PS 3R - AQ Short Stack on the Bubble

[stanek]

20% award structure. 475 players left with 450 places paid. What do you do?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t1200 (9 handed) internettexasholdem.com

BB (t77445)
UTG (t48226)
UTG+1 (t19477)
Hero (t8887)
MP2 (t17644)
MP3 (t41975)
CO (t21651)
Button (t17295)
SB (t15671)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero ????</font>

[stanek]

I apologize if this is an easy/obvious question.

My first instinct is to fold and easily get into the money (yeah its not much but its better than nothing). But the other side of me says you cant pass up hands like this so go all in.

The two reasons I lean towards folding are that even if I do steal the pot or double up I am still half of the average. Also the fact that in a 20% award structure the difference between the bubble and 100th place isnt really all that much.

I am curious as to what others would do in the same situation.

[JustPlayingSmart]

This is a trivial push.

If making the money mattered to you in this tournament ($21.40), you are playing above your bankroll.

I would be pushing with much less, and if I happened to see AQ, I would be ecstatic.

[stanek]

Yeah the money doesnt mean much of anything which is why I didnt include it.

FYI the difference between 450th and 127th is $21.40 to $36.69.

Of course my ultimate goal is to win the tournament or atleast cash out big. But does there come a time espically in these flat payout structures where you want to atleast grab the bubble and then take your shot from there.

I wish I didnt have to post the tourney buyin but it was kind of obvious with the payout structure.

[ACyrilBC]

It is sort of silly that you even asked the question. Happily put your money into the middle and hope to double through, because you should be planning on doing that several times before you win the tournament(which is of course, the goal, rather than to just make a buy in back). i like to look at it this way: if maybe 2/3 the time you can make it through the bubble right there by folding, and one time in 100 you get top 3 in the tournament, and you played the hand 100 times, which would make you more money?

[nath]

raise if you like money.
fold if you hate it.

[stanek]

Thanks for the replies. I actually insta pushed for the reasons you said but unfortunatly ran into a hand. It wasnt until after the hand when i started having doubts.

I just wanted to make sure I made the right decision.