[Kurn, son of Mogh]

a limp-in with A9s here is marginal at best

No argument. I fold this at later levels, or if the table is aggressive. This one was not.

what are you calling for then, other than the flush?

When it's 60 back to me, I'm getting 8:1 immediate with a reasonable expectation that the one player left behind me will call closing the action (that he didn't is irrelevant).

When the button did his reraise thing, I thought 'now I'm down a rathole against AA' and would have folded had the blinds folded. Against AA in the multiway pot, I'm about a 9:1 dog, so I a) make that up when I hit, or b) have good enough odds at 8:1 against his range of hands which I believed at the time to be AA 90% of the time.

I call there for the same reason I call a small all-in from the BB without looking at my cards at a B&M tourney. I'm calling for that 10% hand.

Let's say I flop a draw. Do you think a guy who played preflop like he did would deny me odds on the flop? We obviously know he didn't from the way he played, but I contend that's reasonable expectation.

Reason 2: I've invested 12 minutes in this tourney. I know I'd rather gamble a bit now to build a stack and risk going bust than to play too tight and find myself with 10BB after 45 minutes. Time is money.

Speculative play? Yes. Did I get lucky? Yes. When the odds are right, there's nothing wrong with playing to get lucky. That's the lesson the "poker's not gambling" geeks will never understand.