Which would you prefer...

[Red_Diamond]

First hand of the tournament, someone gets bust while another doubles up. I see this a lot, but I wonder if this is +ev or -ev for those with the regular stack sizes.

I used to think, one down puts me closer to the money. While this may somewhat be true, the fact is I still have the same stack basically, so have I really made progress? Furthermore, a player now has a larger stack, and can bully around us in the near future.

I've been doing some more thoughts on this, and can't really come up with which scenario is best. Starting hand #2 with everyone at an average stack, or with 1 less player, but an opponent with 2x the stack.