This got the table afraid of me

I arrived to the tourney twenty minutes late. Folded two junk hands, but saw a lot of preflop aggression in them. Which made me feel good about getting these two hands next, back to back.

------HAND 1------
Game #41818093: Texas Hold'em No Limit (25/50) - 2004/06/20 - 18:50:10 (EST)
Table "$500FREE52926 - 21" Seat 5 is the button.
Seat 1: ciravola (1950 in chips)
Seat 2: elbrown (2980 in chips)
Seat 3: dsoul (910 in chips)
Seat 4: rural (1670 in chips)
Seat 5: liger83 (2305 in chips)
Seat 6: -Casino- (965 in chips)
Seat 7: mike1123 (1470 in chips)
Seat 8: mexico70 (2615 in chips)
Seat 9: kompot (1870 in chips)
Seat 10: WebEz sits out
-Casino-: posts small blind 25
mike1123: posts big blind 50
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to mike1123 :ah: :ac:
mexico70: folds
kompot: folds
WebEz: folds
WebEz sits back
ciravola: folds
elbrown: calls 50
dsoul: calls 50
rural: folds
liger83: raises to 2305 and is all-in
-Casino-: folds
mike1123: is all-in 1420 (after a long delay worthy of an Oscar - too bad no one else joined in)
elbrown: folds
dsoul: folds
Returned uncalled bets 835 to liger83
----- FLOP ----- :8c: :6d: :ad:
----- TURN ----- :8c: :6d: :ad: :as:
----- RIVER ----- :8c: :6d: :ad: :as: :2s:
----- SHOW DOWN -----
liger83: shows :9d: :9h: (Two Pairs, Aces and Nines, Eight high)
mike1123: shows :ah: :ac: (Four of a kind, Aces)
mike1123 collected 3065 from Main pot



------HAND 2------
Game #41820223: Texas Hold'em No Limit (25/50) - 2004/06/20 - 18:51:14 (EST)
Table "$500FREE52926 - 21" Seat 6 is the button.
Seat 1: ciravola (1950 in chips)
Seat 2: elbrown (2930 in chips)
Seat 3: dsoul (860 in chips)
Seat 4: rural (1670 in chips)
Seat 5: liger83 (835 in chips)
Seat 6: -Casino- (940 in chips)
Seat 7: mike1123 (3065 in chips)
Seat 8: mexico70 (2615 in chips)
Seat 9: kompot (1870 in chips)
Seat 10: WebEz sits out
mike1123: posts small blind 25
mexico70: posts big blind 50
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to mike1123 :jh: :jc:
kompot: folds
WebEz: folds
WebEz sits back
ciravola: folds
elbrown: calls 50
dsoul: raises to 860 and is all-in
rural: folds
liger83: folds
-Casino-: folds
mike1123: calls 835
mexico70: folds
elbrown: calls 810
----- FLOP ----- :3d: :8c: :7h:
mike1123: bets 1000
elbrown: folds
Returned uncalled bets 1000 to mike1123
----- TURN ----- :3d: :8c: :7h: :ad:
----- RIVER ----- :3d: :8c: :7h: :ad: :jd:
----- SHOW DOWN -----
mike1123: shows :jh: :jc: (Three of a kind, Jacks, Ace high)
dsoul: shows [7s 7d] (Three of a kind, Sevens, Ace high)
mike1123 collected 2630 from Main pot

Very lucky river after a very unlucky flop.

Interesting hand a while after that, mainly because of the play of the other big stack in this hand, and the utter trash that the small stack played with. No wonder he had no chips.

Game #41861603: Texas Hold'em No Limit (75/150) - 2004/06/20 - 19:12:36 (EST)
Table "$500FREE52926 - 21" Seat 5 is the button.
Seat 1: pitou3333 (845 in chips)
Seat 2: LIBBY (810 in chips)
Seat 3: stevey57 (4110 in chips)
Seat 4: rural (7375 in chips)
Seat 5: AngelEys (740 in chips)
Seat 6: bill16279 (1430 in chips)
Seat 7: mike1123 (4760 in chips)
Seat 8: mexico70 (3985 in chips)
Seat 9: Tacoman50 sits out
Seat 10: WebEz sits out
mike1123: posts small blind 75
mexico70: posts big blind 150
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to mike1123 :jc: :ac:
Tacoman50: folds
Tacoman50 sits back
WebEz: folds
WebEz sits back
pitou3333: calls 150
LIBBY: folds
stevey57: folds
rural: folds
AngelEys: folds
mike1123: raises to 500 (this is the type of pressure I constantly apply when I'm the big stack at a table)
mexico70: calls 350
pitou3333: calls 350
----- FLOP ----- :5c: :jd: :6c: (the dream flop, top pair and the flush draw)

