Yeah, this is an issue that still costs me a lot of money. I think my game is pretty solid, thanks to great TPE content and HH discussions. I've also worked on my mental game with Jared's books and some other input from pros.

Nevertheless, I make some embarassing play at times, especially in situations where I have a great stack that gives me a very nice shot at an FT run with a good finish and then facing a confrontation with one of the chip leaders. If in addition I note this chip leader is very aggro and/or a decent reg that knows when to put some pressure on, I too often step into the trap of not believing he could actually hold the good hand he's representing.

I would love to see some general advice on how to avoid stepping into this trap, while still managing not do be bullied too much and therefore loosing equity because we fold to much against the few stacks that can still hurt us.

Here is a (as I said embarassing) hand history of a $26 KO tournament on FullTilt. We were 23 left to ITM, 18 places paid, 1st got ~$900, 18th ~$35. We are 2nd in chips, sitting with the chip leader who has the highest VIP status (black card) and was very active over the last few hands. This is 7handed, villain has opened 27/17 over 67 hands, AF is 3.5 (actually not that aggro when I look at it now).

Full Tilt Poker Game #34297240738: $3,000 Guarantee (KO) (267632402), – 800/1600 Ante 200 –
Seat 3: surepli (10,004)
Seat 4: boozer57 (24,376)
Seat 5: Shimbunshi (48,685) in CO
Seat 6: Sunzi (31,050)
Seat 7: hazelasty (11,158)
Seat 8: Hero (47,871) in BB
Seat 9: MoreEV (17,798)

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [7 7]
MoreEV folds
surepli folds
boozer57 folds
Shimbunshi raises to 3,200
Sunzi has 15 seconds left to act
Sunzi folds
hazelasty folds
Hero raises to 7,200
Shimbunshi calls 4,000
*** FLOP *** [2 2 3] (Total Pot: 16,600, 2 Players)
Hero bets 7,200
Shimbunshi raises to 14,400
Hero raises to 40,471, and is all in
Shimbunshi

Because I saw he is a good reg I reraised preflop as I didn't want to play a difficult small-midpair against him post. I think this is the first mistake, bloating the pot instead of playing according to the flop and his action.

I dunno if the cbet is good, but the 3bet AI to his raise is definitly stupid. He is representing an over-pair and I guess he shouldn't often bluff here. His sizing was low on a super dry flop, this is what made me donk-shove, any ideas on how to protect yourself from doing so?

Another point I tend to be doing wrong (sometimes, only rarely but still too often) is acting pretty quickly in these situations, probably because I think it looks like I am more sure about my play and playing slowly (taking some time to think before clicking) would look weak. Any suggestions about this mindset?

Thanks for any constructive input. Yes, I know I played like a nice donk. Similar situations have happened to me before quite a few times now, when I had a great chiplead or was one of the top-stacks and then leveling myself into self-destruction. This needs to stop and I will try hard to get there.