Dumbass attack

I know I played this one badly. Just wanted to vent and actually put my thoughts in writing (kinda like writing on the chalkboard) to cleanse myself of negative thoughts. I had made a pretty good comeback in a 30 man $5.50 SNG. I got down to about 6 BB and made a push with an iffy hand just before the blinds got to me (Q7 clubs) and sucked out a straight on the turn to beat a guy with trips and send him over the edge, telling me how bad I sucked, etc. I made it to the break in 3rd place. I told myself that now is the time to camp on monsters and protect my position and STAY OUT OF TROUBLE (one of my leaks). So what do I do? About three hands after the break, we are 9 handed and I am dealt K4 hearts UTG+2. I play them (mistake #1), I limp (mistake #2). 4 people see the flop for the cost of the BB. Flop comes KK6. Check, I bet half the pot (mistake #3--could have gotten info for much less). UTG + 1 calls me (he is the chip leaded, btw). Turn comes a blank, and dumbass me pushes. Who is going to even call my first bet except a K? Then I compound it by pushing. Of course I lose my stack (in more ways than one) when he turns over KJ. I should have known my kicker was no good after the first bet. These are the leaks I must seal if I am ever going to be a good poker player.

Not looking for anything here, just wondered if anyone else made such STUPID errors in their poker infancy? Believe me, I know I cost myself $ in that tournament when I didn't really need to...

Signed, kicking myself in Indiana....

We've all made mistakes before. I have some friends playing the low stakes sngs regularly and they get to the point where they ask me, i have XX should I call? My instinctive answer is always "no." There's never really a spot in mid/late tourneys to ever be limping. Betting 1/2 the pot is correct on your hand, good value bet, but your preflop is poor. It is good that you already acknowledge your mistakes. The only thing now is to work on them.

ok, a couple of other thoughts.

Is there a case for checking the flop? Doesn't betting scream I HAVE A KING? Or is that what I want to accomplish--isolating against one player and trying to determine if kicker is good? Just wanted to make sure my logic behind the value bet was correct.

Also, he didn't put me on AK/KQ/KJ because I didn't raise PF, correct? So, had I raised PF like I should have instead of limping, he might have given me credit for a big hand and I might have taken down the pot there, right?

Thank you for your help, btw

When I say "should have", I mean should have if I was going to play the hand at all (which I shouldn't have even played the hand at all). Just clarification...

It's good to know you're recognizing a mistake as a mistake when you make it. Some never do.

You know your mistake, now just fix it! is almost never going to flop you any kind of playable hand that doesn't face you with a tough decision (unless its KKK or 444 or AcXcXc and those are very rare) so just ditch it and quit playing iffy cards

well, you acknowledged your major mistake of playing K4s from EP.

It is very hard to give good answers without knowing stack sizes and blinds.

In your case, you are 3rd out of 9 in a 30 people Sng, you do want to avoid getting into big pots with the chip leader with marginal hands.

In this specefic hand I think betting half pot is generally a good move, getting called here should raise some alarm bells. There are obviously no draws here, so however is calling you may think their hand is good enough.
It is a situation which is very hard to get away from. With less people seeing the flop I would try another stab at the pot, with 5 seeing the flop I would check the turn