Help! Closing down leaks. (longish)

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So what's the problem here? You played it right and saved yourself a lot of money. You were the first raiser so you can put him on a high ace or a pair to call you depending on his style of play. Of course he can call with less. Flop kills you with the ace and with the ten. You put out a bet to see where your opponents stood and they told you. You had the worst hand. It happens.

I read a response a while ago that I thought made a good point. People tend to remember their beats more than their wins. That river that sucked out will drive you nuts while your driving home but the times when you sucked out will just be a pleasant memory.

I've been through the same streak that you are going through and my advice is just to examine yourself to see if you are falling into any discernible patterns. I found that I was not calling enough on all-in showdowns when I held a decent hand even if the pot odds weren't quite at the right level. In my $100NL game this was deadly. I was getting an image as someone who could be pushed off the pot. I made an effort to make that final call and was pleasantly surprised to see that I was winning the showdowns quite a bit more than I expected to. Plus I started getting back my rep as a good player. Of course this meant less all-in showdowns but I was then able to make plays earlier in the hand and win there.

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No problem on this one, but had the other player not been in the hand, I might have called down (though thinking back at it, I'd be quite surprised if the raiser couldn't beat AK. Different story than if I have TPTK or overpair... but I digress). I just worry about making the wrong decisions, the wrong reads, but I have to accept that this is a gambling game, and the times I call down and win big pots makes up for the times I call down and lose 2 bets.

No limit seems like a different monster entirely, which is why I don't like playing it unless it's a tournament situation. I'd be more likely to lay down these hands in the face of large bets. It's tough to call big bets with just 1 pair, but I guess that's what separates the men from the boys.

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We all worry about making the wrong decisions, wrong reads. If we didn't worry it wouldn't be a game of skill. If we just let luck decide who wins each hand then what's the point of playing. In the end it would all be split evenly among every player. That's why I love this game. Mano o mano. Can I read you better than you read me? Am I sure that your not trying a reverse tell? Or a reverse, reverse tell? LOL. This is why I like NL much, much more than limit. I used to play limit for years but finally decided to give NL a try at my B&M and it is a much more rewarding game mentally and money-wise. The nickname for limit is "no fold em hold em" and I've watched too may players follow me down that rabbit hole.