OMG Actual Poker Discussion?

Played a tournament at Tulalip Casino last week. This one was structured a bit better than their smaller buy-in tournaments. $130 buyin, 6k in chips, 30 min levels with more intermediate levels & antes instead of straight up blind doubling. That said, it essentially becomes a push-fest late as average stack with 24 players left was maybe 11-12BB (although there were several players who were still willing to raise-fold at this point).

Two hands came up late in the tournament that got me thinking. Curious to see what others have to say about this.

Hand 1
The setup:

Down to 24 players. Table is overall pretty tight - at least half the table has open-folded in the SB and/or folded in BB to raise that they were getting good odds to call. Couple of 2-3 BB stacks hanging on, no one with more than 15-17 BB at 1000/2000/100 level.

In SB with A7s. Folds to button who shoves and has me covered but not BB. Here’s what I knew about him so far:

• He doubled up through me in a BvB battle when he 4b shoved me with K4s. I had AA but he nailed flush on flop; I couldn’t catch a 4th spade.
• I shoved UTG next orbit for 4400 at 300/500 level. Folds to him and he claims to fold 77, saying his stack (around 13-14k) was still too small to call.
• He min-raised then called min 3b on button. KJ8 flop gets checked, then button bet/folds to min-raise from BB on blank turn. (BB shows KK)
• He standard-raised from button at 500/100 then called my shove for 5k more with 77. (my A9s counterfeited him on KKJJ8 board)
• He became a bit more aggressive and open-shoved from button/co on at least 2 other occasions

Do you call off your stack here or fold? Folding leaves you with about 16k.

Hand 2
The setup:

At 1000/2000/100 level, you have about 15k left. Avg stack is 28700, your stack position at table is about 7 or 8 out of 10. 19 players left.

Folds to you at UTG+1. What’s your range for pushing here?