I broke my own rule

I usually make it a rule to not berate the play of others. A situation came up this weekend at the Isle of Capri Lake Charles that forced me to break my rule.

$110+R down to 12 players. Tournament pays top 10. BB is at 6K.

Relevant stacks

BB (80,000)
UTG+1 (12,000)
CO (Hero) (75,000)
Button (70,000)

Hero is dealt A [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 7 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

Action UTG+1 pushes, hero calls, button calls, BB calls

Flop: 7 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img],5 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 3 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

BB checks, hero checks, button bets out 12K. BB gives button a dirty look and mucks, hero says "you better have him" and exposes TPTK while mucking.

Button turns over JTo and UTG+1 turns over KJo. The king holds up to quadruple up.

I then broke my rule.

You should have bet the flop. There's like 50K chips in there and you're going to let everyone else draw to their overcards for free? I agree button is an idiot doing this with a hand like JTo that has no showdown value, but I think you should be mad at yourself.

EDIT: Not to be a dick, but I think people do this "check it down to knock out the short stack" thing too much. There's 50K chips in the pot! IMO that's more than worth to increase your chances a little in knocking this guy out.

I think the 'gentlemans agreement' is to only bet if you hold something close to the nuts to maximize the chance to knock the all-in guy out. I think I would fold as well if someone bet at me in that situation when I had TPTK. I'd put him on aces or a set.

What an idiot.

Your right, I should have bet it. But we were so close to the bubble (10th was 1K guaranteed) that I felt eliminating this player along with the fact there were two short stacks at the other table had the best outcome. This tournament almost always chops at the FT for about $1500 each.

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Your right, I should have bet it. But we were so close to the bubble (10th was 1K guaranteed) that I felt eliminating this player along with the fact there were two short stacks at the other table had the best outcome. This tournament almost always chops at the FT for about $1500 each.

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Yeah don't get me wrong button is pretty big douchebag to be betting with jack high there.

I guess it really depends on how getting more chips is going to help you at the final table. That's just a lot of chips (will almost double you if you win), and you have a really strong hand that is likely to hold up and knock out the short stack anyways, I'm guessing that keeping the other guys in will only increase your chances of knocking the guy out by maybe 10% (b/c if he hits his overcards he is likely to win anyways), so I say just try to take it down. If you had missed, I would check here as well and be very pissed at button.