A Tale of Two (Badly Played) Hands

Played for 45 minutes last night. I made about a hundred bucks overall, but was not terrible pleased with myself when I shut it down and went to bed. Two hands illustrate my discontent with myself:

Hand #1:
Merge, $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 5 Players
CO: $8.08 (32.3 bb)
BTN: $35.60 (142.4 bb)
SB: $25 (100 bb)
Hero (BB): $25.10 (100.4 bb)
MP: $60.64 (242.6 bb)
Preflop: Hero is BB with 8 7
MP calls $0.25, 3 folds, Hero checks
Flop: ($0.60) 5 9 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.45, MP calls $0.45
Turn: ($1.50) 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $1.12, MP calls $1.12
River: ($3.74) A (2 players)
Hero bets $3.74, MP raises to $7.48, Hero raises to $21.50, MP raises to $58.82 and is all-in, Hero calls $1.78 and is all-in
Results: $50.30 pot ($2 rake)
Final Board: 5 9 6 9 A
Hero showed 8 7 and lost (-$25.10 net)
MP showed A A and won $48.30 ($23.20 net)

My re-raise on the river was horrible. Hell, just calling the villain's first raise on the river should be questionable. This is a classic case of getting married to a hand on the flop and then ignoring board texture and what the opp's betting is trying to tell me later in the hand. (And for what it's worth, the villain played this hand pretty horribly, too. Slow-playing rockets is usually negative EV.)

Hand #2
Merge, $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.
UTG: $54.44 (108.9 bb)
MP: $50 (100 bb)
CO: $70.11 (140.2 bb)
Hero (BTN): $97.50 (195 bb)
SB: $14.50 (29 bb)
BB: $109.61 (219.2 bb)
Preflop: Hero is BTN with 3 4
UTG raises to $1.50, MP folds, CO calls $1.50, Hero calls $1.50, 2 folds
Flop: ($5.25) 6 5 7 (3 players)
UTG checks, CO bets $3.93, Hero raises to $10.48, UTG folds, CO raises to $27.95, Hero raises to $96 and is all-in, CO calls $40.66 and is all-in
Turn: ($142.47) 8 (2 players, 2 are all-in)
River: ($142.47) A (2 players, 2 are all-in)
Results: $142.47 pot ($3.00 rake)
Final Board: 6 5 7 8 A
UTG mucked and lost (-$1.50 net)
CO showed 7 7 and lost (-$70.11 net)
Hero showed 3 4 and won $139.47 ($69.36 net)

To be honest, I don't completely hate my play here, but getting it all in on a 4bet with the idiot end of a straight will certainly get the heart pumping. I put the opp on made sets (which I have beaten pretty solidly) and a bigger straight (which obviously ain't good). There were more sets in his range than straights, so I went with it on the flop. Not horrible, but folding on the flop isn't really horrible either. Seriously.

All-in for now...
-Bug