mike1123: bets 500 (purposely bet exactly what my preflop raise was, to not show strength)
mexico70: raises to 3485 and is all-in
pitou3333: is all-in 345
mike1123: calls 2985
----- TURN ----- :5c: :jd: :6c: :9c:
----- RIVER ----- :5c: :jd: :6c: :9c: :qc:
mexico70 sits out
----- SHOW DOWN -----
mexico70: shows :as: :2h: (High Card Ace)
pitou3333: shows :5h: :2c: (A Flush, Queen high)
mike1123: shows :jc: :ac: (A Flush, Ace high)
mike1123 collected 6280 from Main pot
mike1123 collected 2535 from Side pot

... Ok, I've posted some nice hands. Now I'll post one of my worst played hands of all time, possibly. Completely misread the opponent (put him on A high kicker and that he assumed I was bluffing), and got burned really really badly for trying to pressure him out of the pot. Way too much aggression on my part, especially since I was near the leaders of the tourney in chips. One or two bets at this pot should've been enough for me, but I knew no card on that board helped the guy ... anyway ... onto my torture ...

Game #41880653: Texas Hold'em No Limit (100/200) - 2004/06/20 - 19:24:30 (EST)
Table "$500FREE52926 - 21" Seat 7 is the button.
Seat 1: Sasuke4 (2780 in chips)
Seat 2: LIBBY (135 in chips)
Seat 3: stevey57 (6540 in chips)
Seat 4: rural (8300 in chips)
Seat 5: AngelEys (780 in chips)
Seat 6: Brann (2345 in chips)
Seat 7: mike1123 (10240 in chips)
Seat 8: hedleyuk (8445 in chips)
Seat 9: BillyBudd sits out
Seat 10: WebEz sits out
WebEz: posts small blind 100
WebEz: folds
WebEz sits back
Sasuke4: posts big blind 200
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to mike1123 :ac: :5c:
Brann sits out
LIBBY: folds
stevey57: calls 200
rural: folds
AngelEys: folds
Brann: folds
Brann sits back
mike1123: raises to 600
Sasuke4: folds
stevey57: calls 400
----- FLOP ----- :8h: :2d: :2h: (obviously think he has nothing here - he wasn't on the blind, shouldn't have an 8 or 2. He didn't raise preflop, so I don't think he has a pocket pair. I assume he calls because he doesn't believe I have anything)
stevey57: checks
mike1123: bets 600
stevey57: calls 600
----- TURN ----- :8h: :2d: :2h: :8s: (now I'm assuming we have a split, with the A kicker - for some reason I read that big call as a great read on me with his Ax, but this should've been the tip off. Very big bet, and he calls it with A high I'm assuming)
stevey57: checks
mike1123: bets 1500
stevey57: calls 1500 (long delay)
----- RIVER ----- :8h: :2d: :2h: :8s: :2s: (here I was literally 100% sure it was a split. I had been betting like I had an 8 or a high pocket pair anyway, so I figured I may as well pressure the hell out of him and see if I can get him to lay his half down)
stevey57: checks
mike1123: bets 3840
stevey57: calls 3840 and is all-in (long delay)
----- SHOW DOWN -----
mike1123: shows :ac: :5c: (A Full House, Twos full of Eights)
stevey57: shows :ks: :kd: (A Full House, Twos full of Kings)
stevey57 collected 13380 from Main pot

And yay, I feel like a total jackass. I feel like Amir Vahedi must've felt like after the final table of the 2003 WSOP. (OK, I don't feel as bad as he must've felt, but I feel as dumb as he must've felt)

But still ... I can't believe he was checking KK there, preflop and at the flop especially. A hand like mine easily could've given him a bad beat because of all of his checking. I wouldn't have even called preflop if he minimum-raised it. But what can I say ... his strange strategy obviously worked here ...

After the hand he did say that he felt sure I had AA, but unfortunately he didn't lay his kings down. What good is a bluff if you can convince someone you got them beat, but can't convince them not to call, just to make sure?

I did win the next hand with AK though, from the same guy that sadly didn't assume I was bluffing again. I still nearly have an average size stack, even though I gave away a ton of chips. Tightening my play up now ... although limping in with 72 off would be tighter than that last retarded hand of mine.

Edit: Finished 10 spots out of the money. Not hard to see which hand changed the momentum for me here ...