Advice on 2 hands in MTT

Played in a 750 player MTT on Pacific yesterday but went out on the bubble (placed about 100th with top 60 ITM). Would appreciate comments/advice on the following 2 hands.

An early hand

Blinds 75/150, my stack ~1100
I get 10 10 on the button.
LP calls
I raise to 300
SB and BB fold, LP (stack ~1200) calls my raise
Flop is rags all under 10
LP checks to me – I go all in and LP folds

I always find pocket 10s and pocket Jacks difficult to play.
Even though I won this hand, did I play it Ok? Should I have gone AI preflop to get more effect from the raise or just limp in and try and catch another 10? What’s the best play in this situation?

Hand 2 – the one that killed me

Blinds 300/600, my stack ~3500
I get KJo as SB
Everyone folds to me and I complete, BB checks
Flop is 962 off suit

Given my stack, the 1200 in the pot looks very inviting
I have 2 overcards.
BB (stack 2600 – a little less than mine) is an aggressive player and will definitely raise if I show weakness.

In the heat of the tourney I go AI-trying to project strength :oops:
BB calls AI with 86o. His pair of 6s hold up and I’m left with ~300 chips and soon end up out!

Not sure if I’d have made it into the money playing ultra-tight given my stack size
I realize the AI was a bad play. But would it have been better to make a pot sized bet and back off if he raised or just check and prepare to fold if he bet?

Hand 1 - It was early, so how much more money were you looking to win? I don't see any problem with the play, because it's always better to win a small pot than to get out drawn and lose a big pot.

Hand 2 - Don't give anything away. That's what you did here. I would have raised the BB with KJ in your position. He gets to see 3 cards for free, ultimatley pairing up. You shouldn't have gone AI on your attempt to steal, but rather make a pretty sizeable bet. If he re-raises, get out and play another hand. What you did was put your entire tournement on 2 cards, waiting for 6 outs. Good luck in your future tournements, and I'm sure the other guys around here can give you better advice that I can.

First hand: The only thing I don't like is the minimum raise preflop. Making it 300 with 75/150 blinds makes it too easy for the BB to call you with a hand with any overcards. While youre a favorite, he's getting reverse implied odds on your whole stack. I don't think you can get away from 10's if just one overcard flops, and you only get action from him if he hits his overcard. Make it 450 preflop, and correctly push it in on the flop.

Second hand: Theres a popular poker tournament saying "Don't go broke in an unraised pot." Guess what you did here? You NEED to raise preflop. The BB represents more than 1/7th of your stack. The trickier part is how much to raise. Heres my thoughts: I generally stick to a standard 3x BB raise preflop, so that would suggest 1800. I don't like 1800 here because it commits you, but allows so much wiggle room that he can move over the top and put you in an awful situation. My reccomendation here is to just move in preflop. Any raise commits you, and moving in will discourage weak aces and other marginal hands that are ahead of you from calling. It's not a situation where you want to make a decision after a flop that doesn't hit you, as you found out.

Yeah, I'd probably shove all in preflop with both hands. In both cases you're short stacked (much more so in the 2nd hand), and you need to make a move. Good hands considering the positions and the action before you to do so in each case.

Also, when you're very short stacked, I don't think you can afford to mess around with post flop play. That's more of a luxury for the big stacks, since you can't afford to raise or call a preflop raise and then fold when you think you're beat.

The only reasion I advocated making it 450 in the first hand was to intice a hand like A9 (or Even AJ, AK or AQ, I don't mind a coin flip here) to isolate-raise you all-in. Pushing it in preflop is also 100% A-OK

First hand you played it perfect, got to put the guy on two overs to the board. Make them pay to chase the outs. If there had been say a Q on the turn and the guy had gone AI you'd have had an impossible choice.

Second hand I like either a push or a fold. Alternatively you could complete and only play if you get a big flop with a pair and a draw.

PS 10 10 and JJ are also some of my least favorite 'good' hands.