done by aces, but was it my fault?

I thought I'd ask you guys what you would have done in my position at a tournament i played in Vegas at xmas. Forgive me if I cannot remember the exact stack sizes or the blinds as it was a while ago but I'll try my best.
The tournament had cost $120 to enter it was the Venetian daily tournament and was well worth winning, I had done well at my table and had gathered around 12000 chips, it was around the half way point so i think the blinds were 150-300.
This is how it went; a guy who was short stacked went all in for around 3500, this chinese guy flat called in MP (he had about 9000), I was in LP and looked down at ppQ's, I moved AI however, the chinese guy called and showed ppA's I can't quite remember the short stacks hand but it might have been Ax. I did'nt improve so the ppA's held up and won.
My thinking behind this is I would have thought the ppA's would have moved AI to isolate the short stack, by flat calling I did not put him on this.
Is it a common play to flat call with the ppA's in the hope of getting a reraiser like myself or did he play it wrong and get lucky I had a big hand?
I was so dissapointed as I think I'd played really well up until then, thanks guys for all your continued help...the sniper

you made the right play with ur hand, the initial short stacker had 11BB so the chinese's guys calling range is below QQ. calling with AA is a play often made in a spot like this to fain weakness and to have someone try to come over the top to isolate the initial raiser who rates to have a much weaker hand. but in this case it was just a cooler.

there was nothing wrong with either play. You tried to isolate, which is the correct move. and the other villian tried to look weak to bring along more callers and build the pot. unfortunately for you it worked and cost you a good deal of your stack.

trewtrew said:

you made the right play with ur hand, the initial short stacker had 11BB so the chinese's guys calling range is below QQ. calling with AA is a play often made in a spot like this to fain weakness and to have someone try to come over the top to isolate the initial raiser who rates to have a much weaker hand. but in this case it was just a cooler.

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Thanks trewtrew you have made me feel better but just so as I get this straight the chinese guy did this play hoping to get a reraiser? Because in future I will look out for this kind of play, I know many pro's refrain from calling an AI with the ppQ's but not a flat call, do you think there was anyway I could have got away from this hand?

I don't know if I agree with the others who say it was the correct play. A reraise sure, to gauge what his hand was seems more appropriate, then seeing how it goes down on the flop. Especially in that you haven't provided much on the style of the player. Your push wasn't terrible though, and more times than not it is a good move just because of the strength of your hand.

It really depends on how tight the china-man was playing, if he was supper tight, alarm bells should of went off in your head that he just smooth called over third of his stack. (china man play is not normal to smooth call and hope someone comes over the top of him, you should want to be heads up and isolate yourself) If he was a very active player, and had called raises many times before, than yes a push is in order, he probably want fold because hes got third of his stack in, but he might fold hands like AQ, AJs, 78s, TT. If he was a player who only made good plays up to this point in the tour, you could smooth call, because you do have position on your opp, and if over card hits you could represent it, or possible do a ck down to the player all in. So it really depends on how the china-mans been playing.