What's the best strategy in this spot

[Dr_Colossus]

I recently played a B&M multi table freezout tournament with 135 players and a $350 buy in. This tournament is held once a month and generally speaking is of a high and solid standard. Anyway mid way through the tournament with about 80 players left the following situation cropped up.
Table was 8 handed with blinds at 200-400 with no ante. I was on the BB with the A /images/graemlins/spade.gif3 /images/graemlins/spade.gifand the player under the gun called. All the rest of the table folded including the SB. I checked putting the under the gun player on anything from A Q to A 9 or possibly a mid pocket pair. The flop came A /images/graemlins/diamond.gif 4 /images/graemlins/spade.gif8 /images/graemlins/spade.gif giving me top pair with the nut flush draw. My question now is how should this hand be played? At the time I had 3,700 chips remaining after my 400 BB post. The player under the gun had 4,900 chips remaining after calling the BB. My table image was as tight agressive as I had not played much hands up to then due to a bad run of cards.
I want to get some advise as to how you would play the hand before I state how I played the hand and what the outcome was. I will post the remaining part at a later date.
Thanks for all your help and advice.

[lady4luck]

in this spot heads up, i'm almost sure i would of went all-in. you didn't say what kind of player the other guy was. tho. i think if you gave him a chance to bet he would of myb even a bluff, so by you going all in, he has to make the harder decsion not you.

[37offsuit]

So there is t1000 in the pot, you have 3,700 and your opponent has 4,900. I think if you push, you take the pot down right here unless your opponent has flopped a set. So if you're worried about AQ calling you down and not making your flush, that is if the t1000 is all you're after with this hand, then a push is fine.

If you think, as I would, that this is an excellent opportunity to get some more chips because of the range of hands my opponent has, then I'm going to look for the check raise, probably all in. A free card doesn't hurt you too badly. If your opponent is behind, he's drawing to 2 outs, one of which might be counterfit by your flush draw and even if it's not you will always have a clean redraw to the nut flush (say he has a pair of sixes, if a six spikes the turn, any non six spade that hits the river can not pair the board).

So I would check and hope he bets to get some more chips from him, I'd definately check-raise all in because any raise just about pot sticks you anyway. If he calls with a better ace your range of hands doesn't include two pair for him already, so you have 12 outs twice (3's and spades).

This is a great spot to either double up or at least win more than what is in the pot already. If he checks behind you, then bet out into him on any turn card.

[Dr_Colossus]

Thanks 37offsuit That's exactly what I was thinking after I played the hand. Given the stage of the tournament and my previous run of bad cards I wanted to make as much as possible on this hand given the favourable flop. The only problem was though that I didn't check raise. I didn't think the situation through and bet out the minimum 400 on the flop. The under the gun player thought for a brief moment and then raised to 1800. I instantly put him on a big A but not A K as he would have raised preflop with that. He was obviously putting me on a flush draw and wanted to push me out. Anyway I instantly went all-in for a re-raise of 1,900 and he called after some hesitation. The end result was the same in that I got a chance to double up, the only problem was that by not check raising I don't think he had the option of folding after re-raising him as there was 6,500 in the pot for an additional call of 1,900. If I were to check raise he would have bet in the region of 1,000 - 1,200 for which a re-raise all-in would have put serious pressure on him and give me two chances or winning the pot. In your opinion how bad was the min bet on the flop?
For those of you interested in the outcome, his A /images/graemlins/club.gifQ /images/graemlins/club.gif held as no more spades or a 3 hit the board. He was shitting himself though when he saw my hand and gave a sigh of relief as the river turned a dud.

[zaxx19]

bASIC CHECKRAISE ALL IN. wORST THING THAT CAN HAPPEN IS A FREE CARD. I CAN DEAL WITH THAT AND A NUT FLUSH DRAW.