5K Shorthanded

The field somehow ballooned to over 900 people for this 5K event. I am excited for any shorthanded event, but 1st place was getting over 1M. My table was suprisingly soft and despite getting bluffed out of a huge pot and being down to 9K (starting stack 15K) early, I ended up with about 30K at the first break. My table got progressively worse as the weaker players started to bust. I could never really get above 35K despite feeling like I was playing well. After 2nd break I started to 3 bet the medium stacks a bunch to get up to about 33K, then I opened with AKo UTG. The SB just ripped 33BB (19K) and I of course called. He showed 99 and he won the race without a sweat. I doubled up shortly after with AJ on a AJ8 board vs J8 to put me about where I was. Then I raised UTG with 88 and "Jesus" called me out of the BB. The flop was 1098 and he checked. I bet 60% pot and he raised 3x. I was scared that I was beat on that baord, but there was no other line I could take that made sense, so I shoved. He called quickly and showed 1010 for a bigger set. I needed the 8d, but only got a tease as the 9d hit the river.
My niece is in town, so I wont be playing much poker till Friday.

Justin "robert07" Young