I had way less that the average stack. Red zone.

200/400 w/50 antes - pot size 1100 to start with. I found a average hand and went with it?

Okay.

FullTiltPoker Game #247861754: $20 + $2 Tournament (1534642), Table 4 - 200/400 Ante 50 - No Limit Hold'em - 16:57:08 ET - 2005/10/10
Seat 1: Lord Gore (12,200)
Seat 3: SRD72 (7,707), is sitting out
Seat 4: conner52 (5,159)
Seat 5: Chaser82 (4,112)
Seat 6: katnmouse (10,330)
Seat 7: fjtfro (7,140)
Seat 8: golcapmike (4,995)
Seat 9: AlamedaMike (3,303)
Lord Gore antes 50
SRD72 antes 50
conner52 antes 50
Chaser82 antes 50
katnmouse antes 50
fjtfro antes 50
golcapmike antes 50
AlamedaMike antes 50
SRD72 posts the small blind of 200
conner52 posts the big blind of 400
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to AlamedaMike
Chaser82 folds
katnmouse calls 400
fjtfro folds
golcapmike folds
AlamedaMike raises to 3,253, and is all in
Lord Gore calls 3,253
SRD72 folds
conner52 folds
katnmouse folds
AlamedaMike shows
AlamedaMike stands up
Lord Gore shows
SRD72 has returned
*** FLOP ***
*** TURN ***
*** RIVER ***
AlamedaMike shows Ace King high
Lord Gore shows a pair of Aces
Lord Gore wins the pot (7,906) with a pair of Aces

Fine. To get there, you gotta win some of these. I always think to myself, this is as good a time as any. In this case it was. You were on the short side of the toss, but it might have gone the other way, too.

Welcome to the variance that is MTTs.

CJ

thanks

Meh, this one is close. You're not going to get crap from me for making a push but I might have waited it out just a little longer.

1.) You are likely to get called by a hand that has you dominated. AK, AJ, KQ and AA-JJ all have you in a real bad spot. AQ is the only other hand and will call IMO and you're 40/60 against that.

2.) The big stack limped, and he's likely to call you with all of those hands and the pairs you're 55/45 against. Its hard to count that as dead money in the pot, but if you have a read like he's playing every hand and folds to an allin then it's a good move.

3.) You have the button and an entire orbit to make a push. I would make a move with any cards I figure to be live against chaser, golcap or conner. They are over 10xBB but not healthy stacks and will only call with good solid hands. Against them you have a lot of folding equity IMO, and it's easy money to pick up. If they call, you still have live cards to fall back on. The two people that are left to act after you push have large stacks and are probably more willing to take a coinflip against a shorty, that really cripples your folding equity. I imagine in this hand that if the other large stack didn't call the limper might have.