Reality check, please... (long)

Been playing LLHE for about three months now. Realized very early that playing the "right" starting hands, leading all the way to the river only to lose to a runner-runner flush (or whatever, sevens full of threes that UTG shows down) is the nature of the beast. Still am walking the line between whining about it and gritting my teeth and moving on... but that sounds like a personal problem :-). Anyway...


Took an absolute pounding over the last couple days, and it left me rattled. Decided to play stud for a change of pace, lost a lot of money, but that's b/c I wasn't prepared. Not enough experience with the game. That's my fault. Here's where I need your thoughts. I decided to go back to HE for my last session before heading home. Maybe shouldn't have been playing at all, considering I was pretty dazed and confused over my losses at stud, but played anyway. I lost a rack (just white, thankfully...) in two hours, got up and walked away. Two hands stuck out on the drive home. Please critique, and help me figure out if they were bad beats or bad play:


First one: in SB with 58c, decided to call since there were three limpers and didn't expect a raise from the BB (he didn't). Flop comes 5 8 3, two diamonds, one heart. I bet out, a couple callers, button raises, I call, everyone else folds. Turn is another rag, black. I check-call. River is an overcard, but no diamond, so I check-call again. Button shows trip threes. Please rate my play.


Next one: late position with AQo. Early position raise, call from MP (very loose-aggressive), I call, BB calls. Flop comes A Q rag, two spades. BB checks to the raiser, he bets out, MP calls, I raise, BB folds, EP reraises, MP calls, I call. Turn comes a K, no spade. EP bets out, MP raises, I go all in (this was the end of my stack), those two continue raising/reraising. I don't even remember what the river was, except that it wasn't a spade. Help here, please. When the K hits and MP reraises instead of calls, I'm thinking AK, a set or J10. Any of these I've got two outs, A or Q depending. I decide I might as well "go broke" here if I'm going to at all, thus the call. Anyway, EP shows down a set of Queens, MP mucks (so no KK or J10), I turn over my AQ, say "nice hand, good luck everyone," and I'm gone. Final note on EP: this is a guy who earlier had bet *into me* all the way to the river with pocket sevens while there was an Ace and two clubs on board from the flop. I had AJc and took the pot. Final note on the hand: if it were up to me, there'd be no bad-beat jackpots, but there are. On the turn, with an A K Q showing, I'm then getting 357-1 for my call b/c of the potential jackpot. Is that a legitimate factor in calling or not?


I posted my first question here a couple weeks ago, and got lots of great input (which I was able to use to drag one of the few pots I *won* in this particular session :-). Please give me your thoughts on these two hands, and lemme know whether I could have saved a bet or two, or whether this is all part of the game... I need to know whether to hit the books again or just take some deep breaths and go on. I wasn't making a big bet an hour yet, but at least I was up for the year before this (despite the whining...)


Thanks again.

1st hand reraise the flop to try to get it HU. though the draws will come anyway, still a good move. maybe even checkraise here. that way they dont have money in yet and have to call 2 cold.

or wait til the turn and see what comes, then c/r if its a blank. though you likely woulda got reraised on the turn also. i prefer the flop play.


2nd

i may have folded AQos here preflop. with the MP cold calling you may be on the lower end of the hand comparison scale. suited i wouldve called. but AQos sucks multi. depends on raiser and caller though. but even bad players will raise with a better hand in EP than AQ unless theyre loose raisers.


but if your gonna play it, reraise it preflop. get players behind you to fold and test the waters early. if original bettor or caller caps, you know you need alot of help on the flop. if they call you still may be looking at AK. the AQ on flop trapped ya.


about the AJ hand...i hope you at least bet/raised the river. to get a flop ya want just to call it down and never bet it is as 'KJS' likes to type..weak poker. if they have a JP hand, theyll be calling anyway. if its HU, play it as a HU hand, not a draw. put the pressure on and take control.


just some ideas...


b

First hand--seems pretty well, if cautiously played. I think you could probably stand to be a bit more aggressive, even if it would have cost you in this case. An overpair is almost certainly raising here, so it seems early to go into check-call mode. I would probbaly have reraised on the flop, and if he came back at me go back into check-call mode. As an added bonus, the show of strength on the flop may save you a turn bet.


AQ, seems like you played okay. I think it made sense to get the bets in there when you have top two pair. Sucks that you ran into a set of queens, but, well, you had outs, and I wouldn't have considered mucking in any case except against opponents who I knew would only call those early raises with AK or better.

Not folding AQo in spots like this is too loose.