On the bubble with A-T

[citizenkn]

A few things to note: this is a home tourney, the 3rd in a series of 10 tournaments leading up to a "championship" round later in the year. Top 3 pays, and each player earns points based on their finish. Only the top point earners over the series gets a spot in the championship round.

OK, that said:

4 players left. I am one of two micro-stacks (about 4x the BB). The other micro-stack is a brand new player (complete with cheat sheet of hand rankings). She has a slightly smaller stack than me, and would be blinded out first. The two big stacks are about equal in size at about 30x the BB.

I'm in the BB, and dealt A /images/graemlins/spade.gifT /images/graemlins/spade.gif. Big stack 1 calls, Big stack 2 calls, micro-stack 2 folds in the SB. Hero checks (good, bad?).

Flop K /images/graemlins/heart.gif9 /images/graemlins/spade.gif2 /images/graemlins/spade.gif

Given my bubble status, the necessity of gaining points to qualify for the bigger tournament at the end of the year, and the stack sizes of the other players, is this a check-fold situation? Or should this be an insta-push?

[CardMinger]

I think four way and with your chip stack I would have pushed this PF in a heartbeat.

Someone correct me if thats a terrible play...

[Rolen]

4x BB is just enough to get peoples attention, especially when there are people behind them. I push pre-flop and hope for one caller plus a load of dead money. As for your play on the flop, your tourney is basically riding on whether a spade hits. If not, you're almost certainly not going to win, so try to extract maximum value. Bet the minimum and hope for a bunch of callers.

[J-Lo]

[ QUOTE ]
4x BB is just enough to get peoples attention, especially when there are people behind them. I push pre-flop and hope for one caller plus a load of dead money. As for your play on the flop, your tourney is basically riding on whether a spade hits. If not, you're almost certainly not going to win, so try to extract maximum value. Bet the minimum and hope for a bunch of callers.

[/ QUOTE ]

We need newer players so that we can learn how they think. I've never understood min-betting w/ a draw-- and i think this is terrible advice. What happens when they call and 2 of clubs comes on turn? This is a clear push before and after the flop. You probably a coinflip with some dead money in there before and after the flop-- Good Luck.

edit: i answered w/o looking at the stack sized or the first paragraph, lol. It's a very sticky situation. Position matters. You cannot steal from her, but she can steal from you, so you are in a trap. After reviewing the stacks, i think it's a push because you will need to win a coinflip eventually to ITM.

[Rolen]

I'll explain my view again. If no spade hits, you're probably out of the tournament but if it does, you're very much back in. So get as much money in the pot as possible since if a spade DOES hit you almost certainly win it. Understand that I would never normally min-bet this draw.