[rainman3000]

Long time reader, first time poster.

I played in two live tournaments this weekend (85 and 126 players) and out of 14 hours worth of hands I am kinda frustrated but don't want to think I am going crazy.

My frustration stems from getting beat by AK while holding pocket pairs 5 times, and each time was for a good portion of my chips.

Did I play the following scenarios wrong or is it just a case of bad luck.

Hand 1 - down to 17 players (8 at my table)and I have the chip lead at my table. I am on the button and blinds are 300/600. Two callers between the blinds and me and I have about a 2 to 1 cheap lead over both of the blinds. I push on KK and SB folds, BB thinks about it and calls. Two callers fold. We flip and he shows AK. Catches the A on the river to knock me down.

Hand 2 - down to 9 players and I am about 5th in chips. I am UTG with 500/1000 blinds. The top two in chips are LP (one on the button). I push with QQ and button calls. He flips AK and catches an A on the turn.

Hand 3 - Early in tournament and I am on the button and hold about a 3 to 1 chip lead over the big blind. Folds all the way around and I raise 5 times the big blind with KK. BB check raises all in (only 3 times the big blind to call). I call. He's holding AK and catches it on the turn.

Hand 4 (I think this was my worse play) - Down to 70 players and the series leader is on the button. He is a very shifty player and at this point I have been playing real tight. I have about 200 more chips then him and he has tried to steal the last few blinds. Blinds are 50/100 and I am the SB with pocket 10s. Everyone folds and he rasies to 200. I waste little time and push. (We are awarded points for our fineshes as well as the tournament payouts, so it would be very good for the rest of the players if he was to go out early, my thought while pushing was he may be more worried about the series points and would fold). He waits a while and calls with the dreaded AK, catches it on the river.

Hand 5 - Last hand found me and my small stack (420) UTG and I catch pocket 4s. Push all in and button calls. SB and BB call. The other three check to the river where an A hits the board. While they are betting I start packing up my bags fearing the worse and sure enough the button pushes to clear out the blinds and flips AK.

Now to be fair I can honestly say I had AK about 20 times and hit a winner with it maybe 3 or 4 times when it came to a showdown.