RE-RAISE TO ISOLATE PLAYERS

Situation: The blinds are 400/800. A tight player in middle position with a short stack goes all-in for 4,000. You've got Q-Q with a big stack and are pretty sure that he's got a smaller pocket pair. You just call. Another solid player calls behind you.
The flop comes A-K-4.
Uh-oh.
He bets. You know you are beat and lay the pocket queens down. He shows A-K and knocks out the short stack, who had 7-7. Yes it was a tough call for the winner since you had already called the all-in, but he sits at the table rationalizing what he had you and the other player on. He read you for J-J and figured that he had a coin flip situation and was getting 3-to-1 to call.
What went wrong in this situation: The major mistake that you made was not reraising with Q-Q. You can never just assume that because you call another player's all-in that nobody will call you. You need to take measures to isolate you and your opponent.
With a premium hand such as Q-Q, you need to know that it is extremely strong before the flop. However, if an ace or king comes out, you could be in big trouble.
So what should you have done? Reraise to 12,000 or more. The solid player behind you knows that you (as a tight, aggressive player) would only do this with a hand that you think will take this pot down and knock out the other player.
You ask him if you reraised before the flop what he would have done.
"I'd have folded. You've got a good image and have been showing down monsters today."
One last tip, The Golden Rule: No, not that golden rule, but that does apply at the poker table.
Feldman's Golden Rule of Poker (Why not? Everyone else has one?): Never call another player's all-in if it has already been called and you are sure you either (a) don't have the best hand or (b) don't have the right price.
You never want to triple a player up. There are situations where you need to make this call (for example: where you are priced in, on the bubble in a satellite), and if you are sure you have the best hand at this point, you should reraise and isolate the initial all-in player.
Even though there are times you just want to knock a player out, you should remember that he comes back three times as strong if you make the wrong play.

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