Big-Way Tourney

Played a $32,000 guarantee tourney that attracted just under 975 players. HUGE field. Ran very strong and took 3,000 chips all the way to 90,000. 97% of field was gone, down to only 32 players remaining when I find the following:

From the small blind I pick up KK. Table folds around to middle position who pushes all-in for 27k (blinds/ante are now 9k in total). Folds to the button, who has 110k in chips and he calls the all-in. I don't see how I get away from KK here, so I pushed all-in for 90k. The button flips over AA and the all-in flips over AQ. The board comes Q2QJ4 and I go out in 32nd place. FOUR HOURS OF WORK. UGGGGGGGGGGGGGH.

I was multi-tabling on another $25,000 tourney that attracted 300 runners. I made it up to 50th with an average chip stack and was pot-commited with QQ, but went down to AK after he out-drew me.

The night was satisfying, but the tourneys are so top-heavy, you need to get to the final table to make them worthwhile financially. Encouraging play, but the big cash will have to wait....