FYI Everyone: for live tourneys, $100 is not a high buy in at all; since the cheapest possible are usually $40-$50. Also, in a live tourney, the field is typically pretty soft at the $100 level.
$100 live = about $2.20 online (very rough approximate)
If you can afford the $100 it should be fun.
my advice for you to stop getting outkicked? easy....can you guess it? that's right...don't play hands that are easily dominated in the early levels.
so...yes, I am actually saying don't play AJ, KJ, QT, A9 etc in the early levels. These are lovingly known as trap hands, or trouble hands for a reason. IF you must play these do it with the raising lead and with position.
TRANSLATION: Don't call raises with trap hands. PERIOD...even if you'll have position. Don't open raise in early position with trap hands. You want BOTH the lead AND position to play trap hands in the early levels. Don't defend your blinds with trap hands, in fact there's really no point in defending your blinds at all in the early levels....yeah maybe with a suited ace or small pocket pair you can defend your blinds and try to flop a big hand or big draw...but mostly just DON'T.
so what SHOULD you play in the early levels? Value hands like JJ+ and AK, AQs and small pocket pairs to set mine. and that's about it. AQ is my cutoff for value hands in the early levels. Mid pocket pairs are pretty hard to play, too. real tricky. just play them like you're set mining and you should be OK.
When the antes come in, and/or the blinds get big widen your open raising requirements FROM late position, but not from early position.