Good fold or bad fold?

[rtucker5]

There were about 25 players left in a round 1 qualifier for the WSOP freeroll at Poker Stars. Game in no limit hold em. Top 9 advance to the next round. I have about T9,000 chips left after posting the T800 bb. I have an average stack. UTG raises to T3200 and it is folded to me with JJ. UTG has been basically sitting on his T30,000 stack for a couple loops. I folded. Was this a good fold? If not, should I have called or moved all in?

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Counting the blinds and the antes, it's costing you 1650 per orbit to watch. The next level is 600/1200 and I forget if the ante goes up from 50 to 100., so at the next level it's going to cost you either 2250 or 2700 per orbit. If you assume he's conservative, but hasn't gone completely into a shell, he could be raising with any pair 9s or up, AK, or AQ. I think most big stacks would raise UTG with a few more hands than this, but for the sake of the argument, I'll leave it at those. If that's the case you're about a 5-2 favorite to be ahead or even right now. If this is a typical 'Stars tourney with about 160 entries, you want about 27,000 to be comfortable about making the final table. If you fold now, you've only got 5 times the big blind at the next level. You may have to wait too long for a better chance. I would have pushed all-in.

[rtucker5]

My thinking was with less than T6000 to raise him back I have no chance to win it by him folding. I would have to win based on my hand strength. I thought based on how he was sitting on his stack he would only be raising here with a super strong hand. I decided that I would wait for a better spot. Had this been a regular tournament rather than just get to the final table, I would have moved in. Lucky for me I found a better hand soon after and easily coasted to the final table.