my best advice to a hand like this is dont be afraid to play your top pair top kicker softer. I have been beat like this many times and sometimes its hard to get off a cooler, but i wouldnt call this a cooler at all. You have to maintain that you only have 1 pair the entire time and betting pot size on every street is going to get kind of suspicious if someone is just calling. You have to be aware you only have 1 pair, its not like this is the best, even having AA in this situation isnt always the best, 2 pair isnt that hard to hit and people can have it all the time. So when you bet pot on the flop, i agree you can put them on a draw and such, but once you bet Pot on the turn you should start to question why someone is calling so much w a draw, is it valuable to them to just call in that situation? if you are playing against someone good, and have seen them fold draws before then you have to start questioning why they are calling so much of their stack w a draw now? This is another reason top players dont bet so much with their top pairs w top kickers, these
hands arent as strong as they seem to be, Yes sometimes they can get paid off and generally they are a good hand but you probably wont see the hand continue passed the turn unless someone has a really moster draw or has 2 pair or better. I advise to bet somewhere between 2/5 and 2/3 pot on the flop and maybe even 1/2 on the turn, if they have you beat you will probably see a raise from them becasue they either want more value or fear that maybe you are the one with the draw and dont want you to suck out. Many times you will see top professionals only bet 1/3 w top pair top kicker, this is becasue they can do it with many other hands as well like middle set or top set too and they can play off of their reads against other players instead of risking too much of their stack betting blindly. Give the other player a chance to act instead, maybe even check the turn to see what he does, You dont always have to keep pushing the action if you have top pair top kicker, You can play it soft, sometimes even around the bubble i'll play a flopped set kind of soft once i see somone calling me on the flop becasue i am not sure what kind of draws they might have or if they are willing to put their entire stack at risk with it. You have to have a read on your opponent as well, like i said why are they still calling w a draw when they have folded it before? Try to adjust your bet sizing a little bit with the top pair and see if that doesnt help a little, it will probably give you some better reads, but at the same time its going to give off a little bit of weakness in your play as well and good players will be able to pick up on that so you will have to be willing to sniff out some people who are just trying to bully you off your hand. And in no situation am i ever going to push the rest of my chips on the river in that situation, just becasue there is no value if you put them on a draw and they missed, the only thing they would call with would be top pair less kicker and thats rare they would call an all in with just that, so almost always you should check the river in that situation becasue you wouldn't get paid anyways, so if they want to try to
bluff you on the river w the draw then you will have the chance to call them. I probably wouldn't check the river but a value bet there would be much more inviting to a call and if they shoved over top then you would be able to put them on a stronger hand like completing a 2 pair or flopping a set and slow playing it. Adjust your bet sizing and try to play your strong hands a little softer, in tournaments there are all sorts of ways to pick up chips here and there, you dont always just have to have great hands against people to pick them up, they are everywhere, in blind steals, in squeeze plays, in every hand against people drawing, chips are everywhere. You dont want to risk all the chips you have on just one pair almost ever unless the blinds are super high and its late in the tournament. So try to adjust a little bit, play a little softer, and look for other ways to improver your chip stack throughout the tournament and you wont even be thinking about these top pair top kicker situations anymore, instead you will be thinking of other strategies and ways to pick up chips in ways others would never think of. Good luck.