($11) Awful play w/55; how to improve?
 

<font color="blue">I'm starting to feel antsy with the antes getting to t50 and t100; I'm making the occasional steal, but not really playing hyper-aggro yet. Here, a routine blind-steal goes horribly awry. How can I play this one better?</font>

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (7 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

BB (t1060)
UTG (t1350)
MP1 (t1715)
Pokey (t885)
CO (t1885)
Button <font color="orange">(Villain)</font> (t615)
SB (t490)

Preflop: Pokey is MP2 with 5[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 5[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img].
2 folds, <font color="red">Pokey raises to t300</font>, 1 fold, Button <font color="orange">(Villain)</font> calls t300, 2 folds.

Flop: (t750) A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] <font color="red">(2 players)</font>
<font color="red">Pokey bets t100</font>, Villain calls t100.

<font color="blue">Betting the question "are you as scared by that flop as I am?" Answer: no.</font>

Turn: (t950) A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] <font color="red">(2 players)</font>
Pokey checks, <font color="red">Villain bets all-in [t215] </font>, Pokey folds.

<font color="blue">The final all-in bet was about half my stack at that point, and I figured that Villain probably had an A, K, Q, or better pocket pair to have bet the way we'd seen. I cut my losses and ran.</font>

Final Pot: t950

<font color="blue">Berate me if necessary, mock me at will, but please let me know what I could have done better in this hand, even if the answer is "don't play this hand."</font>

Re: ($11) Awful play w/55; how to improve?
 

as you have a good deal of FE, if I were to steal in this spot, I'd be pushing. you've got a little less than 9BB, so you're not at a desperation point yet, and you definitely have to be wary about pushing into button and SB, who are both even smaller than you.

as for what i'd do... i'd probably wait for a spot when shorty wasn't in the SB, but if pushed here, i don't think it'd be terrible.

Re: ($11) Awful play w/55; how to improve?
 

Well raising preflop like you did is no good. You're either folding or pushing with your stack, and I think I'd lean towards folding though pushing doesn't seem too far off either. Your stack is fairly decent for this level.

If I somehow fall asleep at the wheel like you did and found myself out of position with three overcards on the flop and the pot bigger than my stack, I'd check-fold instead of losing another 100 on it.

Re: ($11) Awful play w/55; how to improve?
 

You absolutely have to push or fold here.

This hand is more or less EV neutral either way. You can wait for a better spot.