Eliminating the shortstack. Chip leader’s responsibility?

[BPRescue]

Just played another Tournament last night where I placed 2nd. In the end, we were both back and forth a couple times until I finally had him down to twice the BB. He goes all in, while on the SB, I call with an A-2 unsuited. He wins and proceeds to bludgeon me until I finally have to go all in on a K-Q suited. He wins with a 3-8 unsuited and ends up with trips. Doh!

Early in on this tournament I took the chip lead and for the most part kept it until the end. I would be down, but quickly get them back. I did run into some issues however that really irritated me. When a player was short stacked, I seemed to be the only one who would call his all in, even when it would have been for 20% of another players chips for them to call. This is where I feel I lost the tournament as I tried to murder #3 (with just us 3 left) 3 times and he doubled up 3 times… Granted one of those hands were horrible and I held a 2 6, but I was BB, he was on the SB and all in for less than 1 bet. After he won that pot with a mediocre hand, I was now first to act and grabbed an A10 suited and raised 2 bets which he re raised putting him all in again and won with a lesser hand. After the third time he did this when I held and lost with 9 9, I let # 2 (but much closer to me now), know that I expected him to assist. From my perspective, with the blinds as big as they were, if #3 were to steal them as # 2 was allowing, and finally grab a hand, he could be back in the game. I believe #2 was just hanging back hoping I would knock the guy out with no risk to himself.

Anyway, throughout the tournament I did in fact put out quite a few people, however not as many as I should have in my view. Just about every hand I had when put in this position was playable, and sometimes these people would go all in after I raised the pot. Every loss was all in pre-flop. To shorten the story, on all in’s where I held decent cards and felt I had to call, and almost every time had better cards, I lost 8 times. Quite frustrating when I pair my K, the guy holds 1 club and hits running cards to grab the flush. I understand this is poker, however question if I should have been calling the all in. Keep in mind, all of these were on the short stack and in almost every occurrence they were on the SB or BB. At this point, I felt I had to call when otherwise I likely would have folded.

Tonight I am going to look at my statistics, however know that I was hurt badly with calling all in’s, again when people were short stacked and had far less chips than I. At the same time, I am not at all upset and not applying blame to this part of my game, especially given it was the only place I seemed to get hurt. I know head to head is tough and it only takes one hand to lose it all… I am just trying to determine if I should be so inclined to help people exit the game…

What are your views?

Thanks!!!