Beau Rivage 15,000 Guaranteed Pool

I just got back from a weekend trip to Biloxi. I played in Saturday and Sunday's 15,000 guarantee tournaments. Saturday had 125 entrants, I finished somewhere between 25 and 20. Sunday's tournament had 75 entrants and I finished 9th, in the money for $600. Very nice. I played very tight (pocket 9's or better, AK, AQ), and caught very few hands on Saturday. I hit Trip Jacks holding J-8 offsuit, I had like 3 big blinds left and I had to do something. Very lucky, and it kept me in for a while. I ended up busting out with pocket 9's, lost to A-K. Sunday I played much the same strategy, I got a huge boost early on, before the first break. I 3X the blind with pocket K's in my hand. One guy calls, and the flop comes 3 blanks. I start counting up chips trying to decide how big of a bet will he call, we both have very close to the $6000 in chips we started with, and he tells me "I'm callin. I'm not going anywhere. I'll call all in". So with that settled, I push it all in and he calls and shows pocket 9's, and he got no help. So I doubled up very early, I knocked another guy out very soon after that with pocket Q's. So I had almost $20,ooo at the first break. I kept that big stack through most of the tournament until the final 2 tables when everyone started to catch up and surpass me. By the time I got to the final table, I was the second smallest stack. I strongly suspect that I may have been playing too tight--I didn't lose a single pot that I was in past the flop, I didn't see many flops, and I may have folded to lesser hands. I didn't see many hands shown at the last 2 tables, so it was hard to get a read on what people were playing. What did get shown was A-x and K-x, so I think that I may have been able to get away with playing quite a bit looser. I also think I may have played some hands too strong. One hand, I had pocket A's and I flopped the set, but the flop was 3 spades. The guy checks to me, and I was pretty sure that he hadn't hit the flush. But with 3 spades showing, I REALLY wanted to take the pot right there before the 4th spade hit. So I put him all in, he folds, I showed him my set of A's, he shows me he had A-6 offsuit. The 6 was a spade, so I was right to be worried, in this situation. But that kinda stuck with me on other hands, and I played them all very strong. Perhaps I could have slowplayed some hands and picked up a few more bets. I even noticed other players doing it, too. Pushing all in with big hands, top pair, and then showing them after the other player folds, obviously proud of their play. I remember thinking, "this guy just lost a couple of bets". The guy who folded might have called a smaller bet, but on the other hand he might have hit a flush draw, too. To slowplay, or not to slowplay........ I did well with the blind steal move, throughout both tournaments. Continuation bets on the flop got me a quite a few pots, some with absolutely nothing. Pretty much what everybody else was doing I think. I hit the money, my hotel room was free, so I'm very happy with the weekend. I think a few minor adjustments to my game could really pay off.