Vegas - Caesars $70 9am tournament

After waking at 5:30am I decided to give this event a bash. You only get a 3k starting stack, but the opening 20 minute levels are fine at 25-50, 50-100, 75-150. After that though the jumps are big - 100-200 a25, 200-400 a50 (huge jump), 300-600 a75 and so on. A healthy 40 runners took to the felt.

Hand1
One raiser to 150, button calls, I call BB with A♥Q♦

Flop is 6♥ 7♥ J♦

Checked to button who bets 100 into 500 pot. He has confessed this is his first ever live tournament and it has shown on previous hands as he is down to 2k already. I make a dubious call.

Turn is Qd

I check, button now bets 500 into 700. I now have no idea what is going on so I check raise all in and run into the new guys set of 6s. Great start. Down to 1k.

Hand2
I find AA UTG which for which my stack is not ideal. I limp and SB raises to 300 so I set him in and he calls and loses with AQ. Back to 2k.

I hover at 2k for quite a while and once the 100-200 a25 level starts I go into shovebot mode. The problem with this is he guys at my table don’t understand how you should be playing a 10BB stack. As a result, I become victim to “donkey pressure” and get lots of comments like:

“This guy’s got a lunch date he doesn’t want to miss"
"This guy’s only got one move"
"Eurodonk”

At one point I shove with 3♦5♦ and get called by the BB with A♦9♦. A five on the flop later and I have doubled up. This caused much braying from the stables.

Despite this lucky hand, it is the only time I get called in 15 shoves, and thus my stack catapults upwards due to the ever-increasing antes. Several times people raise 25% of their stack and then fold to a re-shove which is disastrous for them.

I pushbot my way to the final table, but still arrive as a short stack. I have 12k, but the blinds are 600-1200 with a 100 ante and about to go to 800-1600 with a 200 ante (!). The tournament only pays down to 5th spot, and when I shove again with 4♠5♠ my luck finally runs out after someone calls with AK and it holds up.