That doesn't make much sense to me - pushing on the turn that is.

First of all, according to my account, the guy is a calling station, so if I know I'm not going to fold to his bet - I also know he's not going to fold to mine (especially getting 4:1 on his call).

On the turn - the king is not only a scare card - it is squarely 50% of the possible holdings I've given him. By pushing - that's akin to knowing a guy is on a flush draw and pushing when the draw hits.

Although check-calling may seem like a weak thing to do here - I got to see the river for the cheapest with an admittedly questionable hand. If I push and win, I'll have 25.5k. If I push and lose I'm out. If I check and my opponent checks the river - I'm at 5k if I lose and 20k if I win.

Tournaments are more about survival than extracting the most from the hand. When I had originally posted the hand, I was really questioning my action. Now that I've had a good day to think about it - I'm fairly certain that my actions were probably optimal. If I had a significant amount of fold equity, the story would be different. Given that he was a calling station - I think checking it down is more optimal (even with the intention of calling any bet from him).

Certainly a tough situation - hence the reason I posted it.

However, like I said - about half the time I had him on a king and the other half - an ace. Now - as long as it isn't AK (which I'm fairly certain it isn't) and not A4 (can't differentiate between this and any other possible Ax combo), then I'm ahead.

If Kx was the only thing I could put him on - a bet on the river would be tough to call. Bear in mind, I've got position, so when I check the turn - he only has one more chance to bet.

Given the array I've got him on, I think calling a river bet from the SB is at worst questionable. If you take out Ax, it would make it much more difficult.