[HighStakesPro]

Hand #1 you played well, although a case could be made for raising on the river. The only two likely hands he ccould have that beat you are 33 and 44. This is a situation where observing your opponent helps. Sometimes players bet out of position into a bettor with surprisingly weak hands, and if you've seen him do that then you can raise him. However, calling is perfectly acceptable and if don't have a good read on your opponent then it's probably best.

Hand #2 can be played several different ways, but there's nothing wrong with the way you played it. Betting the turn is good because few players at that level are capable of raising with a worse hand thtan yours unless you happened to randomly catch them on tilt. On the river, checking is obviously correct in case he was slowplaying a straight, or just calling you with two pair, which he might now check.

Hand #3 I would have played differently, although it is likely that the result would have been the same. The main issue I have is that your play is inconsistent. If you're going to cap the flop and bet out, then you have to reraise to try and get the middle player to fold. However, I think you committ too much money this way. My preferred play is calling the preflop reraise (even though you probably have the best hand) and then checkraising the flop. If only the button calls (ideal), you can bet again on the turn and check-call on the river. If the button reraises and it's heads up, just call him down no matter what cards come. Remember, he could easily have a hand like KQ, QJ, or AT that you have dominated, and he'll probably bet anything. If you can't get the middle player out, you'll probably have to give the hand up. The goal in these situations is to get the pot heads up with the maniac, and this is best accomplished by just calling the preflop reraise (to keep the pot smaller) and then checkraise the flop, giving yourself the best chance of the pot getting heads up.

Hand #4 you played well, except you should have bet on the river. You can't worry about the backdoor flush possibility, and it's very unlikcly that he made trip threes on the river. He called a raise preflop and then raised your bet on the flop, and there are probably no hands with a single three in them that he would play that way. If anything, you might have outdrawn him if he had 87, 85, or 75.

I'm assuming that you lost the three hands that were shown down, and you probably would have lost a little more if you'd played them the way I suggested. That doesn't matter. Sometimes you will lose hands like that over the course of many sessions. A suggestion I can offer is to multi-table, say four 10-handed tables. I found this to be extremely helpful in minimizing the psychological damage that bad beats can have. If you get a bad beat on one table, you still have to concentrate on the other tables. It really helps to prevent you from playing badly when you get unlucky or start losing. Also, you usually won't know preceisly how much you are winning or losing at any given time, since you play more hands faster at multiple tables, so you don't subconsciously change your play because you know you're losing. Also, if you happen to get very unlucky at one table, or there are some players who call down every hand and annoy you because of their bad play, or whatever reason, you can just leave that table and sit in another one instead. Finally, it generally reduces your fluctuation because you effectively play four times as fast as normal.