[Lloyd]

Your pre-flop play was not good. I can completely see raising this hand in this situation. You're getting shortstacked quickly and need to start picking up some pots. You most likely have overcards to the two limpers so you're not in horrible shape if called. Your problem was that you did not raise enough. By raising it to 300, the villain is getting 2.5 to 1 odds to call making a call with almost anything correct. I'm ignoring the fact that he shouldn't even be in the pot to begin with holding J3. But that's really irrelevant. You gave him great odds to call and that decision by him was correct.

A rule of thumb is that you raise 3-4XBB plus 1BB for every limper. In this case, I'd make it at least around T450. I think the better play, given that you are shortstacked and in bad position is just to push.

When you hit top pair with this hand I don't think you can get away from it. You played it correctly in getting all of his chips in the middle but unfortunately paid the price for your small pre-flop raise. When you get this shortstacked and flop top pair getting all of your chips in the middle is the best you can do. If you're behind, oh well. You can't be waiting for monster hands and more often than not you'll be ahead of your opponent with this hand.

So, you're friends IMO are playing way too weak and as a result will not likely finish at the top of an MTT. They may squeak in and cash every now and then but that's a long-term losing proposition. You had the right idea but just made a bad decision on your pre-flop betting - something that you can easily correct.