can't break through

Haven't had much luck since moving up to the $30 tourneys. Granted, it's still early. 6 tournies played, only 1 3rd place finish. Sharkscope does tell me that there are more good players at the tables, but not exclusively good players. I should be able to avoid them and take advantage of the bad players that remain to get into the money more often.

Played two tournies last night and didn't money in either. In the first, I chased a few draws where my odds where ok to do so, but neither hit, and I found myself the shortstack. An aggro player raised me and I reraised all in with KQs. He had AT and hit and ace to knock me out.

In the second, a combination of bad cards and a maniac 3 seats to me right had me playing just about nothing. (my stats were 6/3 after 70 hands). Finally got AA, 3 bet a raiser, he calls, flop comes J crap crap, I checkraise his butt, he turns over JJ. Ooops. Well, there's no way I get away from that - I was the old 4-1 favorite and he hits his set with my M at about 8 or 9. I could have shoved preflop but he probably calls anyway.

So I don't think I'm outclassed at this level, just some early bad luck.

I also played in a $20-18 man this weekend and took second. Sharkscope said that 8-9 of the players were fishies, and it sure looked that way. The whole tourney took about 100 minutes, just a few minutes more than a 9 man takes.