[M.B.E.]

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As players arrived, I watched them carefully and was able to get a pretty good read on them before a hand was even played.

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I don't believe you could get a "pretty good read" on all your opponents just from observing them before the cards are dealt. I'll concede there might be some small correlation between a player's general appearance, ethnic ancestry, etc. and their style of play, but it really is only a small correlation. Based on your post, you treat that information as more important than how they actually play their cards!

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This gave him an early 13000+ chips and the ability to start pushing the rest of the table around.

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Huh? With blinds at 25/50 and most players having 10K or so, why would an extra 3K allow this guy to push the rest of the table around?

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hand 2:
blinds 25/50
my stack: ~9000

I then picked up 79h in the CO. Action folded around to me. I raised to 200 attempting to steal. Folds to sweden in BB, he calls.

Flop 348 rainbow. he checks, I make a continuation bet of 250, he calls.

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With stacks so deep, your continuation bet needs to be larger. On that flop, when you bet 250 into the 425 pot, your opponent can at least call you with whatever two cards he called your preflop raise with. You should bet around 400.

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Turn J. he checks again. I thought about taking another stab but decided to instead take the free card and try to hit my inside straight draw.

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Checking here is okay.

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River Q. he checks. I felt a bet would be an obvious steal attempt, and if he called me on the flop, he could call again, so I checked, and mucked to his 55.

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The queen on the river is a great card for you considering that you raised preflop. When he checks, you need to bet, something like 2/3 the pot. There are lots of hands he could have that he will fold to the river bet.

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I dont think I really misplayed this hand either. Maybe I should have taken a second stab on the turn or river but at this point i was down about 1700 chips so I decided to try to preserve my stack.

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In other words you decided to play conservatively because you were "stuck"?

If you're saying that you would have bluffed the river had your stack been 11,700 rather than 8,300, what is the possible rationale for that?

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hand 3:
Blinds 50/100
my stack: ~8200

Sweden limps UTG. folds to CO. CO raises to 400. I look down at AQs on the button. I called because the CO had raised a few previous flops and folded on the flop to action. Sweden calls.

Flop 5h6c7s. Pot: 1350
Sweden checks, CO checks, I check.
Turn 10s. Sweden bets 600. I call.
River 2h. Sweden bets 1200. I fold.

My mistake here was on the flop. There were 2 checks to me, I had called knowing the CO folded when he missed the flop and I didnt bet it. A bet of about 600 probably would have won me the pot right there with not much risk. I had to call on the turn with 2 overs and the nut flush draw, and I had to fold the river; but if I made a mistake, it was on the flop and not preflop.

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This is an interesting hand. Reraising preflop would have been okay but calling was also reasonable. I agree that you should have bet the flop when they checked to you. On the turn, when Sweden bet I assume that CO folded? If so, I think you can put in a raise here. Normally with the nut flush draw you wouldn't make a semibluff raise like that in NL because of the possibility of being reraised, but here your opponent won't reraise without a straight (which is unlikely). Most likely he just has one pair. I think if you raise to 1800 or so on the turn, he will usually fold right there. If he does call you have several outs to the nuts plus overcard outs which might be good. If you don't hit a flush on the river, then just check behind.