Did I make the right move?

[KevinG]

Ok guys, a newbie in the world of NL hold-em tourneys here wondering if I made the right move . . .

This was my first tournament, started with 19 guys and I was in the final 4. I had about 12k in tourney chips, with the blinds at 5k and 10k (I was by far the low chip guy). I was on the sb with 3-3. First two players fold, and I went all in with my remaining 7k. BB called (it was only 2k to call for him) with a K-J offsuit.

Of course, he hits a J on the turn and I'm out in 4th place.

My thought was that I probably was not going to see a better hand than a small pair in the next 3 hands, and I was going to have to go all in when the bb got back to me in 3 hands.

In hindsight, I wonder if it would have been smarter to either fold the 3's or just call the bb, so that I could stay in a little longer hoping to get a good run of cards, or more likely, have one or two of the other players get busted before I had to go all in so that I could move up to second or third place. There was not a huge difference in money between second and third place in this tourney, but hopefully I'll get to the point where I feel comfortable playing in ones where there is more money involved.

Did I make the right call, or is this one of those things that there is no real right answer and you just have to play a hunch and hope it works out.

[LetsRock]

Shoving was probably your best move.

Post this in the tourney forum for more responses.

[Lottery Larry]

No point in saving your 2K by calling- just puts you in a worse position.
He would have called your 2K push on the flop, so get it in while you're ahead

How many places pay? And was third stack anywhere close to yours, where sneaking in to 3rd would have a shot? that would be the only reason to fold the 33.

[KevinG]

The top five places paid, so I was already in the money. This is a pretty low stakes tourney ($25 buy-in) and 4th paid $55 with 3rd paying about $70.

Third was quite a ways ahead of me, but way behind 1st and 2nd. I think he was sitting with about 25-30k in chips, so he would have been able to survive the blinds going around. (We all started with 10k in chips with no rebuys or add-ons, so there was $190k in total chips on the table).

[KevinG]

Thanks! I'll post it over there and see what everyone has to say.

[Lottery Larry]

No question then- you need to start doubling up.