1 place away from cashing, I get an AQ of the same suit, and a player with triple the chips goes all in, the cash for the last place was 9 dollars and the first was 120, the question is that I had 9,000 chips and I decided not to pay and insure, and if I paid I tripled my chips since that player was neither forced nor small, what would you have done? Would they have risked tripling and secured a possible 4th or 5th place at the final table with the chips or secured the cash first? I feel like it's my karma, the same situation always happens to me and I can't reach the final table because of it. should I risk?
To give a proper answer, I need to know what the buy-in was (or if it was a freeroll), what the blind levels were to understand stack depths, your position in the hand, and which position the raiser was in.
Regarding ICM, you need to consider that big stacks will often abuse the situation to their advantage, and AQ is a very strong hand, especially if you were in late position.
If you think about it, you were playing a small field with 15 players in the money, so a win was very achievable. You only need to win once to get close to a 14 times min-cash. If you're super short and a double-up or even a triple-up would not significantly change your position in the tournament, then it is an easy fold. Just timebank to reach the money.
But in the long term, you will win more money going for the win rather than always hanging on just to min-cash. Unless a min-cash is significant money for you, go for the win.
My answer assumes you were in late position, based on the limited information I had about the tournament structure, blind levels, and payout structure.
