Out of the $1500 Limit

I got off to a pretty good start in this one, I had my $4500 starting stack up to 9K by the middle of level 4. I had a very good table as expected. I really didn't run exceptionally well, I just picked my spots well and was connecting with a lot of flops and winning a lot of hands unimproved. I lost a couple small pots before the dinner break and going into the dinner break I had 8K which was above the average of maybe 5500.

After the dinner break it was all downhill and I lost all of my chips in about 5 hands:

First hand I reraised a very aggressive early position raiser with ATs from the button (blinds were 100-200, limits 200-400). He called. The flop was 753 with two clubs (I had diamonds). I bet, he check-raised, I called. Turn 7, he bet, I folded. That brought me down to about 7K.

Few hands later short-stacked player raises from the cutoff, I call in the big blind with A5. Flop is A64. He bets, I checkraise, he calls. Turn is a 7, I bet, he raises another 50 chips all-in, I call. He turns over A9. I don't improve on the river and I'm down to 5K.

Few hands later I raise KQs from early position, get called by both blinds. The flop is QT7 with two diamonds (I have spades). Blinds check, I bet, small blind checkraises, big blind folds, and I call. Turn is an offsuit 3, small blind bets, I raise, he 3-bets, I call. River is a 7, he bets, I call. He shows Q7s for a full house and I'm down to about 2500.

Few hands later same aggressive player, also player in the small blind last hand raises from early position. I 3-bet TT from the button, a loose/passive player calls from the big blind, the original raiser 4-bets (he had been doing this a lot in multiway pots), I 5-bet both players call. Flop is J87, both players check to me, I bet, they both call. Turn is a J, both players check again, I bet, big blind raises, aggressive player folds and I call. River is a meaningless 2. Big blind bets and I call, he shows QJ.

That brought me down to 200 chips or 1 big blind and from there I got it in with K6 vs. AJ and busted.

I played well, unfortunately didn't run well. The tournament was what I expected in terms of skill level, there just isn't a lot of play with the 1st level starting at 50-100 and 4500 in chips.

I'm going to keep at it. I feel good about how I'm playing, just need some luck.

I might play the 1K NL tomorrow which is a huge event and a crapshoot otherwise next tournament will probably be Monday, I believe it's a 2K NL but not positive.