Aces Busted!

I was playing in a $10 SNG on Pokerstars, which was down to 6 players (from 9) and I was in 3rd position with two shorter stacks to act in front of me and the two big-stacks right behind me.

The player to my right pushes his last 900 (or so) chips in; I've got about 1,200 and AK sooooted. It's an easy call, but I'm worried about the players to act behind me, so I push everything in and cross my fingers (I got burned a while back pushing with AK only to be called by AA & KK).

The player to my left folds, but the last to act pauses for about 15 seconds and makes the call.
The cards are flipped up and, guess what, I'm up against AA again! God knows what the player behind me was thinking, calling with TJ off, for over 1/3rd of his stack, but he hits a miracle flop of 9d-Qd-8h (he must have thought he'd died and gone to heaven).

It wasn't all over, as my AK was Diamonds; I had plenty of outs - the AA player would have been crying into his keyboard by this time. The turn is another Q and this gave the AA some hope (another Q, or the case A would have filled his house).

Luckily, my saviour came on the river (doesn't it always), with the beautiful 2d. It was one thing to have busted the AA, but to come from behind and beat the flopped straight was something else.

I managed to make it to heads-up (10.5k v 3k behind) and doubled through once and took down a big pot later, to take the chip lead (5k v 8.5k). Then, with 10-8 suited I put in a big raise from the small blind, that is quickly called. The flop comes down 8-9-J and with bottom pair and an up & down straight draw I raise to about half my opponents stack. He instantly pushes and I have a decision to make. Knowing that hitting any pair heads-up is usually good I put him on a flush or straight draw and make the call.

He turns over 9-2 (how the heck did he call my initial pre-flop raise with that?). His push on the flop is legitimate, but he should never have been in the hand. My 8's are now behind to his 9' so now I need an 8 for trips or a 7/Q for my straight. 5 on the turn and 6 on the river changes nothing and now we are back to where we started; 11k v 2.5k.

Two hands later I push with K-5 suited and get called by A-9; I hit my 5, but needless to say he hits also hits his A and it's all over. Oh well, I was quite lucky to be in the money at all, so mustn't grumble.