Lol that is true poker passion, watching and playing poker at the same time. Crazy. How often do you do that and end up having the same hand as the player on tv? Funny I did that one night and ended up doing better then when I just normally get into a movie or tv series and loose focus. Might not be such a bad thing if your playing and learning at the same time...
Poker is such a random but very probability type game. Almost as confusing as women, you just never really know what's going on in the other player's mind but if you pay enough attention they might just give ya what ya want
( no I'm not sexiest and yes that was probably a very bad corny joke )
But it is true, the last poster hit some many nails on the head...
focus, pay attention to what players are what, and just be patient.
I think the hardest thing in Poker is making lay downs, hands that just temp you to call but seem to always run them pocket jacks deep stack into a bigger stack holding queens or kings, happened to me the other night when I was 10 people from being in the money...
Making it that far in a big tournament is not easy though and I comment you and that feet, winning one does also require some luck, getting them big hands late in the game and in position. Position is so important in this game. If you get that far that late in a tournament, I just do my best to conserve, one thing I try not to do a lot late game is limp in with mediocre hands then tend to get you caught more than they pay off sometimes. For example being in early position with a jack ten, suited or not suited, hands like that I tend to just let go when blinds are expensive and knowing even somebody with queen jack, king jack, ace jack, automatically have me dominated. Being aggressive really only pays off when nobody has a big hand and when everybody is playing tighter than leather pants. Pays off when you make a raise on the big blind and they call you and you hit the flop, when you get lucky like that it pays off but you could also try not playing in hands when there is more than just one opponent with a big stack involved in the hand, picking on smaller stacks that are more compelled to double up and not risk as many of your chips in the chance of knocking them out thus moving up in pay out place and in chips, unless your sure you have the nuts, then just don't hold back and get your chips in when your certain you have somebody beat. Typically, there are only a few hands I am certain to play and make big pre flop raises with late game, big stack or short stack, Aces(of course), Kings, Queens, and Ace King. I almost always feels comfortable calling an all in with those hands. Duh right. Hands like Ace Jack, Ace ten get me in a lot of trouble, I normally like to see a flop with those before I go all in unless I'm calling a short stack under 20% of my chip stack, more times than often a short stack will be quick to call or go all in with any pocket pair or any high ace. That's just what I seem to come across a lot anyways. But in general I try to play conservative when in early position and somewhat freely in late position or if somebody raises just under 2 or 3 times the big blind when I'm in small or big blind, if the hand is reasonable enough, small pair or two face cards suited or not suited, good chance the flop will hit you good enough to continue the hand. Play it hand by hand and take your time.
Sorry about the long reply, I just got done playing a free role and got deep stacked just to loose when I had King Queen and was all in after loosing to a bad beat. My bad.