Interesting Omaha8 tournament hand & other stuff

Played an Omaha8 tournament tonight sponsored by a certain (non poker) message board I frequent. I was playing pretty tight, not getting many hands and saying afloat. Started out with 1500, I had 1685 chips at the 4th level with blinds at 50/100 going into this hand.

I was in the CO with AKQT. Folded to the player to my right with about the same stack as me, who limps in. I had considered open raising, but with a high-only hand and a limper who I thought might call, I didn't want to build a big pot preflop with a high only hand. I elect to limp behind and the SB, a solid player who has me covered completes, and the BB a donk with 818 left, checks. Flop comes down AQ2, giving me top two and a gutshot redraw. SB bets out 200 into the 400 pot. BB calls, MP player folds. At this point I liked my hand. I had top two and the possible low hands that came in (A2, A3) have been counterfeited. Therefore I thought the most likely holding for SB was a naked A2. I didn't take too much stock in BB's call, as he was calling with almost anything. 

With the likely best holding at this point, I pushed the action, raising the pot to 1300. The SB thinks for a few seconds and puts me all-in. The BB calls off his remaining 618. With only 285 left, easy call for me.

SB shows up with KJA2 for the A2 but also a club draw, gutterball, and K for a draw to a higher two pair. BB shows up with a wonderful hand, 7945 for a wheel draw and the only low draw. Against the SB only it would be a coinflip, but the BB turns out to have the best hand and he has about 50% equity to the my and the BB's 25% each. Turn comes the 6, giving BB the low, and the river is the 9, eliminating me. 

I think I made the right play there, but of course any and all discussion welcome. Obviously in these there is a lot of gambling, but in a cash game I think I would have pushed this hand hard as well.

In other news the UB WSOP steps are not going very well. Have tried it 3 times, never making it past level two. In the last tournament I played (level 1), I had AA, raised it up, got reraised, put in a 3rd raise, got called, and flop came K-9-2, put it all-in, and lost to 22. I'm starting to wonder if these tournaments are worth the effort. If I want to play in the WSOP this year, I'm playing. I have the money to buy into one of the $1500 events, and vacations to Vegas are pretty cheap. On Expedia I can get a round trip flight from Boston to Las Vegas and 4 nights at the Rio for $500. Pretty sweet deal. 

At this point it's a consideration. The question is if I'm going am I just essentially blowing two grand on this endeavor? Am I going to go out there and play solid poker or am I going to either spew off my chips or let the table run me over? I guess at least if I get knocked out on day 1 though I have a few days to try to win some of it back in the side games. I still have a few months to think about it, so I'll see what happens in the coming weeks/months.

Finally, I signed up for Full Tilt through an affiliate and got $50 free dollars without having to put up any money of my own. If I get 1000 full tilt points, I'll receive another $50 (and then another $50 after that for the next thousand). I know most people would probably say it's better to put up my own deposit and get the 100% bonus and rakeback, but nah. I'll take the free money any day. I don't really play enough where rakeback would benefit me (in fact I signed up for it at UB along with a $250 bonus which I had to clear before receiving RB and I got through about $60 of the bonus). 

So I'm thinking about the best way to clear the bonus. Might actually do PL O8 because of the big pots. I get 1 point for every $1 raked, and sometimes FT runs "happy hour" where the points double. Had a few minutes earlier today and just sat at a few tables, didn't realize they were PL hold'em but went with it. Made about $7 shortstacking PL$50 in the 20 minute session and earned about 20 points. Would be nice to run this up to a few hundred and get a bankroll going again.