Welcome to my conundrum for the night...

55-person live multitable tournament ($50 buy-in)...top 10 get paid, there are 12 left.

Blinds 300/600, no ante.

Two limpers, SB completes the bet, I'm in the big blind with T-9 diamonds and check to see the free flop, which comes down...

A-8-7, two clubs, one diamond

The SB moves all-in for 2,500. You have 2,700 but must post the small blind next hand. There are two players at the opposite table that are critically stacked (they will not get past the blinds without a winning a hand)...the player at the far end of the table looks like he's loading up intending to call, no read on the player to act immediately behind you.

So what do you do?

ugh, I hate it but I think you need to fold.

Screw it, I'm in antogonistic mood tonight.


Play to WIN. RAISE. I dont care about 10th, I want top 3. Your fucked if you fold. You need to serious double up exponentially, if you dont catch something playable in the SB. OESD and BD FLush draw.

I'm a grinder....fold.

I'm not a big fan of calling all-in with a draw - I'd probably fold.

The rest of the story...

After a long think, I folded. The guy to my left mumbles something like "I don't know what you were thinking about, but..." and flashes his K-J of clubs at me and folds it (there was one of my outs). Far end of the table guy stares at the stack of chips he's loaded up on and then opts to fold (there goes the pot odds that would've justified the call...).

I grabbed the big blind and a limper on the next hand with AJ and made the final table. Got knocked out in 7th by what I'm pretty sure was a "right read/right play/wrong time" situation...Folded around to me in the SB, the BB (2nd in chips) had looked at his cards early and reacted very disinterested, leaving them in front of his stack (usually when he plays he positions them behind his chips)...when the action got to the button, he slid his cards back toward him -- my gut tells me he's weak...I've got K-7, not great but I'm confident its stronger than what he has.

Now I"m open for debate as to whether its better to just raise here and try to take his big blind or smooth call and try to bait him into throwing extra chips into the pot and then coming back over the top all-in. I did the latter. He adds 1,200 to the pot and I go back over the top for around 2,300 more. He grudgingly calls my all-in and flips over a Q-2 suited...which all looks good 'til the 2 hits on the flop and nothing changes from there on.

Like I said...*pretty* sure it was a right read/right play/bad timing sort of thing, but maybe I was being a bit too loose and fancy there when I could've waited for a better hand.

I occasionally do that in live tournament play...load up on chips to make it look like I'm going to call a big bet/make a big bet even though I have no intention of calling. I just like to make people think, and I like being tricky.

Good work on the final table & 7th place finish. Probably not what you wanted, but in the $$$ is in the $$$.