Top pair in the blinds?

[Taraz]

How did I play this? Good? Bad? I seem to get into trouble when I flop top pair with a bad kicker in the blinds in level 4 and above.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (7 handed) converter

MP2 (t840)
CO (t540)
Button (t772)
SB (t1316)
Hero (t1140)
UTG (t1505)
MP1 (t1887)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 3[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], J[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, MP1 calls t100, <font color="#666666">3 folds</font>, SB completes, Hero checks.

Flop: (t300) J[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 7[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 5[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(3 players)</font>
SB checks, <font color="#CC3333">Hero bets t300</font>, MP1 calls t300, SB folds.

Turn: (t900) 6[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
Hero raises all-in t840 , MP1 calls t740.

Final Pot: t2440

[dfscott]

TPNK is huge trouble in the middle stages. I will generally treat it like 2nd pair and check it. If the only better is a weak bet on the end, I'll sometimes go for a strong check-raise and try and take it down there. If not, that'll be the last money I put in.

Since you bet out, the smooth call on the nearly drawless board could be another J or total garbage (this is the 10s, right)? The turn could complete a wacky draw, but I think it's more likely it didn't. In any case, you probably have a 50-50 chance at best of pushing MP1 out here and you have hardly any showdown equity (you effectively have 2nd pair TK).

I think the bigger question is: Do you really want to risk the tournament on this hand? If you fold, you still have plenty of chips. If you win, you're a larger stack, but not massive. If you lose, you're out.