M of 3.6 in WSOP $1500 event ~150 away from Money play A9 off?

[Bush13]

Hi Everyone,

This is my first post, but I keep debating how I ended my $1500 tournament this last weekend so I would like to hear the communities opinion. I was in event #49 in the WSOP that had a turnout of over 3100 people. I made it to the dinner break with about $8000 in chips, and when I came back after a half hour the blinds went up to 400/800 with a 100 ante. So after a little bit I ended up in first position with $8000 looking down at A9 off suit, and there were ~480 people left in the tourney (first payout was $2600 at 324). I calculated my M to be less then 4, 8000/2200; and I knew I had to make a move soon and I didn't get even a decent hand before the A9. Now I'm in first position and the blinds are about to knock me down to less then 3 M, so in my eyes I have to try an all in with the A9. Some other factors that convinced me to do this, is that the table was playing extremely tight and I had already done this move twice before the dinner break and no-one had called me (once from early position, and once from middle position), I was hoping since we had the dinner break that those moves weren't fresh on anyones minds. Next I had one of the biggest stacks in the tournament to my left, he had more then 10 times what I did, so I thought even if I did wait for a better hand after the blinds hit me he would call me for sure, but there was a good chance he wouldn't here with so many people behind him. Anyways I did the all in and someone in late position called me with AK and I was knocked out.

What has been bothering me, is that in my eyes I made the right move because it is what gave me the best chance to keep competing in the tourney, but on the other side of it should I have just been happy to possibly get blinded out, but at least have a chance to maybe get in the money? The table was playing very slow and tight. I mean in the long run I don't think I should get in tournaments to just give myself a chance to get in the money I want to give myself the best chance to win and I think that is what I did, but man it would have been nice to get like 324th place and that $2600. So did I make a mistake?

Thanks in advance for any replies!