How's my strategy approaching the bubble?

[bkholdem]

Played in only my second MTT last night. It was a freeroll at party
paid for with party points. I played one other MTT about a year ago
that was a satelite or similar. I decided to play for the experience.


NL MTT with 1500 entries (most must have been chowder heads as they
were dropping like flies)


Basically I played really tight. I would drop slightly below average
chip stack and then double up on an all in. Repeated this a handfull of
times.


Hands were as follows:


(me) KK vs. 10 10 I won
(me) AKs all in from blind in family limped pot I won uncontested
(me) 99 vs. AJ I reraised all in and lost this one but had plenty left
over
(me) AQ vs. AJ I limped in ep and called smaller stack all in
AK vs. AK tie


Down to under 50 players with only the top 30 in the money. My stack is
less than average at this point and based on stack sizes (and all
things being equal) if I blinded off I would either go out within a few
places of the money or just squeek in the money.


I've played my fair share of low limit Sit n Go's in the past and it's
not my style to be ultra conservative in efforts to try and squeek into
the money. Also in this MTT just placing in the money would be -EV for
me on a $ per hour basis, but like I said my main objective was for the
MTT experience.


We are down to under 45 players and there are 2 players at my table who
I evaluate as better than me. One of them is the tourney chip leader or
close to that. I do not want to be seeing flops with these two
opponents unless I have a monster as they can both outplay me post
flop.


I have QQ in the blind. One of the 2 at the table who can outplay me
open limps. She has me covered. Chip leader mini raises from mid
position to 2000t (this means he has 2 cards). Next player, seems
solid, re-raises to 5000t. This player has about another 12000t behind
him. I'm guessing at this point he is comitting himself and wants
action but I'm not sure. I'm sure he has a strong hand but he might be
leaving himself enough behind him to fold. I have QQ in the blind. I
have about 21000t.


As an aside:
The open limper (who can outplay me) has the BB when I'm on the button.
She has double my stack. This is far from the ideal situation for
stealing blinds.


So I have QQ and don't want to fold here. I would not consider it the
'good experience' I'm looking for to fold my QQ and get blinded off
waiting for a solid hand.


I also don't want to turn into 'scared money' as the blinds are going
up soon and if I wait and then try to steal with an average hand and
get called I'm going to be dreading it if I don't hit the flop well. It
that position I will either need to get lucky (probably more than once)
to place in the money or make a play for a raised pot on a smallish
stack. I don't like these choices. I can't wait for AA/KK.


So I push. EP limper folds, Chip leader thinks for a fairly long time
and folds, solid player calls all in and shows AKs, hits and wins.


Now I have about 4500t and the big blind is 2000t. Do I call all in
with any hand from the big blind? I wasn't sure but at the time I was
figuring that it would be foolish to fold in the big blind and small
blind but maybe there are circumstances for doing so? I didn't think
so.


A few hands passed and I open pushed with Q 10 from either late postion
or cutoff +1 hoping to get lucky. I was still 10 spots out of the money
hear and though. I figured with about 4-5 more hands to look at this
might be my best opportunity. Was this a mistake?


Ironically one of the two who could outplay me re-raised to 1000t from
either cutoff or button and the chip leader pondered and called from
the big blind. They checked it through and each had overpairs (QQ and
KK). And I was done about 10 out of the money.


Like I said this was only my second MTT so I'm looking for any feedback
that can be offered.

[schwza]

i did not read the whole post, but you will generally get more/better responses if you post a single hand.

[bocablkr]

You made the right call in my opinion. Unless you put the re-raise on a higher PP then it was a good call. Turns out you went in with the best hand 53%-47%. You can't ask for much more than that. You did not want to squeeze into the money and if you won here you probably would have had a solid stack.

[flo]

I had about the same situation today. Stack below average, 30 get paid, 50 left, i get AQs, 2 limp, i push, get called by 66 and bust. I think it was the right play.

[autobet]

I would think pushing is correct.

Playing any hand in the BB is correct.