Donkey Tourney Play

PartyPoker freeroll tourney qualifier for the $50,000 freeroll tourney. 510 players, top 32 get seats in the main tourney. I get down, triple up, get to last 50 or so players in 5th chip position. This is a classically stupid play on my part. I raise with AdKd, guy left of me (short stack) calls, bb raises all-in for 2/3 of my stack. There is absolutely no reason to call his raise regardless of any odds, etc. I doubt I would have had to play another hand and I would have qualified, but for some unknown reason I call his bet and the short stack calls. Short stack turns over QT, bb turns over JJ. Nothing hits for me (one diamond on the flop, all small cards), the turn and river don't get there, then I'm suddenly down to a short stack. I end up going out with second pair afterwards.

That is pretty disappointing to me as I really played well. Unlucky is one thing, but making a totally bonehead decision is something else.

I'm also having a very bad run with my simulator. I've been playing 30-table tourney and have gone 15 tourneys in a row without cashing, taking me now to a -EV for the 30-table tourneys. I'm still +EV due to being up on 12-table tourneys and SNG's, but I've got to fix the leaks. Some is due to luck/stupid play (I raise 4x bb, the bb calls with T3o and flops two pair taking down my QQ), some is lack of patience/tightness. I need to do some solid work if I have any chance to drive back into either online or live tourneys. The challenge with tourneys as I see it is that you have to cash to win, and you have to do very well to be +EV. I'm at $750 for the year in real tourney fees without cashing. That isn't alot of tourneys (maybe half a dozen), so I also need to increase my frequency at lower buy-in once I get back on the train.