folds
Kuzak: raises 20000 to 28000
Bergowich: folds
bballin04: raises 43500 to 71500
hung 15: folds
Kuzak: raises 239326 to 310826 and is all-in
bballin04: calls 190955 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [Qd Kd 6d]
*** TURN *** [Qd Kd 6d] [Tc]
*** RIVER *** [Qd Kd 6d Tc] [4s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bballin04: shows [8c 8h] (a pair of Eights)
Kuzak: shows [Qc Ad] (a pair of Queens)
Kuzak collected 535710 from pot
fergwrx said, "sick call gg"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 535710 | Rake 0
Board [Qd Kd 6d Tc 4s]
Seat 1: bballin04 (small blind) showed [8c 8h] and lost with a pair of Eights
Seat 3: hung 15 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: MrCasino folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: BIG BOY HAND folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: fergwrx folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Kuzak showed [Qc Ad] and won (535710) with a pair of Queens
Seat 9: Bergowich (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

This is pretty standard. He's getting tired of you reraising him and will be looking for a hand to look you up with. You know that 88 is ahead of his opening range so its +EV to repop him. Once you reraise its kind of inevitable that you end up in this race since you are pot-committed. He may just as easily have made this shove with a hand like 44, where you have him dominated. These are the flips you need to win.

yea i believe so....but i dont tend to let those things influence me too much, maybe i should?....i mean as long as the bet is not huge (4x-10x etc)

i play it almost identical

why is flatting not an option here?

With the stack sizes I guess you can flat call but are you only looking to hit a favorable flop? With the reraise that the OP put in you give the chance for players to make a mistake by flat calling with their AQ/AK and then folding to your flop shove when they miss. You also might get the same result from tens on a AKx flop. This gives you two shots to "steal" the pot and worse case you are racing with the lead as in this case. I guess I just like the stacks to be a bit deeper before I feel comfortable just flat calling with 88 here.

Keep in mind I am by no means any good..so if you don't agree with the following, please tell me why instead of "you suck" or "thats terrible"...

I think I would just call pre. While his range could be very wide given his position, you have to assume he will look you up with any reasonable hand here (considering you said that you had repoped him a couple times and he has folded). Hands that he would play back to your three bet here would probably be something around 66+, A10s+,AJo+, and maybe even KQs (I dont really know much about his image.. so if he was very tight you could probably narrow it down a bit more). Using this range, you are basically behind or flipping anytime he plays back at you here. Considering you believe that you were the better player at the table, getting in on flips doesn't seem like an ideal situation. If you do 3 bet pre and he comes over the top, I think the right move is to lay it down. You've still got a playable stack with an M of around 13.

However, if we just flat call pre and lead around 25k regardless of flop.. that might be the better play. If he was just stealing, your bet should do the same as a repop pre and take the pot down there. If he does have a hand like 99/1010/JJ, you might be able to get him off of his hand should an overcard hit. Should he have AK,AQ,AJ,KQ, you force him to make a decision based on 3 cards as opposed to 5. On the instances that the flop contains overcards (most of the time) and he raises, just throw it away and keep playing with your M of 11.

I think this play maximizes our chances, as it does the same thing a preflop reraise would do against a blantant steal, and can also force better hands out of the pot. As I said, I by no means consider myself good, so this logic might be flawed.,, but thats how I would play it.

kind of a weird spot looking at it on paper... over 30bbs deep, i try not stacking off with 88, but i mean fold is so weak and i hate calling here oop and you can't raise fold this.. i think you played it fine.

I dont see why trny players are so agianst flat calling in this situation? sure if you have less than 10 bbs I think this is an auto push, but I am assuming that you were one of the top stacks in the tournament at this point. With that said, do you really wanna put your whole trny on the line with pocket eights before you even see a flop?

flatting is straight spew...with 20 BBs its an obv shove as with 10...but with 30 i think OP played this just fine, with no prior knowledge of villian i might fold to the 4 bet shove...but thats just me...in regards to flatting there are just so few flop your going to like, and im sure villian is going to be ready to fire flop and turn...

Fold after his re-raise imo, mid pockets are nothing but trouble, and after he pushes i really doubt he'd be putting his life on a smaller pp. I wouldn't put my whole life on a coinflip.

But I'm not exactly a top player, so you can disregard my opinions most of the time.

so if your on the button, your flatting here? I would have to agree with plattsburgh but dont disagree with how you played it. You said you were the best at the table and by just calling, you would have been left with over 20bbs after the break? If you have such an advantage over the field, why is flatting wrong even out of position here? Yes 88 doesnt get many favorable flops and your out of position but like others said, this guy probably isnt folding to your reraise and your decision to raise is your decision to get it all in. with 30bbs with 88 against a field you can outplay.

We can't be assuming that villain is 4-betting or calling the shove with every hand that he is opening with. We are only making the assumption that his range for those have widened because of previous action. There will still be hands he is folding to reraises.

As the Warden said, this is pretty standard...You just got unlucky...I've been there mang... Maybe worse lol...I stack off the same as you do here, but I do play it differently than you...

The thing is the two stacks around me are very short, so i really felt i had him crushed. Once i 3bet him he took forever/ like half his timebank and shoved....i think i might have layed it if i really felt there wasn't a good shot he was stacking off with an underpair or one overcard. However, i don't think i can mind the calll that much since i was ahead, but i was upset because i really felt that i could get alot of value from this table....and maybe i should have jus waited for a bit more favorable spot.
Also, i hate flatting here, I jus don't know how to play these hands oop....I don't think jamming all in pre would be a terrible idea, since it would take the play away from him.....but anyway thanks for the responses guys.