Back to even 100NL

Ugh...last time I played was Friday night, and once again ran like crap, played pretty poorly, as well. I actually started off by stacking someone without even paying attention...one table up as I tweaked my PAHUD layout. But from there, I proceeded to drop 4.5 buy-ins over 1600 hands or so, leaving me up less than half a buy-in at 100NL.

Nothing went very well after that early hand, either from cards or my play. I got dealt a ton of PP's, but in 59 hands that went to a flop, I only got one set, and only got a continuation bet from my opponent out of it. A half dozen times, I successfully took MP and BP to valuetown on the flop and mostly turn, only to have them hit trips or two-pair on the river. Other people were hitting their good draws, but not me. All that crap happens, but where I really need to improve is taking those things in stride. I think I let it affect my game too much, and then I get frustrated that I let it affect my game, making things even worse.

My tilt has changed over the years, maybe as an evolution in my game as a whole, maybe because in general I approach NL (newer game for me) differently than Limit (which I used to play). I believe that in NL, when I'm having a cooler session, I get pretty weak/tight. All things considered, that beats what I used to do, which was to become a spewtard if I was tilting...I mean weak/tight is going to stop you from going completely busto, but obviously it's still unprofitable. The great thing about playing a weak/tightie is that you can run them over and avoid giving them action on their big hands. Well, that's exactly what was happening to me, even by some players I didn't think were all that good. Either that, or I just got unlucky to hit premium hands when everyone else had squat (which is certainly possible).

Here are some hands:

Hand 1:
Villain is a total unknown (33/13 /2.6 over 15 hands).

Full Tilt Poker, $0.50/$1 LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

Hero (UTG): $158.30
CO: $97.20
BTN: $76.10
SB: $96
BB: $117.15

Pre-Flop: Kd Jd dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $4, CO folds, BTN calls $4, 2 folds

Flop: ($9.50) 9c Th 3s (2 Players)
Hero bets $7, BTN raises to $14, Hero calls $7
I call his flop min-raise for implied odds, and I think it's fine. I don't think I can narrow his range a ton, since he's unknown, he can do this with a very wide range, IMO....sets, TP, a draw, even air, as the flop probably missed me as well.

Turn: ($37.50) 7d (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $10, Hero calls $10
I pick up a double-gutter on the turn, and he bets small. At this point, I think that I could have maybe checkraised all-in, as it's difficult for Tx to call, if that's what he was playing. If he has me beat, I now have a lot of outs, in any event. But, he gave me such good odds to just call and see if I hit, and I'm playing a little scared, so I elected to just call.

River: ($57.50) Js (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $48.10 and is All-In, Hero folds
I've played the hand to hit my draw. Yeah, I hit TP, but he also got there a lot of the time if he was semibluffing before. I think if he just had TP, or even 2 pair on this board, that he would likely just check behind, so my hand is a bluff catcher, IMO. I don't have the odds to snap a bluff on this board, so I pitch it.

Hand 2:
Another unknown....31/31 over 16 hands. I'm pretty sure here, but want to make sure I'm reasonable in a 3-bet pot OOP. Almost embarrassed to post/ask about it, but if I'm missing something, I better find out, since this comes up a lot.

Full Tilt Poker, $0.50/$1 LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

BTN: $97.25
Hero (SB): $106.95
BB: $40.25
UTG: $106.35

Pre-Flop: Qc Ah dealt to Hero (SB)
UTG folds, BTN raises to $3.50, Hero raises to $11.50, BB folds, BTN calls $8
Standard 3-bet

Flop: ($24) 2c 2d 6s (2 Players)
Hero bets $16, BTN calls $16
I assume here, without a read/history, it's make a c-bet and give up if called UI.

Turn: ($56) 4d (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $40, Hero folds

Hand 3:
Villain is 28/12/1.8. No direct history between us, but I have a somewhat LAG table image.

Full Tilt Poker, $0.50/$1 LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

SB: $149.85
BB: $100
UTG: $47.15
MP: $39.80
Hero (CO): $349.05
BTN: $57.10

Pre-Flop: Jc Tc dealt to Hero (CO)
UTG calls $1, MP calls $1, Hero calls $1, BTN folds, SB calls $0.50, BB checks

Flop: ($5) Th 4s 5d (5 Players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, MP bets $5, Hero raises to $15, SB calls $15, 3 folds

Turn: ($40) Jd (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $26.50, SB raises to $133.85 and is All-In, Hero calls $107.35
I put him on a made hand with his check/cold-call on the flop. When he pushes, I'm obviously worried about a set, and we're deep, but his WtSD is 41%, so he has to be getting there with some marginal hands. I made the call with top two and a poor image. Other than a set, I thought he could have a trappy overpair, a really poor Tx hand, possibly middle diamonds for a combo draw. I think of everything, his just smells like a set, and in fact my plan for the hand was bet and fold to a push, but I talked myself out of it.