$10 mtt on stars, something like 1700 entries, down to about 100.

I have about 14k, table average is about 20k. Blinds 800/1600 ante 100 or so.

Folded to me in utg+3, I raise to 4800 with QQ. UTG+4 (with 30K) calls, table folds.

Flop comes A94 rainbow. I put in my last 9k.

Standard? Or check/fold?

standard is to push preflop, but I agree with betting out since you didnt preflop.

The good part about pushing preflop is you pick up some calls from AQ or maybe AJ, as well as JJ, 10 10, and maybe 99, whereas with that bet they won't really be comfortable coming over the top of it with 99, AJ or AQ, and wont be comfortable having to hit flop if they call and you're first to act on the flop, so they'll fold those holdings. This is why I push preflop with the QQ. The way it was played, yes, put it in on the flop.

The reason I didn't push is that I needed to win some chips soon. Yes it's possible that I get a call from a worse hand, but more likely is that the table folds and I win a small pot, and have blown a chance to get value from a big hand. Caller had AJ, and IMO he would have folded to my push.

If I could do it again I would have bet a little more, maybe 7000-7500, to make it clear to the table that I was committed to any flop, while still hoping for one caller preflop. Or is this a bad strategy?

With an M of 4 or so anything but a push looks stronger than a push to most players.

Good point. Would you push with AA as well based on that?

yes.

I think this is something we all struggle with at some point.
It's analogous to waitng for the river to Raise your set in Limit because you want to make sure the flush doesn't hit. Well, guess what? You ain't getting called if it don't hit!.

So, in this case, push preflop and more hands will give themselves a chance against your range, which presumedly is very wide now. Once the flop hits, picking up additional chips is much more difficult or more risky when an A-Q flops. The few extra you make from a 3x BB preflop caller who folds the flop and would have folded preflop to a push to me is not worth the risk of only being called post flop by better hands.

I might have made sense there.
Don't hold me to it.

Yes, and KK...in fact I did push with KK near the bubble of a live satellite for a 10k seat and an M of around 4.5. That got folded to. A couple of hands later I pushed again with AK, 22 calls, I flop AK, he rivers the 2...argggh.