Check it down???

If this has been posted before I apologise but I am wondering on people's thoughts on this.

In a tournament if a player pushes all-in and you and at least one other player calls do you try and check it down or do you bet at it to try to isolate the all-in player?

For my money it is best to check it down to ensure you have the best chance to knock out the all-in player unless you flop a monster such as the nuts straight or better and even then I'm happy to check it down but if I do flop a monster and someone bets I will shove.

I am interested in people's thoughts as checking it down doesnt seem to happen that often on the net.

Thanks The Muppetteer

Close to the bubble or a pay increse yes i will often check it down,
but if its the first blind level or W/E it serves no purpose really so i just play my hand like all-in player wasnt there and try to fold the other guy out to increse my equity in the pot.

Also even if your on the bubble,lets say 4handed in a nine man SNG and your the big stack and villains are tight passive just trying to fold to the money, eliminating a player might not be in your best intrest.
In that situation i would even consider bluffing a dry side pot in hopes the shortstack takes the pot and the bubble keeps going so i can keep stealing blinds/pots of the tight passive medium stacks and get a HUGE chip advantage going into 3handed/HU.

So like every thing else in poker, it depends

It really depends on what you have, and let me tell ya this is an interesting
point here. The guy is allin, and you are expecting him to have something
good, a fair hand. Now if you have a monster yourself your obviously
gonna want to take more money from the pot, and if your going for a draw
or hoping to improve your hand, you will be checking. At this point there
isnt gonna be anybody trying to bluff ya off probably, or who knows the
guy might want to be the only one in the pot with the guy, u never know.
I would say that you should try every once and a while to take the guy
off if you thinking he isnt that strong, even if your going for a draw urself.

There are several threads on dry pot betting and such acts.
But personally I am no fan of anything but the check it down approach.
Especially in late stages of tourney play.
I think that by the book the correct move about 95% of the time is to check it down.
As you stated,if you flop a monster hand it is then that I will still check and hope the player pushes on me,then I will shove.
I might on certain situations bet the river in some cases if I have the nuts or a monster hand.

You are not isolating the all-in player, rather, you are trying to use two against one to eliminate a short stack. Two hands have a better chance than one to get the all-in short stack out of the game. However, self interest comes first and you should play your hand to maximize your chip count. If you have Aces, say, you don't want to check it down because the other active player might suck out and win a big pot. And even if you end up winning, you potentially deprived yourdelf of chips by not betting... Additionally, there is no guarantee the other player will play along and check it down also. So it is not a good idea unless you have a hand that you would check with anyway. The exception is when there are a fixed number of places paid that all receive the same prize. For example; The top ten finishers get a ticket to a bigger tournament, and there are 11 or 12 players left. When it does not matter if you finish first or tenth, players should cooperate to try to eliminate the all-in short stack by checking down so there are as many in the pot as possible to "catch" and knock him out. However, in real life, not everyone cooperates, even if it is their best interest to do so.