$12,000 Guaranteed @ Full Tilt

So this is the largest Tourney I have ever played. Had a few $26 tokens and decided to give it a shot since my SNG game has been on fire as of late. Winning 3 or my last 4. Felt confident, playing good solid poker, not being a donk. So I registered for last nights 8pm tourney.

Started off blah. Not getting anything good. First hand I played outside the blinds was 56 suited. It was folded to me in the 6th spot and I raised raised 2.5xBB. Only the SB called. Flop came 988. SB checked and I bet 100. He called. Spiked a nice looking 7 on the turn and bet 250 and he called. River was a blank and he checked and I bet 475. He used up most of his time and called(A9). That put me in a good confident mood.

Few hands into the 3rd round I picked up JJ in UTG+1. UTG raised 3xBB and I called. I hate jacks. I looked at the paper I have taped to the wall that says "Smart, Disciplined, Aggressive, Patient, JACKS SUCK!". Two other people called and we went to the flop. JdJh8c. Nice. Now how can I get the most money out of this? SB checks, UTG bets 235. I take some time and call. Everyone else folds. I put him on AK, AQ, medium pp. Turn comes a Qc. He checks. I check quickly hopefully showing him weakness and he will take a stab on the river. River comes a club. He thinks for sometime and checks. I take some time of my own thinking how much I can bet and get a call. I gotta hope he at least has a piece of this. Hopefully AQ or a flush. I bet out a litter over half the pot and he calls. He had AK.

Took down a few more posts with AA, KK, and TT twice and was sitting pretty well at 5000 at the first break. 666 people started and now I was in the top 60 with 272 left.

Then the cards went cold. 82,J3, Q2, K2, 23, 25, 27, 74, 83, etc. Bah! Soon I was down to 3200 in chips with the blinds at 200/400 and an ante of 50 I think. Things were getting ugly and I moved to a very maniac table. Every pot seemed to be raised 3-5xbb preflop and some odd holding were being show down. One of the maniacs raised UTG to 900. Folded around to me, I held two black 6's. I figured he could be stealing as he had been the previous 10 out of 20 hands and put it all in. It was folded to back to him and he called with about 2 seconds left on his timer and showed TT. Bah! Nothing good hit and I was out in 166th.

Not bad I guess for my first shot at a non $5 tourney. I played really well in the first hour. I made some good bluffs at pots with good reads and maintained an above average chipstack. Sadly the cards got cold and the players got maniacal. What can you do. Still have more tokens so maybe next time.