I have never yet cashed in a MTT, I think I simply must not have the full range of skills required yet. WHat usually happens me is that I negotiate the early stages pretty well through playing tight. Sometimes I will double up when I catch a really good hand but mostly I make it to the middle places with an average amount of chips. Inevitably the blinds catch up with me and I'm forced to start making moves - I steal a few blinds, I win a showdown, and then finally my luck runs out and my all-in on AJ is called by a pocket pair that holds up. Meanwhile the people that go further than me are the ones that slammed all their chips in early on and got called by another couple of maniacs and took down a huge coinflip pot.

In your situation I think I'd have played KK the same way. You had the whole thing read right and just got rivered. Not that I think the other guy played wrong either. He is playing to steal chips and eliminate people and probably doesn't mind calling an all-in even when he may have the worst of it, because he can absorb the hit and make other people even more scared of pushing their chips at him. So, just an unfortunate result for you...