Good afternoon TPE sharkmen,

This hand comes from a $1 rebuy tourney on Carbon, where rebuys are 2,000 but the addon is 5,000 chips.  It's a fun tourney, and I am excited to play higher stakes ones like it.  This was after the addons, after late registration has closed.  The Villain is “chattanooga37412” who is not too impressive, both by his stats and by the feel of opposing him.  I have 136 hands on him – only had about 40 at the time but his playing style was still visible.  VPIP 25, PFR 5, Limp 19, 3bet 0%, squeeze 0%, Cbet100, fold to Cbet 25, Call Cbet 50, Steal 5, fold to Steal 20, Resteal 0%.

I wonder what you guys think about this.  Nothing too complicated, but:

Merge Network $100 Gtd – [+R, Turbo] No Limit Hold'em Tournament – t300.00/t600.00 Blinds + t60.00 – 7 players – View hand 2365702
TournamentPokerEdge.com Hand History Converter

StoshNJag (UTG): BB = 11.9, t7115
zubs1aaa (UTG+1): BB = 18.9, t11317
chemmy (MP): BB = 35.9, t21550
jujubeesontheground (CO): BB = 14.6, t8775
Claw129 (BTN): BB = 18.5, t11125
Hero (SB): BB = 26.0, t15590
chattanooga37412 (BB): BB = 16.9, t10120

Pre Flop: (t1320) Hero is SB with A K
1 fold, zubs1aaa raises to t1222.00, chemmy calls t1222, 2 folds, action on Hero.

Zubs is a regular at the stakes I play on Carbon, often running deep in the tourneys I see him in. After 604 hands, he plays VPIP 18, PFR 14, Limp 3, 3bet 7, Cbet 81, Fold to Cbet 80, Call Cbet 10. His range includes most pocket pairs, ATs+, AJo+, KQs, maybe KQo and KJs.

chemmy's real life name is probably Fishy McFishstein, playing VPIP 42, Limping 32, Cbetting 100.

I would like to take this pot down preflop.  I had just recently doubled up and had been pretty active.  I didn't feel like getting into a huge 3 way pot with AK, even if a big win would be very nice.  I want them to believe that I have a good hand.  I decided that a raise instead of a shove would achieve this goal.  What kind of raise would be best?  I tried to imagine what I would do if I had AA or KK.

Hero raises to t4000.00, chattanooga37412 calls t3400, 2 folds

Should I have sized bigger, considering what I wanted to accomplish?  I'm out of position, and I realize that with chemmy's preflop call, the pot became significantly bigger, and that 2778 chips on top (to 4000) probably wasn't enough to price everyone out with great effectiveness.  I could have done 5000 and still had 10.5k behind, but is that enough that I should just be shoving?  Any more and I definitely feel it may as well be a shove.

Now I'm up against chattanooga and don't have to worry about Zubs or the other guy.  But what does chattanooga's flat mean?  I put him on a decent range, but I don't think he's actually got what he's supposed to have when cold calling here.  I put him on any pocket pair, any suited ace, A5o+ and lots of broadway.

Flop: (t10864) T A 4 (2 players)

Well, now I'm pretty happy with the situation, and think I need to just shove.  Here again I think shoving looks weaker, but this time of course I don't mind a call.  I'm not folding no matter what he does.

Hero bets t11530 all in, chattanooga37412 calls t6060 all in

I'm more interested in the preflop question: Would a larger preflop raise have been in order, would a shove have been best, or do you guys think 4000 was ok?  Secondarily, given the action as it was played, would anyone try to slowplay this flop?

Thanks in advance!