I've gone through the same questions in my head. While I can't yet say I'm a consistent/winning player, This is what I came up with and has helped me

1) My mental state. I spend a lot of time in hotels and play after work because its my only entertainment. Problem is I'm exhaused and don't always give full concentration. All I was doing was playing my own cards and when you only play your own cards, the very best you can do is break even.

2) I tilted. We've all taken those beats. There are a lot worse stores too, believe me. Amidst a losing run, whenever i took a beat, i sunk into the "This can't happen to me again" mentality and kept chucking in my chips only never to come back.

3) Game Selection. Some games are VERY tough. if few people see each flop and few pots go unraised preflop, its a tough game. Also, If you think everbody is always bluffing, Leave the table!

4) Review your hand history's a day or two after a session You will discover some problems.

5) Stop playing marginal hands. You want winning hands, not good second best hands.

Another thing is you need to get the visualization of what a winning session/run looks like. Simply put you have to save bets/win extra bets. Look at the win rates people post here. Mostly Single digits for 100 hands.

By simply not calling two river bets out of a hundred hands, you could increases your win rate 2BB/100 hands. Me, I've begun thinking of win rates as I do my golf score. Mostly trying to save strokes and then lick my chops when I get a wide fairway and unprotected green [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Hope my own observations & visualization helps...