[Octopus]

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- I notice that a large portion of my losses are to straights. Some were to straights I simply didn't see and have become better about noticing them. More recently I get burned a lot by people making straights on garbage hands. People that will make their straight and then still play passively through the hand. How can I approach this problem I have?

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Realize that those people who catch unlikely straights with garbage hands are usually paying you off with garbage. Realize that everytime your passive opponent fails to get that extra bet out of you, he has saved you money. Don't save him money in the reverse situation.

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- One area of play that I have never seemed to figure out is what to do when I have called pre-flop and then there is a raise behind me. If it's a hand I would only want to call with and would not cold call a raise, should I not be calling the raise after having called one bet?

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I will always call for one more bet. (Two more bets is another matter.) However, if there is a lot of pre-flop raising going on, tighten up in early/mid position to avoid this situation.

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- Finally, my biggest question is playing pot odds. Basically, can someone be a profitable player without playing the pot odds down to the number? When I'm playing a draw I usually call a bet when I feel that there are probably sufficient odds. I realize that I will need to be somewhat precise on this if I want to be a good player, but can a player be profitable without being precise on these odds? Namely, I'm wondering if a large hole in my game is not being precise and keeping track of the odds.

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If you have the mentality of "big pot, call; small pot, fold", you probably do not have a big leak. Having said that, learn the odds for the most common draws. (approximately: two outs = 22-1, four outs = 11.5-1, five outs = 8.2-1, eight outs = 5-1, nine outs = 4-1, more than nine outs = almost always call.) More difficult is learning to count your outs and realizing when some of them might make someone else a bigger hand (and so should be discounted).

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I realize that probably the best thing is to play more hands. Lots more hands. But I would greatly appreciate any advice to help me along as I go.

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As bison said, post some hands. Thinking about your play is worth at least as much as playing (especially after you have played a few thousand hands).