3k buy-in, big stacks, out in 5 minutes...am I stupid or badluck

[HensonLosesLots]

So I traveled three hours to get to this Foxwoods Megastack tourney, $3,000 buy-in, 30,000 starting chips. I think I saw all of 7-8 hands maybe before busto. Now, before you call me wreckless and whatnot, here is my story:

There were a good amount of players (I'm guessing over 100). Blinds were still 25-50 and I was trying to play tight/aggressive like I usually do in tourneys. So here's the hand that knocked me out after about 5 minutes.

I'm in small blind, I see about 6 people limp before getting to me. The last hand I sort of semi-bluffed with second pair on the flop and people saw it after I got called by one.

Anyways, back to the busto hand, 6 or so limp before getting to me in small blind. I see AQ and think for a bit, then I bump it up to 500 knowing pretty sure I'm ahead, and really just wanted to take down the blinds right there.. I hate playing AQ out of position. So, to my dismay 2 others call, both are pretty loosey goosey. One particular I had overheard got through a satellite.

So flop comes AhQd7d, and I'm first to act. I think pot size is roughly 1,800 .. I bet out 1k .. first guy folds, other raises it to 3k.. I think, knowing quite sure he doesn't have AA or QQ mainly because he was last to call my preflop bet.. and if he had either, there was enough in the pot to pop it up again preflop... 77 was a possibility, but again I honestly thought he would have raised it preflop to push out the other limpers.

So after that, I reraised another 3k.. Then he announces I guess I'm all in pushing the rest of his 20k into the pot. I'm thinking, this is the guy that got into this via a sattellite so.. he could very possibly have A7 or Q7 for a worst two pair. Or more likely, mainly cause he said "I guess I'm all in" had a monster draw. By now, I got like 19k .. pot before the all in was around 10,000. With all in, if i called and won, would have easy chip lead at around 60k. I am almost positive he's on a monster draw like J10diamonds, maybe even Ax of diamonds. I think a little bit, and decided to call. My reason of thinking is that I was so positive he had a draw or a worst two pair that I was either way ahead, or just slightly. Either way, this many chips this early in a big buy in is quite deadly and was willing to risk it.

He ended up having A8 of diamonds, top pair with nut flush. But it really didn't matter cuz I had top two. So basically he was drawing dead to a flush. He of course rivered the diamond and raked in a huge pot. And after roughly 20 minutes in the casino, and 5 minutes at the table, I was back on my 3 hour drive home after losing the 3k buy-in of course. But alas, that is my style of play. I read the guy, was willing to risk it when I was a huge favorite. I honestly didn't want any confrontations that early but I felt like I needed to. I don't play to 'land in the money'. I got for all or nothing, go for first.

So in my opinion, I made the right move and would honestly probably do it again. Though it sucks real hard to lose 3k (large part of my BR) in about 5 minutes, and even worst driving 6 hours to do that. I felt I played it well, and knew if I had won that hand, I woulda made it deep and given myself a damn good chance of a nice payday.

I guess there are more conservative ways of playing the hand. But he put me all in, I read it perfect, and felt it was a hella good chance. It's easy to say it was a wrong move being results oriented, but would you have called??? Try not to bash me cause trust me, I have been quite down and angry about the whole thing. Agh, always next time tho.