[sweetjazz]

12ax:

It's good to hear you are working your way back up. Stay focused and be patient. To get over those plateaus as you describe them, you need two things:
(1) a big enough hand sample for skill to show -- even a good player can run bad for several tens of thousands of hands;
(2) continuing improvement in your game -- to me, the most important part of beating poker is understanding the mistakes your opponents are making and figuring out how to best exploit them.

Do *not* focus on whether others are pegging you right -- at least not at these limits. Chances are that they aren't, and even if they do know how you play, they likely won't adjust optimally anyway. Focus on observing their play carefully, and making the optimal adjustments against them. You could have A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] K [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] on a board that is K [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 7 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], with the 6 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] hitting the turn. Let's say you raised preflop and had several callers. You bet the flop and had just one caller. You bet the turn and he raises you.

Should you raise, call, or fold? The answer is that it depends. Against some maniacal opponents, you should raise him back, as you likely have the best hand. Against some more reasonable but still aggressive players, you are likely beaten but your odds for improving plus the possibility you are best (maybe he is aggressive enough he would raise K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] x [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]) make calling down best. Against some very passive opponents, the chances your opponent has a straight or set may be so high that you should just fold here.

So keep studying, and post your hands on the strategy forums. It looks like the microlimit forum is the place for you right now; many people (like myself) have started there and eventually moved up to small stakes and sometimes further.

Lastly, I should add a word of caution. You aren't anywhere near the point of being able to make a living off of Hold 'Em. You need a large bankroll and several months of expenses covered -- in addition to the skill needed to beat the higher limit games -- in order to be successfully professional. Ed Miller has written several great articles on that topic in the forum magazine, and I believe the articles are available on a webpage that he started. (Search the archives and you'll hopefully come across the link.)

Best wishes,
Mike