home game advice

Hey guys, i've been reading the forum for a while and its really helped my game. I usually do well in my home gameand try to learn from my mistakes. I thought i'd write my first post here to get some help on hands to find out where I went wrong. The following hand took place in a sng in a home game last nite.

I was doing well and was one of the chip leaders. Pre-flop it was folded round to me on the button and I raised with K9 suited to try and steal the blinds (a decent hand as we were only playing 5-handed at that point and the blinds were certainly big enough to be worth stealing). Both blinds called. The flop came A-9-x, both blinds checked, and I made a smallish bet (about 1/2 the pot) to win it right there. The small blind moved all in over the top and the big blind folded. I had to call as the sb's all-in was very little extra, even though I figured I at at best 5 outs. The sb showed A-10 and won the pot. I'm confused as to how I lost half my stack in that spot as I flet I played it generally well. The only read I had on the SB was that he was weak, ie. called too much pre-flop and folded on the flop whenever he missed. Maybe I was stealing too much and therefor am too easy to read? Maybe I should be more patient and build better reads on my opponents? Perhaps I shouldn't steal from short stacks as they have less to lose?

Anyway, just wanted to say great forum and i'm so greatful for any advice. If anyone has any general advice on home games then that would also be appreciated. Thnx

Is your opponent any good? In a typical homegame he's typically looking at his cards and not worrying about what you have.

Stack size is super crucial. What's "big enough" to steal?

I many situations checking this flop with 2 opponents is good.

Hi

Without numbers (stack size, blinds ) of the entire table and payout structure it is hard to comment.

Given the information you provided raising with K9 to steal the blinds as a chip leader is not bad, its not great either. The problem with those types of hands is that if you get called there is a decent chance you have only one live card, as supposed to stealing with hand like T8s that has a better chance of having two live cards, but K9s is still a decent hand to hold its own.
You hit 2nd pair on the flop and it is checked to you. This is where reads are important, what would villian call with preflop, do they love to slowplay etc...
Without reads it is not bad to c-bet in position when you are big stack. The thing you did have to pay attention to is that the SB was pretty much pot comitted, he put in about 1/2 his stack preflop according to your post.