QQ late in tourney

[BobbyTheG]

14 players left, I am just below average chips (8th most).
Blinds are 3000/6000 with 300 ante.
I'm on the button, six handed.

Seat 5: Rifleman (65000 in chips)
Seat 8: Hero (49235 in chips)

UTG Folds, UTG+1 folds, RifleMan limps (6000), Cutoff folds.
I have QQ on the button. I raised to 24000.
RifleMan calls.

Board comes A44.

Rifle goes all in and has me covered. I have 25K left.
Payout is same for 14th through 10th with increasing money from 9th on up.

Two questions:

Should I have just gone all in pre-flop? I didn't know what to make of his limp as there was rarely any limping at this stage. He hadn't limped at all before this. I guess I didn't push all in that I wanted to get some action and didn't mind his call, although I thought he would either fold or reraise me all in.

Now what on the flop? When he just called the pre-flop raise, I figured him for Ax, figuring he would've reraised with AA/KK/AK. Maybe the pot at that point made me call (57K in the pot + the 25K I would have to call = 102K in my stack if I win the pot, where as I would have 25K if I fold, or 14th place if I bust out).

Thanks everybody, these forums are making me a better player. There were 783 players in this tourney so it was a nice payday.

[Unparagoned]

When the action gets to you preflop, there's almost 17k in the pot, push push push. It can look like a steal, and if the limper has a bigger pair than you, so be it.

The flop decision seems to be right I think, because I would have put the guy on Ax as well. The other option, of course, is that he has a pocket pair smaller than yours. I feel like your decision here is going to be based on what you've observed, but I certainly won't fault a fold. The easy answer though is that you should never have had to make this decision...push preflop /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Putting half your chips in the pot with any intention of folding is a mistake, so pushing preflop is better than your raise.

When he pushed, you're getting about 7:2 on your call, which means you have to win about 22% of the time to make the call 0EV. He's bluffing at least 10% of the time, and you draw out to beat him about 7% of the time. He has you covered, which probably increases the bluff figure slightly. It's close, but I'd call.

[davidross]

Personally I push here without blinking pre-flop. You have no room to manouvre, so the only reason I bet less than my stack would be to induce a call, with the intention of playing no matter what comes. Given that you played it this way I think you have to call his bet on the flop. If I was him and had an ace, I would wait for you to bet it and then call. The bet smells like an underpair trying to get you to fold.

It's important to have a plan before you put in any money when you get to this stage of the tournament. I actually like being in all-in or fold mode because it takes away the tough flop decisions like this. The true artists of the game like to play post-flop so they make moves like you did. THere is no right or wrong, just know how you want to play it beforehand. If you tell yourself I'm betting half my stack, and I'm willing to fold if the overcard comes, then that's fine, but making those decisions on the fly, under time pressure can lead to bad decisions.

Congrats on the good finish.