seeking advice on late play with big stack

[Meatmaw]

Here's what happened. I was chip leader on the button with about 6000. SB has about 5000. 4th and 5th have about 1800 and 1000. I'm afraid I don't remember the preflop play but I had KTo and flopped JTT. He pushes all-in, and I read him for a paired J with any kicker, 3 tens, possibly any other pocket pair. I call and he has AJ. scores the J on the river to put me almost completely out. top 3 places were paid out of this 8 person tourney and we had rebuys for 1500 chips, so I rebought to end up taking 3rd place.

1) was it dumb to call his all-in (the main reason would be to sit comfortably with my big stack for a while and not go against other big stacks. I suspect the answer is 'no')

2) was it correct to rebuy? I had walked into this $5 8-person tourney planning not to rebuy because my thinking is that with the 50/30/20% payout structure and few participants, the amt I'd be putting into the prize pool was far too much compared to the increased chance I'd have to win once I was out. I only rebought at the end because the two fighting for 3rd place were so close to how much I'd be buying in for, so I felt it'd be worth it. Thoughts?

Thanks!

[JCoe]

i'm a new poster, but here's my opinion for what it's worth.

since you don't remember the pf play, i assume that you both were in for the bb. you hit the flop hard and had the other big stack go all-in. you made a good read and a good call but got sucked out. it happens. about buying back in. if you thought that you were better than both of those opponents, i don't see a problem with that, as long as it was worth the extra 5 risked.

jmo

[Colby818]

1) You pushed when you had the best hand. That's we're looking for. The only way you aren't ahead there is if your opponent has pocket J's or AT. If you won this hand, you were virtually guarenteed to win the tourney, given that you'd have like 80% of the chips in play as you described it. Believe me, I play on a tight bankroll, so I understand protecting my 'winnings' when I feel I'm already in the money. But, at some point you've got to roll the dice and take a shot at winning the whole thing. You really aren't going to get a better shot than this.

2) It would seem from your previously large stack and the fact that you rebounded and finished 3rd that you may have been the best player at the table. If you are the best player at the table, I think it is virtually always doing the right thing to buy back in. In this case, you described ~T13500 in chips in play and a buy back of ~1500. That would give you 10% of the chips in play. And, you'd already have a larger stack than the 5th place player, so you'd only be trying to catch two players. One, you say had T1800, so that's not much of a chore. I can't see why you wouldn't buy back in here.
I think my general rule of thumb here is that I'd want to be within a double up of the average stack. For your own point of reference, decide what size stack you are at before you begin to feel uncomfortable. I play most frequently on Party, where starting stacks are generally T800. I start to feel uncomfortable when I go below T250. When I am at T400, I actually am quite confident and feel that I will double or triple up and make the money.

[Meatmaw]

Before I bought back in, there was $T21000 on the table so I guess the average after rebuying for the T$1500 would be $T4500. Those numbers are definitely accurate since I'm sure the prize pool was $75, but somewhere my numbers are off in distributing these numbers. Regardless, I was entering with chips around the same in count to 2 others (although less) I think, and the blinds were about 100/200 with 25 antes. I need to work on my memory and observation skills. Thanks for the compliment.