I am almost exclusively a cash game player but in Vegas 12er talked me into playing the $330 deep stack at the Venetian. He told me the field was really soft which was an major understatement and he took half my action so I decided WTF.

Tourney starts with 180 players and we are down to 40 or so. I have 50k in chips and am the big stack at my table, the blinds are 400/800 with a 50 ante. I have been running over my table pretty well. For the most part my table is waiting for big hands, and I am able to pick up the blinds and antes pretty regularly.

Then my worst possible scenario, I bust the shorty to my left and in his place they move the chip leader. He has over 60k and is super agro. After 10 hands sitting to my left he has. He called one of my raises and bluffed me off 3rd pair and showed a missed draw. He has also 3 bet me big and the player 2 seats to my left the same .

So as a general theory what is the best play here? 12er said to tighten up which makes sense it would help me avoid borderline spots against a player that can bust me and has position on me. My concern is that my table has been together since the beginning of the tournament and I'm not sure if my table is going to ever break and playing super tight means I cant use my chip stack and this is the time I really want to make a push to get a monster stack so I have a final table stack. I really fear sitting back waiting for a top 10 hand and being blinded into non existence. Sneaking into the money doesn't mean shit, the top 4 places are all the real money everything else is pretty weak when you consider how long I would have have to play tight to try to sneak in to 10th.

So my bust hand
I raise . Dingelberry calls from the SB. Flop is . Villain checks, I bet 3k, He makes it like 7500, I raise to 20k, he shoves, I am now getting like 3:1 on my remaining chips and I'm pretty damn sure its a coin flip. I call villain has K9o and I dont improve and I'm gone in a disappointing 39th.

I took a long time to make the final call, I still had 25k left which just about an average stack at that time in the tournament. My problem is that I already invested 40% of my stack, plus with this guy at my table directly to my left this is going to be a super tough table and at some point in order for me to have a chance to win someone was going to have to cripple of KO this guy and if I fold no one at my table would have had more than 35k and this guy was going to make my life a living hell but with him gone it would have been a really easy table.

Is there a better strategy or a better type of hand to make this stand with or is this just one of those tourney spots where the coin flips gods either make you a huge stack or a railbird?

Comments on all points are appreciated and yes I know if I was a better poker player I would have won the coin flip but unfortunately I am not.

I