Was it a bad decision to push?

[colpres]

I'm a new player, so looking for insight. Recently, about 2 hours into play, 140 of 700 players left, playing w/tight image I think, $5 buy-in tourny, my stack is approximately $4000. Dealt suited A-Q(h) in middle position, and raised to $1000, about 4x blinds. All folded except player in late position who played almost anything but had shown he would fold, with equal stack, who calls. Flop is 7, 4(h),2(h). Opponent bets about $800 - I thought he would make this bet with nothing given this board.

If behind, I thought I had at least 15 outs (maybe 3 aces, 3 queens, 9 hearts to the nuts, backdoor straight possibility.)Doubling up would have put me in top 25 or so at that time. Earlier I won a huge pot from this player push when my BB A-8 beats his A-7, so I know he'll play A-anything. Decided to go all-in, opponent takes maximum time, then calls with A-7 offsuit, takes the hand when no improvement comes.

I've read books & Card-Player articles saying don't play draws in tournaments. Calling the bet would put almost 50% of my chips into the pot, so I felt it was all-in or fold. Was this a poor decision? Is "don't play draws in tournaments" good advice? If you do play them, how many outs do you need to have to play them aggressively? Given this situation again, I would probably do the same, so if I'm off-track let me know.

[betgo]

You played the hand correctly. This is the standard play with two big overcards and a flush draw to reraise allin. You had a 46% chance of winning the hand in this case. Your opponent could have folded and you might have had better chances (or worse if he had something really big).

Your opponent of course shouldn't have called your preflop raise, but he had to call your push.

You say your opponent was in late position, but he appears to act first on the flop. I assume your opponent was in the blinds or that you checkraised allin.

When they say don't play draws, they mean draws where you call rather than strong draws like this where you push. Furthermore, you frequently have the right odds to call on the draw. That advise applies to major tournaments where the opponent might read you are on a draw and blow you away on the turn, and wouldn't pay you off if you hit.

There are times you need to get away from draws. You can't almost always play out a flush draw or two-way straight draw like in limit, but it is not right to say not to play draws.

[colpres]

oops - you are right - he acted last as the small blind on my pre-flop raise and then bet out - I got confused.
Thanks!

[Grim_Garrett]

I would say that on your observation it wasnt a bad push....but when players who play anything call you down on a bet with a flop like that he could have a piece of that, just like how pros hate having gus in a pot cause he will play anything. On your part you may have wanted to push all-in preflop only because you had committed so much of your stack preflop which then puts you in a bad position if you dont hit. I think you couldve bet a little bit less that wouldnt have hurt you if you didnt hit and still got it heads up. Either way its nice to see you observe your opponents, but be careful with raises like that with AQ even though its suited any pocket pair calling had you and even a reckless player couldve hit.

[betgo]

Given the that size (16xBB), I would probably open raise 2-3xBB rather than 4xBB to avoid being pot committed. Either that or push. An open push is an overbet, but certainly EV+ in this case.