DECISION POINT: You are in a Tournament where blinds are 1,500/3,000 with a standard ante. The action folds to a short stack in the Cutoff who shoves with 7,100 (2.5BBs). The Button folds and action is on you in the Small Blind with 8♠8♣ and a 78,100 (26.Bs) stack.

What do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: This short stacked player moved all-in from the Cutoff seat for only 2.4 big blinds. This hand range should be very wide. We are well ahead of that range with 88, so folding is not an option. The only question is whether we should call, raise or move all-in.

Calling this all-in sets up an opportunity for the Big Blind to squeeze shove to isolate the initial all-in. If we call, there are many hands with two overcards to our 88 that will shove from the BB.

With hands that have lots of equity but are somewhat vulnerable to overcards, such as 88, it's crucial that we avoid multiway all-ins and that we isolate the short stack. We do not want to induce a shove from the BB behind us.

After deciding to raise, we must choose between reraising a smaller amount or moving all-in.

We do not want to give the BB perceived fold equity on a shove for the same reasons that we don’t want to induce a shove from the Big Blind by flat calling the short stack all-in. Our 88 is too vulnerable to induce further action.

Moving all-in is the best play.