Who pushes with this underpair?

[adanthar]

My opponent in this hand is pretty fishy, limping in a lot preflop with trash and folding to raises around 50/50. Notable hands he's been in:

-Limped/called my 2.5 BB raise, then cracked my aces and 3/4 of my stack with T6s when he CR-moved in on a flop of JTx and caught a backdoor flush;
-With 4 left and me short stacked, limp/called a raise, then folded to my all in pot sized bet on an A96 board when I was holding pocket 5's;
-With 4 left, limped and check/called an all in with A9 and an A on the board.

In short, he seemed to be loose/passive, but with a slowplaying streak. With that in mind, what do you do here? (Anyone just push preflop?)

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t300 (4 handed)

SB (t840)
BB (t1575)
UTG (t3450)
Hero (t2135)

Preflop: Hero is Button with T/images/graemlins/heart.gif, T/images/graemlins/diamond.gif.
UTG calls t300, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises to t800</font>, <font color="666666">2 folds</font>, UTG calls t500.

Flop: (t2050) A/images/graemlins/spade.gif, Q/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, 8/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
UTG checks, <font color="CC3333">Hero...

[Tosh]

I would push this preflop without thinking twice.

[Gramps]

Yeah, the problem with this opponent as described is he's going to call your raise, he could do so with just about any hand, and you'll probably have at least once overcard on the flop, leaving you in a postflop quandry. Push it preflop - if he calls you with some semi-junky hand, you're a big favorite to be the big chip leader - If he folds (and everyone else folds), you get 2 1/2 times the BB, a nice pickup for not having to show down the best hand.

[edge]

Push preflop. Every single time.

[adanthar]

[ QUOTE ]
Yeah, the problem with this opponent as described is he's going to call your raise, he could do so with just about any hand, and you'll probably have at least once overcard on the flop, leaving you in a postflop quandry. Push it preflop - if he calls you with some semi-junky hand, you're a big favorite to be the big chip leader

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess I wanted to be able to get away from an all in reraise (the other two were so weak/tight that a reraise meant I could safely throw tens away)...but, on second thought, you're all right. This is a push.

Okay, so now that I've called, who pushes and who checks? If you bet something less than all in (unlikely), can you fold to a raise?

Results: <font color="white">I pushed. He thought down to about the 10 second mark and called. I was peering at the screen through my fingers and swore like crazy...until I looked closer and saw he actually called with pocket nines. A ten hit the river for good measure and I cruised to first. Guess he thought I had exactly KJo?</font>

[Gramps]

[ QUOTE ]
Okay, so now that I've called, who pushes and who checks? If you bet something less than all in (unlikely), can you fold to a raise?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the cost of pushing and losing (or betting a smaller amount and losing) is too great here to waste even one more chip on this hand. Think of it this way: You have a mega-fish who's a huge chip leader. Your other two opponents have 840 and 1575 chips. If you check fold (whether on the flop, Turn or River), you have 1335 chips. You're still in a very good spot, to finish in the money, or even get HU with mega-fish in a battle for first.

Don't give mega-fish the option of taking the rest of your chips if he happens to have a hand that leaves you drawing to two outs. Get away from this hand on the flop, and live to get your chips in the middle of the table in a better spot. Even if you fired 450 at this pot on the flop, that would cost you 4 hands (cost of blinds) that you could get your chips in the middle with a respectable HU hand. Those chips are very valuable at this late juncture.