Bubble pain

I played another $4 180SNG and bubbled the biatch. Hindsight is 20/20 and I now know my mistake. I tangled with the chip leader at my table when I had position and there was a flush draw on the flop. It's really easy now that I think about it.

We had been playing hand for hand for about 2-3 hands and it only took 2 hours to get to the money bubble. I was quite surprised because last time I checked we were still 30 players. I got a few playable hands and raised. Chip leader called my 4xBB raise when I had 10s and folded to my c-bet when he checked the flop of KQ4. The next hand I get KQ in the CO and raise 4xBB and he calls again from the BB. I have about 75% of his stack so I can do a lot of damage, but he still wants to tangle with me. Flop is King high with two hearts and he checks to me. Now what I should have done is check or even c-bet and see what happens. What I did instead is shove with my top pair. He called with Ah2h and hit his heart on the turn. I bust in 19th on the bubble. Damnit.

That was bad. I have to admit. Writing it down here makes it look even worse. These are some of the things I need to learn to do right if I want to win tournaments.

Oh no:
I just went into PT to replay the hand and saw that I have it all wrong. I was UTG with KQo and bet 4xBB and the chip leader called from the button. When the Kh7d4h flop came I bet out 2400 into a 3950 pot (antes were in play). he min-raised me to 4800 and I pushed. Checking the pot odds I see he made the right call. The pot was 23,230 and he only needed to call 9,680. He had over 19K and it was the right call if he had more than 7 outs. He really had 12 outs so I guess it was a good call. I was a 54/46 favorite but that is really a race I should not have entered.

I am still mad at my dumb play. Absolutely no reason for me to go broke with that hand. None. I'm glad I at least get to learn from these experiences and that I have the tools to sit and analyze these situations.

Now back to two fun hands that happened earlier. In the first hand which happened quite early I was in the SB and the button raised my blind for the umpteenth time. I re-raised with A9o (not my usual MO) and he shoved. I wanted to fold but there was too much money in the pot and I just figured it was either a move or a race. Poor guy:



Then a few hands later I got KK UTG+1 and I raise it 3xBB. MP player raises to 6xBB and BB calls. It's another 450 to me and there is no way they are getting off this cheap so I raise it another 2K. MP pushes and then BB pushes as well! I was sure one of them had Aces, but instead this happened:



That put me 3rd in chips out of about 100 remaining. Too bad I had to play like an idiot on the bubble and leave with nothing.