Discussion over an inflection point play

[AliasMrJones]

To make a short story long, I was playing a multi when my friend called and invited me over for a little tourney. I explained my situation and decided to unplug at my house during the break and zip over and plug in at his house to finish my online tourney while we were playing live. (Hey, I usually multi-table SnG's so I should be able to handle this, right?)

So my friend was watching me play the online tourney and...
Started with 890, down to 62 and 60 get paid. I think the average stack was about 12,000. Here are the relevant stacks from the hand:

AliasMrJones (button) 9,484
SB 25,122
BB 33,423

Folded to me in the button with AJo. I thought about it for a while and my friend and I had a discussion about whether to push or not. On the plus side, AJo is a good hand, and there are only the blinds to worry about. On the minus side, both blinds have huge stacks and it would suck to play for 3 hours and go out 2 out of the money when I could easily fold at least into the money in a hand or two and then play to win. Oh, and I should mention the distribution since the payout for 60 was higher than normal. 33 buy-in, 60th paid 120, 10th was about 400 and 1st was about 8,000.

[b0000000000m]

How big were the blinds?

Depending on the blinds, it's either a push, or a normal steal-sized raise.

[jvphish]

why even risk it? dont you want to at least finish in the money? AJ is the devil.

[People_Mover]

blinds? I'm raising to steal and pushing almost any flop.

[durron597]

Blind size is very important here. If I have 15xBB+, I fold. If I have less, I push.

[DemonDeac]

[ QUOTE ]
why even risk it? dont you want to at least finish in the money? AJ is the devil.

[/ QUOTE ]

still a favorite against two random hands and i hope he's in this to win it, not just to make money. gotta steal the blinds here and a push seems right

[Jax_Grinder]

this has probably been asked, but it is exceedingly relevant. Blinds??????

[AliasMrJones]

Argh, I thought I put that in...Very, very sorry. Blinds were 750/1,500.

[Jax_Grinder]

[ QUOTE ]
Blind size is very important here. If I have 15xBB+, I fold. If I have less, I push.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with this, generally. But, given the *relatively* deep payout for ITM, I probably lower the push/fold point down to about 8-10xBB. I want a shot at a better hand to double up on in the next couple of orbits if I am guaranteed to make the money in the next couple of hands.

The whole "I am in it to win it" concept is taken too far sometimes and results in people advocating a push with hands that do not justify it.

[LuvDemNutz]

I push but it's close.

I play to win but $120 for 60th is a pretty good payout for a $33 entry.