Bad Mistakes and Bad Beats

I'm in one of those incredible runs of bad beats (all-in and get a call with an INSIDE straight draw type of thing) that seem to happen once or twice a month. If I could just figure when those runs were gonna come, I could take a few nights off instead. ;-) I've been bubbling a lot lately (including the Thursday UB rebuy).

But, let me be honest, I've made two bad plays recently as well. Of course, I'm sure I've had more than two, but these two hurt. I think a lot of players, including myself, tend to right stuff off to bad beats and no cards, but if you don't recognize the bad plays, how can you improve?

One occurred in a $100. I was in early position with 10 10 and raised. Got two callers (so the pot is building nicely) then a strong player in the BB re-raised. Maybe BECAUSE he was a strong player, I thought it was a simple squeeze play. I called and the flop is rags under 10. Now, at this point in the tournament I had plenty of chips (it was a bit early but I had already chipped up). The BB bet 1100 or so. I really thought he was squeezing away and probably had a good ace. I reraised allin and he calls and flips JJ. So bad read, bad play.

Then in another $100, I get AK off in middle position. Again I was doing fine having chipped up a bit but it was very early in the tournament. I raise maybe a 30 chip BB to 105. Legggggy, the great one, flat calls, and the big blind goes all-in for 880 chips. I had more chips than leggy and wanted to isolate, so I re-raised all-in. Here is the greatness of leggggggy. He calls and flips KK. BB flips AA and I'm screwed. I think Legggggy's flat call preflop of my raise was a terrific trap. It's early and he can get a way from an ace if it falls on a flop, and he can trap me if I have JJ or QQ. Late in a tournament, I'm sure he reraises with KK but early on he was looking for a big pot. The AA holds up and leggggggy does fine with my chips. I'm down to nothing, eventually build back up to 800 but can't win that one more pot to get some room.

So, I guess that reraise to isolate is an okay idea but I was trapped nicely. I need to be smarter that early in the tournament. I was also five tabling at the time and I'm just NOT good at that. I've been chipping up well recently, so I should pick spots that to continue that, instead of risking it all on a draw, which is all AK is. Bad read, bad play.

The only save of the night was winning a satellite seat into Sunday's $200.

Good luck today!