Sit & Go Tournament Poker: 99 on button, facing UTG raise by LAG shortish stack...all in or take a flop?

vs his stack size and laggish play I'm shoving 99+, AJs+, AQo+ preflop. You have plenty of fold equity and if he's as loose as you say he could very well call w/ a hand like 55-88 or even some random Ace. Obviously you'd rather have a fold then any type of race whether it's handicapped in your favor or not.

I'd hold off going all-in on any hand this early in a tournament, however with no antes yet and still fairly low blinds you definitely need to re-raise your top hands.

99 is often a stronger hand before the flop than after, since if any AKQJT shows up on the flop then you're most likely screwed. A pocket pair that can be easily dominated by someone holding just one AKQJT needs to be played aggressively pre-flop to convince the others to fold.

You should not slow play 99 pre-flop, and they should not be played passively unless you are sure that your opponent has a good hand. Almost every time I play 99 I am looking to win the hand without seeing the flop, because the risk to me is high if any TJQKA appears, and I only have an 11% chance of hitting a set on the flop with my pocket pair.

It's not that unusual to see someone open with a bet 3xBB on a hand like Axs, KQ, Kxs, some will even play suited connectors or any 2 cards 10 or higher on that kind of raise.

I noted that he decided to show his cards after winning uncontested. This is often used to try and give an image different to the actual play style. You often see someone play a lot of hands and then once in every dozen or so they'll deliberately show everyone that they won pre-flop on AA etc just so you can see that they had a tight hand... these players are usually loose aggressive, they play a dozen hands with crap, then one good hand, and it is only the good hand they will show.

Unless you re-raise pre-flop you have no idea what he's holding and have a high risk of getting screwed over on the flop. If you re-raise his 150 (3xBB) to around 500 (10xBB) pre-flop then he will only call or re-raise you pre-flop with a strong hand. If he re-raises all-in you could put him on AA, KK, AK, AQ, etc and just fold. You'd lose a chunk of your chip stack, but you'd still have enough to keep playing. If he doesn't have a really strong hand then he'll fold and you'll get 225 from the blinds and his bet, and also get a more aggressive table image.

Remember that your aim is not to win this one hand, but to survive long enough to get to the final table to win the tournament (or at least get in the money). Avoid going all-in if possible until late in the tournament. Even AA gets busted 1 in 5 times against most other pocket pairs. You can be aggressive without going all in.

Keep an eye on your chip stack and work out how much you would need to stay in the game, be willing to bet everything above that on a great hand.

Also watch for the players that are frequently going all-in. Use it to your advantage, let them chase you off a few mediocre hands and then when you flop a monster you play as if you have nothing, watch them go all-in with their little 2 pair and then massacre them with your flush.

Fold, it's too early to shove.

Calling is bad. You don't have odds to set mine.

Reraising without shoving is even worse IMHO. You still commit yourself, but you lose the FE of shoving. Folding to a shove after reraising to 500 would just be ridiculous...