[ThrillFactor]

Empire 15K Guaranteed

480 start
down to 90ish
money at 50th

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: 7th - 50th place money means nothing to me. I play these low buy-in tourneys for a top 6 finish.

ANOTHER VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: Over the last 3 months, with the help of this forum, I have become much more aggressive in both my short-stack play (<10BB) and my 55/45 situations. Unfortunately, I haven't won a damn thing during that time and I'm beginning to wonder if I'm not misapplying those two concepts.

THE SITUATION:

Down to top 20% of the field.
My stack is about 7500
Average is about 5000
Blinds 150/300
I have KQo in the BB, folded to SB (average, unexceptional player) who pushes for about 1400 - 1100 for me to call.
I've got to believe his range of hands here is huge. If I win, I pad my stack even more. If I lose, it doesn't hurt that much. It takes my about 5 seconds to call. He shows J7s, so the read was good, but he wins the hand.

Cards happen, but the question here is should I have been calling here in the first place? Nice healthy stack with a good, but not great, chance to improve it. Call or wait till I can be the aggressor?


AN ORBIT LATER:

I have 6000-6200 chips, average is about 5500 at this point.
Blinds still 150/300
I make it 900 to go from MP with pocket 9s. Player on my immediate left pushes for 3K - folded to me, 2100 to call.
I've been sitting with this guy for 2 hours, and though we can argue the merit of my read if you guys want, I've got him squarely on TT-66, AK-AJ, or KQs. I'm leaning heavily towards 2 overs, so I'm 55/45 to win.

3 months ago I would have laid this down without a second thought and taken my slightly below average stack and gone back to work (hell, 3 months ago I would have limped with the 99 to begin with). Now, I realize that I'm getting greater that 2 to 1 on my call and I'm a small favorite to boot. So I grit my teeth, call even though I've been losing every time I put myself in these situations, see his AKo turned up (read was good), watch the K hit the flop, and am left with a 1/2 average stack.

Cards happen, I know. But the question is, am I applying these concepts at the right times? At the two moments in question, given my good position relative the the rest of the field, am I risking too much with too small a chance of winning? Should I be waiting for the 60/40 hands with 1 - 1.5x the average stack? Should the 55/45s be saved for when I'm short-stacked or have >2x the average?

Am I picking the right spots to make the close gambles?