PartyPoker $6 Regular Tournament, Big Blind is t400 (4 handed)

CO (t9458)
Button (t5231)
Hero (t1905)
BB (t3406)

Preflop: Hero is in SB with 9 :diamond: Q :spade:
CO folds, Button folds, BB calls t1505

BB was a very loose player. There is a good chance Im going to get called. I felt I had to make a move. Anyone wait a bit longer? I felt there was a good chance both my cards would be live.

Flop: (t2105) 2 :heart: 4 :spade: Q :heart: (2 players)


Turn: (t2105) 3 :club: (2 players)


River: (t2105) Q :diamond: (2 players)

Standard play, you can't really fold/call there.. I'm more concerned about how you got to have only 5BBs in your stack, did the blinds just increase or you just lost a chunk in a hand? Because you should really be pushing all-in and stealing the blinds/getting knocked out when you have 8 - 10BBs, that way you still have a decent amount of fold equity but any stolen blinds will still help your stack a fair bit..

The blinds did just go up but thats no excuse. The players remaining were all 40%+ VP$IP so I didn't have too many hands where I was able to open the pot or take to battle.

I was hoping they would wipe each other out.

Heads up, Q9o is a slightly above average hand - not great, but statstically better than random cards that the BB is holding. Your are in the move in zone, and on the short stack with no one else really in danger like you are AND half the field has already folded - you must move in now. You don't have a deep enought stack to fold your way into the money this time.

As an aside, if I'm short with 5 or 6 left, I like to take some chances so that I can shore my stack up come bubble time. I'd rather bust out in 5th or 6th (or 10th for that matter) than 4th.

I like to remember three things when dealing with mediocre holdings in low M situations:

1. Opponents realize you are short stacked, and won't always have preimum cards when they play at you - in fact the bigger the stack the more apt this is to be true.

2. Most flops miss most hands - including theirs

3. Two high cards (say AK) vs. two undercards (Q9 for instance) - only 1.5 to 1.

SNGPT said this was a +EV push if villian will call with any 2. I need to check what hands I should have pushed with earlier in the sng so I would have had a higher M coming into the bubble.

Thanks for the help.