Larg(er) 70 player tournament

I went to a poker game held by a local non-profit entity. They have the game every week, but it was my first time in the place.

The tournament had 70 people, and paid the top 5 players. I was told that it was a small crowd, and when they have 75 players they pay more positions (I think to 10).

I played solid, conservative poker. I picked up some tells and used them to my advantage. I figured out who the good players were and did some great semi-bluffs against them. (You can only bluff good players, because bad players don't know that all the signs say they should fold).

I did a bit of acting too, and it paid off. One of the players even cited my "accidental" tell when he folded. Ha ha!

When I played poker several weeks ago at a friend's house we played three games. In the first game I wasn't all that concerned with tells. Putting it simply, I just forgot to look for them. In the second game I realized that I should be looking for tells. I picked up a few, and ended up getting second place. Before going into game #3 I decided to force myself to pick up tells. I would watch my opponents like a hawk.
I won that game. Mainly because I picked up a tell on a guy who'd been hurting me all night long and I exploited it for all of his chips (I went against him three times to break him, winning all three hand when I had second pair and he was bluffing).

I had a long drive to the 70-player tournament. I was stuck behind a slow moving truck. rather than pass it I decided to stay behind the frustratingly slow truck as a warm up for poker. Seriously. I stayed the course, not letting the slow pace push me off kilter. When I passed a sign that gave the mileage to my destination I compared it to my speed and calculated that I would still make it there in plenty of time. Once the truck turned off the road I figured it was time to make my move, so I sped up.
I also had a terrible radio station on. I left it there to increase the frustration I was trying to work though.

I vowed to play to the best of my ability in that tournament. I declined a beer that was offered to me (Pale ale too! My favorite!) and vowed to do everything I could to pick up tells. I was warned that many of those people have been playing every week for years, so the competition would be rough and the tells would be slim. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
I could pretty much read the table. I set a tight image and stole the blinds when I saw people were weak. With a lucky first hand (AJ suited that became two pair on the flop) I started off with the chip lead at my first table I don't think I ever lost it.
I played few hands, but despite my tight image people still played into me when I had great hands.

After about 3.5 hours I made the final table. I believe I was second in chips. Unfortunately the chip leader (who had more than twice my chips stack) was seated to my left (so she can challenge me by putting me all-in) and the good player (who wins a lot of chips off people) who I'd been able to steal tons of chips off all night was sitting to my right. Normally that's good, but I picked up a monster tell on him, and I couldn't see it from such a close position.

Final table: I started out as the big blind. I had A/10 suited the first hand and a few people limped in. I decided to raise twice the big blind, putting 2 of the thee callers all-in. They folded, but the third one raise me all-in. I had the correct odds, so I called. She ended up having 10/10, and neither of us connected with the board, so she won half my chips.
The next hand I had A/8 suited. Again there were several limpers. I limped in as well.
The flop was K/8/2 and I could read the three people on my left... they all missed the flop. I *knew* they missed the flop (classic tells). I couldn't see the guy on my right though (the dealer at this point). It was checked around to me, and I raised. Fold... fold... fold... "All in." Crap. The guy on my right... the good guy who'd I'd been stealing from all night just went all in. If I called I'd have less than a big blind left, because he was directly on my right I couldn't see his tell so I didn't know the strength of his hand.
He pretty much moved to every table that I was moved to, so I played with him all night long. I'd stolen a lot of pots when I saw he was weak and forced him out. However, the last few times I did that I ended up having to show my hand because a third player would call. And each of those times he said he groaned when he saw that he'd have had me beat.
So while I'd normally fold an unknown all-in with only second pair, I figured that he saw my raise as another stealing opportunity and was pushing back with nothing.
I called.
He had K/rag, and we failed to improve with the turn or river so his top pair beat my second pair.

Two hands into the final table I went from #2 to #10 (dead last) in chips. Since I didn't even have a big blind left I folded and folded and folded until I picked up a King/rag just before I was big blind. I went all-in, and someone beat me with a pair of 6's. Game over.
By then two people had been knocked out, so I finished 7th.

I probably could have folded myself into the money (only the top 5 were in the money), but I was playing to win. I think I did the right moves given the cards and the psychology of the players involved.

I'll do better next time. I plan on hitting that game again in a month. I really enjoyed it, and I'm sure I can do better. My goal is to play every month. I'm pretty sure I can about break even over the course of a year.

I made a few dumb mistakes which cost me about $1,500 in chips total. Of course, those mistakes pegged me as a newbie, so they probably caused more people to play into my good hands, so the damage wasn't all that bad.