Top pair after the flop

[pswnio]

£5 MTT. There are 17 left in, I'm sitting in about 13th. I've just lost 10000 chips with a pair of aces to two pairs. Flori doubled up a couple of hands before hitting a set on the flop; he/she flat called from early position pre flop with pocket . The table has been tight until the last 5 hands or so.

Game #3147584524: Hold'em NL (600/1200) - 2006/08/06 - 21:43:04 (GMT)
Table "Tourney 3196605 - 1" Seat 6 is the button.
Seat 1: grennaae (3490 in chips)
Seat 2: Deedee75 (22050 in chips)
Seat 3: Y6k933 (10635 in chips)
Seat 4: sixtimes (10893.50 in chips)
Seat 6: kako76 (24410 in chips)
Seat 7: mikehoax (29615 in chips)
Seat 8: Jonr2403 (4445 in chips)
Seat 9: Oliv23111 (17007.50 in chips)
Seat 10: Flori (19630 in chips)
mikehoax: posts the ante 150
Jonr2403: posts the ante 150
Oliv23111: posts the ante 150
Flori: posts the ante 150
grennaae: posts the ante 150
Deedee75: posts the ante 150
Y6k933: posts the ante 150
sixtimes: posts the ante 150
kako76: posts the ante 150
mikehoax: posts small blind 600
Jonr2403: posts big blind 1200
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to sixtimes [ ]
Oliv23111: folds
Flori: raises to 2400
grennaae: folds
Deedee75: folds
Y6k933: folds
sixtimes: calls 2400
kako76: folds
mikehoax: folds
Jonr2403: folds
----- FLOP ----- [ ]
Flori: bets 1200
sixtimes: ...

Should I push?

[Jim-D]

I personally would chuck it away pre flop against one of the table chip leaders.

But you called and hit your flop so you need to go with it

[JungleCat03]

You haven't really got enough chips to call a min raise here.

With the hefty blind now at 1200 and the running ante there's  1800 + 1350, 3150 in blinds and antes each hand and you can only survive 3 rounds or so.
You need to steal some blinds.

 If you think the min riaser is habitually at it and is likely to riase any two cards here then reraise preflop to isolate him, as you are probably in reasonable shape against his range heads up and with the overlay in the pot this might be a good spot to try and double. It's unlikely he will fold but soemtimes they will which is the ideal result.

If you think they are more likely to have a strong hand then fold and wait for a slightly better spot which may be pushing anything half decent in an unopened pot in the next few hands.

If it was unopened here, I'd be pushing KJ here as one round of blinds is so important to you.

Dont let yourself get too short as the blinds and antes will gobble you up soon and you are better pushing sooner to win a bigger pot and have some folding equity than to push later just to get back to the same chips with less folding equity. You don't have the luxury of time to be tabling good cards so have to steal some pots and try and get some chips without a showdown if you can.

The way the hand played out there is too much in the pot for you to lay down. Be grateful that you flopped top pair. There's 1800 +2400 +2400 +1350 +1200 or 9150 chips in the pot and you have 8200 left. It's hard to say what he has (although his min bet on the flop doesnt scream strength to me) and you don't have the chip depth to find out. So get it in!

[turny]

what was you hoping to flop?


seeing as you called pre flop and then his bet out shows weakness to me you have no choice but to push

[pswnio]

In my twisted, tired state, I'd decided to represent a decent hand regardless whatever the flop brought. Since it brought top pair with a decent kicker, I figured that his weakish bet meant I was likely ahead so pushed. That was the right move, I think, but ran into AA and (deservedly) out. In the cold light of day, I should either have folded pre-flop or re-raised; the flat call was foolish. Ta to all, esp JC for a really helpful post.