Party for Free 100k Guaranteed

Played in an online freeroll tourney (buy-in was 20,000 frequent player points) last night. I played pretty solid throughout despite not hitting any sets. I had a couple lucky breaks for me when it mattered: On one hand, I was shortstacked and holding 10Jo and I flopped an open ended straight draw. The guy bets out around 3k chips which is 3/4 of my stack. I raise him all in and I catch my K on the river. He had AA.

I was getting shortstacked again and was dealt AA. A player in mid-position bet out 2400, I raise to 4700. He calls. My hand holds up. There were probably a couple hands after that where I called someone’s all-in knowing that I was ahead (though not by much). The blinds were going up pretty fast and the hand that I busted out on: I’m holding AKo in the small blind (3,000). I have around 26,000 chips. The button bets 10,000. I raise him all-in. The big blind goes over the top all-in for 57,000 (that’s when I knew I was up against KK or AA). The button calls with QQ. AA actually held up.
Finished 188 out of 1671 (top 11%).

Although one could make the argument that I should’ve just folded my hands until I was in the money (just 8 more places to go to make at least 80), I wasn’t gonna pussyfoot around; I’m playing to win. It was just an unfortunate situation (for me to have a chance to win, I needed to win big pots at that juncture…if only I could have hit a set during the tourney…). For 3.5 hours of tourney experience and being able to meet my goal set last week (make it in top 10-15%), so yeah, it’s all worth it.