Terrible

That describes how I just played in the $1,000 tourney tonight. I am very disappointed in myself and really need to focus on working on my game. I won the first hand of the tourney, with Kings against Shannon who was unfortunately at my table. After that I lost a big pot on a questionable play by me, I had far to much confidence in my read and it cost me a lot of chips. He's the hand:

I raise from middle position with AJ off suit to 125, blinds are 25/25, and get one caller in late position and the button comes along as well. The flop comes AK9 with two diamonds and I bet out 225, they both call. Now I am really not sure where I stand with my hand and think I am up against another Ace, possibly AQ or A9, but just as likely AJ or A 10. The turn brings another 9 and I see an opportunity here. I fire out 575 trying to take the pot down by maybe making another Ace fold their hand, the guy in late position calls but the way he calls makes me think he doesn't want to and solidifies my strength in my read. The BB folds and now I am sure that I can take this pot by pushing the guy off his hand. The river comes a Q which really a bad card unless he has AQ and now is taking the pot from me. I fire out $1,200 chips and he instantly pushes in his stack of 17,000. Now I only have to call 500 more chips but looking back on it there really is only maybe a 5% chance or less that he would do this with a missed flush or with just an Ace. I should have laid the hand down but I decide to call because of the size of the pot and he flips over K9 offsuit for 9's full of Kings. Looking back on the hand it is really hard to put him on such a terrible starting hand but I feel like I still could have played it better.

After that hand was over I just slowly gave away chips with bad cards. I kept calling small raises with drawing hands like mid-suited connectors and medium pairs. I couldn't connect on any flop and eventually just blinded my way down. I am beginning to think that this style early in a tournament isn't as profitable as I once thought. I used to love to see a lot of flops early and try to make big hands, bust people, and build a back stack early. When you are running cold it doesn't work very well and you rarely advance very far in the tournament. I think I need to spend some time re-reading a few books on tournament theory and make some adjustments to my game. There is always something you can improve on....