I am playing in a very large tournament for the 2nd time. I have played solid all day, and I have almost double the ave. stack with 3 players to go before the cut. I am playing against an extremely loose player (3 of last 5 hands, 36o, 33, 48s) I am in the small blind, blinds are 3k 6k with 500 ante. Play folds around to the cutoff, Mr. Loose bets 26k, I look at AQ clubs... call, big blind folds, flop 3h 6c 9c, I have 180k plus, Mr. Loose approx 140k, I bet 40k he pushes all in! I have 15 outs to improve approx 60% I call. Needless to say he turns over 6-10o and the pair of 6's hold up. Now I am short stacked for day 2. Should I have played it safe or did I make the right move. I am beating myself up about it, and I play day two on Sat. I wanted to play to win not just make the cut. Wrong Move?

There's a bunch of ways to play that in that spot. If he's been playing fairly loose and showing his meager cards, then I would have probably re-raised him preflop. If I'm not mistaken, you were SB here, and he was the button. Yeah, a 3-bet can even push away LAGgy players in this spot.

Post flop, you're looking at calling 100K into a 138K or 238K(if you count his 100K all in) pot. I would say with your outs (and here you're assuming he hasn't hit two pair or a set), that it's a tough call to make. You're nearing the bubble you said, correct? Hmm, I would have either re-raised his LAGgy ass PF or folded the reraise on the flop personally... But I'm no pro, just another players view looking in...

Well... He was not on the button he was cuttoff (right of button) I read him correctly and my thought process was that although out of position, I would make the call and if I missed the flop entirely I would simply check fold, however, I hit the nut flush draw with two over cards to the board, its a 3 million dollar live tourney, if I call and win this pot I am a monster stack going into the finals on Sat. if I miss, I'm still in the tourney. I am torn now. I know I can't change the past but that call is haunting me! I played very solid up to that point, and I am trying to focus on Sat. now.

I agree that you probably should have taken control of the hand preflop by re-raising. Calling with the intention of check-folding on a miss is pretty weak-tight, especially against a LAG whose range you absolutely crush. That's what I would change about preflop.

Now, onto the flop. The fact that you are still beating yourself up about your decision to call, tells me that you really didn't have a plan for the hand. You didn't know, when you bet the 40K, how you would respond if he pushed. Start planning the hand out; anticipate your opponent's likely responses, decide how you will react. Think about what kinds of turn cards you want to see, turns you don't want to see, cards that you can bluff with. In this case, if you just take a step back and look at the math, you see that the pot is around 240K, and you have to call 100K more. You are getting nearly 2.5 to 1 to call a basically even-money shot. You cannot afford to pass up on those odds. If you're uncomfortable with getting that many chips on a draw, then you should never have bet out in the first place. This is where planning the hand out comes into play.

The hand for me went wrong about...here.The flat call made me sad. We are out of position against,an opponent who our read was spot on. I'm raising Mr Loose as you called him. I'm gonna go ahead an raise, big too.(Hell I might shove and tell him I'm just ready to gamble since he wants to splash/raise my blinds.The other players will love you, and he will slow down)

As far as you played it though it seems check/call or c/shove was my first instinct. Hell I might have even have given a speech and moved in on the flop

Believe it or not, I did focus on all the above. I know I should have pushed preflop and mathmatically it was the correct call. I think the only reason I am really beating myself up is the fact I had about double the average stack going into the finals on Saturday. But I didn't play scared money on day 1 and I won't on day two. Thanks for the input!

I agree, I know I should have raised preflop, maybe even pushed all in. I do intend to reclaim my chips though on Saturday! Thanks for the input!