Not satisfying "Limit" 300 player tournament

I won a $165 buy-in to a Limit tournament (I thought it was Pot Limit until I actually sat down at the table) and was not satisfied with the play at all.

How do you play LIMIT tournaments and increase your chances of winning?

ITM top 30 out of 300 players, top prize $13,500

I played very tight in the first 1-4 levels....when blinds were insignificant, to conserve my chips. ...started with 4000 chips, levels raise every 20 min.

Then played these exact hands like A,A, K,K, A,K, A,Q, T,T (in any position) K,Qs, 7,7 A,7s J,10s K,10s in late position...blinded away with final cards 8,9o to UTGs Q,Q.

When I played the premium hands, I raised preflop and got called every single time.

Out of 2.5 hours of play, our table saw approximately 90-100 hands and I played 11 of them. The only 3 hand that held up were my A,A K,K K,10 (as per the list above you can count exactly the 11 hands I played. Other than those hands, the rest I got dealt were all unsuited and unconnected.

When I was in early position with A,Q and it didn't flop I checked and the other player would bet and I would fold or I would call and see one more bet if the board didn't look scary.

When I did pair up on the flop with the A on two different times, I bet all the way to the river and each time got rivered with once a straight, once 2 pair, one of my Aces..I believe it was A,Q didn't flop at all and there was a mid straight draw on the board.

Limit has never been my game, so I wasn't sure how I was suppose to play it.

The blinds kept going up every 20 minutes and I got pushed out/blinded away when the blinds got to 300/600

My last hand I was on the Big Blind with 8,9o and had 1400 left after blinding. UTG raises and everyone folds, including SB so it's Heads UP. I've got the BB bet in, I have just over 1 BB and 1 SB left if I fold now, the blinds will raise to 400/800 after this last turn, I call her raise and put in another 600...now I've got 800 left. It flops with an open ended straight (2,10,7) for me, I check, UTG bets 600, I call, I have 200 remaining, turn comes 10, I check she bets, I call with my remaining 200, she flips over Q,Q and they hold and I am out.

Got out in about 250th place.

I left feeling like I could not control my fate?
Maybe in that last play, I should have just folded Headsup my BB and saved my 1400 for another potential 10 hands before the blinds got to me again instead of calling her raise. I thought she was raising to bluff me out of my 8,9o because she was low chipped too but a bit ahead of me. Maybe if I'd folded something better may have come up within the next 10 hands.

Is there a way to play a "Limit" tournament successfully?

Vegas Cat

Read anything the master Fpaul has posted about limit. Do a search on his posts. He will help you immensly.

Limit's just a lot of luck really, when the blinds go up that fast.

I would however encourage you to steal the blinds more from late position with a very wide range of hands.

Work out who the tight and loose players are, bluff the tight ones and value bet the loose ones.

Also it sounds like you were probably playing a bit too tight with that hand selection. You probably need to take some risks to progress.

Obviously you can try some online Limit S+Gs for practice.

Not sure however why anyone would really want to play limit though as it's about as interesting as observing wet paint imho.