Tournaments are difficult

Played the 7:15, $40 game at Rivers yesterday.  They got 62 or 64 players, paid 7.  I didn't make it very far, around 43rd.  I only got myself up from 10K to 15K and then I spent the most of the time between 10K and 6K until I was KOd around 43rd place. 

A couple hands I played below:

25-50 no ante - I'm up a few thousand after playing 2-3 other hands.  I look down at black 7s and after 3 limpers I raise it up to 225 in middle position.  I never know if I should set-mine with these middle pairs or raise them up and keep everyone guessing my hands.  I try to switch it up, though, to keep them guessing anyway... UTG limper calls.  I don't know much about this guy, just that he's not really loose and I wouldn't figure him to be extremely tight either.  I assume his utg limp-call would put his range somewhere in a high-mid-ace or 2 paints or a low pair role.  Flop isn't too bad except it's all hearts, 10h-5h-3h.  He checks, I bet 350 and he calls.  I'm not feeling fantastic about my hand, but I think it's still probable he's floating with a heart, maybe his pocket pair has a heart, etc... Turn is a Jc and I decide not to give him a free heart if that's what he's looking for and my line is pretty strong still so I bet out 600, he thinks for a moment calls.  River was a 4h and he checks.  This, to me, caps his hand at some middle heart he fell into more than an Ace of hearts he was drawing to so I thought I had more of a chance of having the Ace of hearts than he did so I bet out 1000 hoping it looked to value-ish and he'd be able to fold a middle heart.  To my surprise, and very quickly after my 1K bet, he actually raised me to 3000...well I couldn't call so after mowing over shoving I decided to fold.  I think it seems unlikely he's got the Ah, but at the same time it's difficult for him to raise me on the river without it...so I hollywooded for a couple moments and folded...back down to about 10K

100-200 no ante - I have AJoffsuit, seat 2 in mid position, utg+2 or 3 so I raise it up to 500 and get 2 callers, seat 4 and seat 6, blinds fold.  Flop is 10h-7h-4s and I c-bet out 1100, seat 4 folds, 6 calls.  Turn is a Kc and we both check.  To me this, along with her 1100 call caps her hand at some pair, maybe the 7 or a 9-10 kind of hand(10 with a weak kicker), and I kind of felt like I should bet here, but I think there's more profit in betting a lot of rivers based on the fact that people will fold more when their hand can no longer improve so turn bets are called more than river bets, I think, anyway...so a King hits on the river, she checks and I bet out 1500, she thinks for a bit and calls, I flip over Ace high and she flips over pocket 6s.  Maybe 2K would've been enough...? I noticed her make some serious bluff-catching calls and I figured (hopefully I'm not being sexist here...) that being a woman playing poker she might be used to calling light because so many men will attempt to bluff her(I noticed this as well at least 2 other times).  So this also means that I should value bet her to death if I can...

Another hand during 100-200 no ante - I preflop raised with Ah-Qh middle position to 500 with 8K behind, seat 6 in the BB called, the flop was Ac-Jc-5c.  She checked, I bet out 500 and she thought, checked her cards and called.  I immediately thought she was calling only with a high club here so a 9d on the turn wasn't scary to my Aces so after she checked again I bet out 1100, she thought again and called.  River was a 9s, she checked and I bet out 1600, hoping for a bluff-catching call again.  She looked like she was thinking of folding but ended up calling and flipped over Qc-9h...bleh...I remember thinking at least I was right on the flop call and the way she played her hand now made more sense but I just felt really unlucky that the river wasn't a club yet she back-doored trip 9s.  I think against other players I might not bet the river here, but she was usually calling down with bluff-catcher type hands against everyone so in these cases I think a bet has profit.  Unfortunately, running 9s ended up being a really strong bluff-catcher-turned-into-a-hand...

