late tournament decisions

[Theraflu 1,035]

Last night i was playing in the $50 rebuy tourney on absolute, 11k guarenteed. Only 83 people entered, but there were 83 rebuys and there was also a double add-on, the prize pool ended up just over 11k, final 9 paid out and it was $390 for 9th. Admittedly i wasn't planning on adding on or rebuying, already a poor decision to play, but tourneys have been a strong suit lately. Anyways, i was quiet through the first 45 minutes at my table because it was so loose, doubled up twice, and by the 2nd break we were down to about 40 people and i was right around average. My cards throughout the whole tournament were terrible, but i picked my spots and won a ton of small pots.We get down 11 people, and the decision that i always have trouble making is go for the money, or for the win. I understand its a personal decision all the time, and in most cases im playing larger tourneys were the top 40 or 50 payout the measly 1% of the prize pool. But here if i made the final table i was getting 8x my money at least. I had about 20k left, the average stack was 45k, and the chip leader was at my table with about 100k. 11 people left, only one person significantly shorter than me. Blinds and antes were pretty high,i think 1000/2000 +100 ante, but my M was very low. Id been trying to steal the blinds and antes when no one showed strength and this hand came up. The big stack in 2nd position raised to 10k and i had kq at the 6 handed table. I ended up going all in and busting against 88, and a few minutes later the last guy went out (he spent $700 to get 10th place, so i felt better about only losing $50). What do you guys do in general? Base it on the payout? where this was almost $400 guarenteed, i feel i maybe shouldve just waited it out, as opposed to where im guarenteed $40 if i finish in 30th in some other tourney.Just a problem I've never felt comfortable with...nothing feels worse than goin out on the bubble, but i hate making the final table and not being able to play my game.

[custom36 4]

I don't like reraising with KQ there. It's a tight/weak table, so when someone raises, it's usually a pretty good hand and too often it's better than KQ. I think you should be folidng there regardless of where the money is. While playing to win is the strategy you should have, I don't think this was a "I want to win this" move.

[Swift_Psycho 1]

I'm don't really like ur all in with K-Q there. You have zero fold equity and I'm not crazy about putting my tourney life on the line with a hand that's behind a weak ace. You have enough chips that you can fold and wait for a better spot.

[gobears 0]

I would have folded pre-flop - your M is low (barely above 5) but with KQ, you're looking for first-in vigorish.Once the chip leader raises in front of you, you should wait for a better spot and I think that the right play (fold) is the same here regardless of whether you're playing for 1st or to cash here.

[copernicus 0]

I would have folded pre-flop - your M is low (barely above 5) but with KQ, you're looking for first-in vigorish.Once the chip leader raises in front of you, you should wait for a better spot and I think that the right play (fold) is the same here regardless of whether you're playing for 1st or to cash here.

There are too many "playing to win" vs "playing to cash" distinctions made here. It is rare that alternative plays could be signficantly favorable to one and not the other, unless its playing a marginally +EV hand (in terms of current pot and implied odds) vs sitting and waiting for others to bust out, and even in most of those cases the prize EV probably still favors "playing to cash".