Only had 8 hands with the villain. small buy in tournament on Full Tilt. I'm in the top 10 (or just outside of it) So is the villain.
I got to this position by playing mostly small pots... picking up blinds and taking pots on the flop with cont bets... really avoiding big confrontations.

I think most people will tell me to raise preflop... let me save you the trouble...


Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t250/t500
(Ante: t50)
9 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: t9185
UTG+1: t14265
MP1: t8120
MP2: t11280
MP3: t20979
CO: t14015
Button: t17840
SB: t19351
Hero: t19648

Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is BB with Q J
7 folds, SB calls t250 (pot was t1200), Hero checks.

Flop: 6 Q 8 (t1450, 2 players)
SB bets t850, Hero raises to t2500, SB raises all-in t18801, Hero ......

thoughts?

Tell him nice bet and fold.

Without raising this PF, he could be holding just about anything...including 86, Q6, Q8. Best case you are up against a flush draw, but I think villain flips over two pair or a better queen here more often than not.

Yeah, have to fold. You have a nice stack for this level, and you don't need to risk too much when you really have absolutely no idea where you are in the hand (due to no read on villain and no pre-flop raise).

Also, I don't mind checking this hand in the big blind. Maybe a raise is more in line with your small-ball strategy, though.