Live FL tournament - $400 buyin. Blinds 100/100 with a 100 ante (level 2, very early). I had ~18k. Opponent had a little more, perhaps 25-30k. Opponent (MP) raised to 400. I called in the SB with QhJh. (I know you're supposed to 3-bet or fold everything from the SB, but this is FL live poker and the table seemed very weak and passive so I figured the likelihood of a squeeze from the BB was extremely low. Y'all can let me know if you disagree with this but if the BB is passive I usually just play as I would in the BB.) BB folds.

(1k) Flop KT9, 1 heart. I check. Opponent bets 500. I call.
(2k) Turn 8h. I check. Opponent bets 2k. I raise to 5k. He snap-calls.
(12k) River Ah. I shove for 12,400. Opponent tanks for a LONG time (at least 2 minutes) and folds.

He busted later and told me he had TT. Just didn't see how I could have anything besides QJ.

Obviously this was pretty frustrating for me. How could I have played differently to get more value? 3-bet pre? Raise flop? Raise turn larger? Does it make any sense to bet smaller on the river?

I am currently feeling like opponent just made an insanely good fold and there was nothing I could have done, but wanted to run it by you guys to make sure.

The turn is the spot that doesn't work for me. Normally I raise to 7000 OOP on the turn but that would be about 40% effective stack so I would just have shoved the turn. Raising to 5k is just not enough in general. You could in theory raise to 6k but that would be over 33% effective stack and again a shove would be better.

As played on the river because the flush got there I would act like I didn't have a flush and bet 5k again (because he called 5k already and its slightly less than half our stack). I wouldn't mind 6k but it looks stronger than 5k.

Why are you only calling the flop bet? Way too passive. You need to check raise two pair, sets, straights and some weaker hands to have a solid x raise range.

Please x raise this spot. Make it 2-3k on flop here. Me personally- I would raise to 2k when he cbets 2k. You can then barrel and try to set up a pot sized bet on the river. As played, you raise turn and jam river. Your line looks so strong.

Preflop - I’m fine calling with this hand but I prefer 3! To like 1400-1800 out of position. Call is fine but 3 betting is good also. I like 3! More bc you can bluff flop and turns and easily rep a hand when your jqhh doesn’t hit a flop. Please x raise flop as played. How can you expect to win a tourny when you flop the nuts and don’t attempt to get the chips in?

If you 3! To 1800, you have 3800 in pot on flop. You can easily and happily fold to a 4! Here as an exploit against standard live mtt players- you could call a 4! Also if not sized too big but again higher variance call. Ok so pot is 3800, you can cbet 2k and turn is 7800’in pot. Easy to get chips in. Also as played, I feel villian will raise your flop bet here which easily sets up for getting it in. Guys, if you aren’t going to play to get max value when you are lucky- you are goofing on tourny play. Don’t even play tournies if you are going to make trivial mistakes. Take time off and start studying- join a sub site and watch all the mtt hh videos you can. You shouldn’t be playing tournies if you aren’t maxing out value on “run good” bc it doesn’t happen often. Every tourny you play- you might run good what 1-2 / 10 times. Don’t skip out on getting max value in cooler spots

You are surprised he folded the 12-14th best hand to an all in pot bet of the river?