[-Oz-]

The fact that you are a LH player explains a lot. I, too, was a LH player until switching to the dark side a few years ago.

In short: when making the switch from LH to NLH, almost all hands go down in value in early position, but especially drawing type hands (like QJs) that are pretty reasonable starting hands in LH. The main problem is that it is so difficult to play them profitably out of position.

The difficulty arises from the player's ability to control the pot odds in NL. Since a "good" flop for a drawing hand is a draw (duh [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] ), when you are out of position, your opponents can price you off of it. And even when they don't, when you make your draw, it's usually obvious and it can be difficult to make anything substantial on it when your opponents have even 1/2 a clue.

Drawing hands play so much better in position (like most other hands) because now you can make semi-bluff plays to balance your game a little. Again, Ciaffone explains this much better than I could in his Pot Limit and No Limit Poker book. Highly recommended.

-Oz-