So the good news... I essentially finished 1st in one of PokerMountain's "pokerpoints" freerolls. I had accumulated the 2000 point buyin from playing some PLAY money single table games (to test the software). There were 70 players in it with a $2500 prize pool.
Chops.....
So we have been battling at the final table for about an hour and it is finally down to three. PokerMountain has a "DEAL" button and if all layers have it turned on then it asks to confirm a deal. It also keeps a running ticker of what your cut of a potential deal would be after every hand. Stacks were something like 40,000 (me), 20,000 and 12,000 with blinds of 2,000/4,000. After a few hands I had taked one hit and the stacks were about 30,000 (me), 22,000, and 20,000. I took the deal.
Here was my thinking...
Blinds were high enough (and coming around quickly three handed)that if either or both of them caught a few more hands and I didn't I would be short and might get stuck with 3rd ($250) or 2nd ($450). First would have been $750 and I made the deal based on chips/chis in play for $565.
Was this the correct move, and should I have just made the deal when I had 40,000 and it was down to three?? That would have been $600+.
In any case I was overjoyed with a $565 payday as my 2nd highest tourney payout was $70.