100-200, 25 ante - I have Qh-9h in seat 2 utg+1 and 5800 total, blinds are playing pretty tight and I have a pretty tight aggressive image so far.  Seat 3 was rocky and seat 4 was only aggressive as an opener, I haven't seen him 3-bet anything yet.  I figured if I wanted to play this hand I needed to raise it and not let seat 3 open me off of it.  Seat 5 has 2000 total and maybe I make a slight mistake by raising for that reason, but he was pretty much folding himself into oblivion anyway, even frustrated that he hadn't gotten any cards so I figured he'll probably fold as he's done every time prior.  I raise it up to 800, seat 3 and 4 fold, seat 5 shoves it all-in for 2K, seat 6 calls(she called preflop raises a lot, not necessarily with bad cards, though), folds around to me and I thought about shoving for my last 3800 but I'm probably slightly bad against seat 5's range so I was hoping to at least be profitable against seat 6 and she might call a post flop shove if it hits me nicely.  Plus the fact that a lot of times people check down an all-in she'll probably check a lot of flops.  Flop is Q-J-6, 2 clubs, seat 6 checks, I look over at seat 5 and he doesn't look at all irked about this flop so I check, hoping a brick falls on the turn and maybe I can shove my last 3800 and get a confused bluff-catching call as she gave me last hands we played in.  Turn is a 7s.  She checks again and I shove.  She thinks for a few moments and calls and then it felt pretty awesome when she flipped over a pair of 9s, while unfortunately seat 5 flipped over QJ I made a slight profit on a hand that was supposed to cripple me, sitting about where the all-in guy now sat around 7K.

I played 1 hand and lost since that last hand, now at 200-400, 50 ante - I have 5300 in chips and I'm the big blind.  I like my stack size for a 3bet shove if the situation presents itself.  I'm in the BB in seat 2, seat 5 raises it up to 800 with 6000 behind.  He's the same guy that just tripled up thanks to me and seat 6.  Now this guy is rocky, so a raise at all gives me pause, though he just shoved with QJ and it almost looked like he was going to raise more and decided against it....He appeared more like he had a hand he thought he should raise with now that he has some chips, but he didn't particularly think was all that strong/didn't want to lose the chips he just got or play a big pot, etc... Something like KQsuited, maybe A-10off and down to maybe to A-5suited, mid pair, etc.  When he put out the 800(min-raise) I thought that if someone else calls I have a good opportunity to 3-bet shove and get a nice pot on a squeeze.  As she'd been prone to do, seat 6 calls and it folds to me.  I look down at Ad-8d and I figured this is as good as anything to pull a squeeze with so I shove for my 4850 I have left.  Seat 5 thought for a couple seconds and actually picked his cards up almost tossing them into the muck before announcing "eh, well, I'm all in", seat 6 folded and I told him "good call", flipping over my hand he flipped over AJoff.  flop was 7-9-9, no diamonds and nothing else on the board paired so I was knocked out in the lower 40s.  One of these days I'll make a deep run... I honestly played a lot less hands this game than those prior, maybe I played too tightly...?  2 times I felt like I went against my "instincts"  I had 5-6offsuit and limped for 200 with 4 others and seat 3 opened to 700 in probably the 3rd raise within this orbit, so I figured he wasn't that strong and after 3 others called I thought maybe I should see a flop and I just had that feeling, but folded instead.  Flop was 2-3-4rainbow and 2 players put in bets the whole way, seat 3 was bluffing, seat 6 limp-called the whole way with 10s.  I don't let things like that get to me, but it did sting after the flop and all that action.  The other hand was the A-8suited 3-bet-shove I kinda had a bad feeling about it even though I think it's a decent play.  I'm probably folding or calling the 400 more if seat 6 doesn't call, however, it seemed like a good spot when seat 6 calls...

I'm starting to remember why A-8 was my least favorite hand all those years ago, it's probably my least profitable hand, maybe I'm playing it too strongly...though I'm sure I'm only remembering the times it fails me horribly rather than the small pots I bring in with it...It is responsible for 2 eliminations of the last 3 tournaments so maybe there's some merit to my hatred...