General Strategic Question

I'm in a tourny right now; my stack's 10k, average is 5k, and there are 67 people left, 36 get paid. I'm big stack at the table, but there are two 7kers and they're playing loose passive preflop, so every time I've got a big hand, I'm in with them--usually with position.

My question: when acting last with a nice looking hand in a big pot, should I be very inclined to check or call and not bet or raise with a hand that I'm pretty sure is good for fear of a monster? I don't want to list specific hands; I just wanna know if this general inclination is reasonable.

[ansky451]

Its hard to say without any specific hands, but no you shouldn't play scared of a monster. You are a long way from the big money, and still need to splash around and win some pots to go deep.

But in a pot of about 3k, if stacks are still around 5k, aren't I giving them odds to slowplay if I'm going to bet 1 pair?

[ansky451]

That question doesn't make much sense, rephrase it.

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That question doesn't make much sense, rephrase it.

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Sorry, I'm writing this while playing the bubble now /images/graemlins/smile.gif. I promise I actually understand tournament poker--I'm an SnG player, so I think I understand the subtleties a lot more than the fundamentals unfortunately.

Anyway, if the other big stacks know that I will bet into big pots on the river acting last with one pair, that justifies a lot of their loose passive play on earlier rounds. This allows them to correctly play draws with huge implied odds, play small pairs for set value, etc. Since they're doing this already, I don't want to justify their play.

Now that I think about it, I think I'm thinking about this backwards--I probably should be putting my opponents on the range of hands that they'll be calling/raising with and resign myself to reevaluating if I get raised.

Lol, sorry for wasting your time.