Possible dilemma in the late stages

[Hollywade]

Full Tilt $24+2 with 723 players

Background: Dodged a huge bullet on the bubble when my AJ beat KK. Tripled up soon after with AA against A10 and 99. Built up a decent stack since then.

Style of play: There seem to be a lot more all-ins going on right now than I would normally expect at this stage. Almost everybody is moving their chips around.

The situation: Within the first three hands after the consolidation to two tables.

The hand: Sorry I don't have a hand history. The blinds are 1500-3000 with a 400 ante. I'm 13th out of 18 with 34,000 chips. Two folds to me. I raise to 10,000 with 88. It folds to the BB who has 60,000 or so. He shoves. He has JJ. Game over for me.

Immediately after the hand occurred, I was mad at myself. I had played for four hours and outlasted 700 people only to go out like that.

I'm pretty certain that most of you will say I played the hand correctly. I can't see it being a good idea to fold to a reraise after comitting roughly 1/3 of my stack.

However, I was upset at myself for even getting involved in the first place. Although my M was just a little over 4, I wasn't feeling any immediate pressure to make a move.

I guess I have just been thinking a lot lately about position. With 7 people to act behind me, there is a pretty good chance that someone is going to find a hand that beats me. Obviously 88 is a fairly strong hand. Maybe I shouldn't be playing it from up front though in this case?

I have been telling myself lately that I'm playing to win the tournament. In the last few days, I haven't even been looking at the payout structure. My focus has just been on winning. If you're playing to win, I guess you are probably playing the 88 there.

Nevertheless, as fast and furious as the action had been for the last half hour or so, I can't help but think that I could have waited for a better spot and improved my position some.

First place was over $4,000 and I walked away with $86. Very disappointing. I felt I was playing as well as most of the other people left in the tournament.

So, do any of you guys ever lay down 88 in early position here? It seems very nitty and I might be focusing too much on the results. I was just wondering.