Live Tournament, Cash Games,

I woke up today with miserable chest pains and can't attribute them to anything except maybe the lifting I did yesterday. I've had these same pains before, but not for a long time now. Anyway, I went to a tournament at Caesar's Palace, $200 buyin, 7500 starting chips, 40 minute levels, really a nice tournament. There were about 80 people entered and I thought it would be a great day to pick up a nice little live tournament win. Things started off slow for the first 20 hands or so, but then I picked up AhQh, blinds 50/100, raise to 300, Flop came out Ad8h2h. I bet out 700 and was raised to 2000 by a guy that was pretty active and had not shown much out of hands. He raised to 2000 and I thought for a minute before shipping my 7k in the middle. Now, in a higher buy in event, this may be a mistake. I've thought about this hand for a long time and even after the hand. I should really only be getting called by hands that are beating me, 22 88 A8 A2 are the only hands that are really in his range here that beat me. AA or AK are getting reraised preflop for sure. I was puzzled at what to do and early on, I really like to take the defensive route in these situations. I shipped it all in though and he called with AQ and I freerolled the heart for a nice 15k stack in level 2. I played a lot of pots early on as there was a lot of dead money at the table. One of those guys hit a nice draw on me on a K84Q board. I raised with AQ early on and then we both checked the flop. I bet the turn about 500 into a 800 pot and he called. River was a 10. He fired out some 2k bet and I stubbornly called when I should know better. He showed J9. I got those chips back in a pot with AcA on a Jc8c3cJ2 board when I slowed down and check called an 8 10 bluffer on the turn and river. I was slightly worried about him having a jack, but my gut told me that he would fire the river and could have a whole range of hands. The terrible hand came up and I don't even want to talk about it. One player at the table seemed solid. He had picked off another guy's bluff early on and had a nice chip stack. I raised to 550 to open the pot with 1/2 blinds 25ante. He called from the BB and he defended with a lot of hands I soon learned. Flop QJ2. Check Check. Turn 3. He checks, I bet 600, he double raised to 1200, I thought for a second and really felt he was feeling out a weak hand here. I reraised to 3400, he thought for a while and called. At this point, there are two hearts out there and the QJ making lots of straight hands. River was a J. He looked disgusted and checked. I fired 4500. He thought for a little and called and I just mucked as he showed a Q. I'm really upset with myself on this hand because I do not like to make elaborate bluffs against players in a tournament where I really feel in control of every aspect. I could have been super careful this tournament and easily protected my stack waiting for the right moments to go after the right people. I fought back however and was in for another 3 levels after that. I busted on a SB shove with my Q10 vs BB KJ. JJx on flop, bad game me. Sometimes in poker, I feel like we know it's wrong to do something, yet still do it. In tournament poker, sometimes caution is valued. Caution is often not portrayed as being valued on TV or anything else, but it's important. If there are certainly players that I have a good read on and who I know are pretty bad overall, why not just wait until I get a good spot against them? I'm going to play this tournament again tomorrow because I want redemption and my roommate's dad wants to play. He finished 20th and we split up 10%. I'll probably play that tournament and if I bust come back to play some of the good Wednesday online tournaments. I feel sad having to leave as the main event of the Five Diamond is starting. I would have probably taken some shots at the super satellites if I was able to play it, but I'm looking forward to my first sibling tying the knot finally.