Just short of final tables

I have been consistently making the money in tournaments recently, but not making the big finishing positions that I would like. A 24th place in the £12k on Tuesday, followed by 22nd in the £12k last night.

Tuesday was dissapointing, I had battled with a low stack for the first two hours, was 72nd out of 73 left. From this point I changed gears and I was in the top five for the a lot of the latter stages. I get A9 in the small blind. Then on a board 8A6A. Someone moves all in, for about half my chips. From the way the hand was played, I could not put him on an ace or big hand. I called and he turned over J3 diamonds. The turn had bought a second diamond on the board. Of course the the river was another diamond.

This left me with about 20k, blinds 600/1200. I raise to 4800 from the cutoff with KT. The big blind calls. He has 30k before calling, Flop 46T. BB checks, I bet 7000 in the 12k pot, from which I am raised all in. I am committed to the pot and call. He turns over 46 offsuit! Then hits another 6 for a full house.

Why he called 1/6 of his stack with 46 off suit I will never know, but he went on to win the tournament from this point.

Last night I doubled up early, but never got much improvement on this until the later stages. I peaked at about 24k, I get AA with just 14k left, I hope for action!.
Blinds 600/1200, UTG raises to 2400, 2nd pos calls. Heres the action, I am all in, guy next to me all in. The 2nd position is also all in. It ends up with 50k in the pot, enough to put me in the top 2. Its AA vs JJ vs TT. The J came on the turn and it was game over.

Two decent performances, two cashes, but just £12 profit!
I vow to do better tonight!
ClintonO