Found my game again

The losses continued after my last post and at the low of my week I was almost $1200 in the hole. It wasnt until Friday night that I changed my game and over the next 3 days realized once again what my "game" is. I tightened up PF, didnt call raises with suited connectors nor did I limp in EP with them. I have also decided to stop playing 34s from now on. They practically never hit and I am sick of spending $2 on them. I also stopped raising so aggressively with AQ/AQs. On the flip side I raised a lot more aggressively with AA/KK and sometimes QQ after someone elses raise. If I am first in with those hands (as well as AK) its the SPFR of 4xBB. If there has been 1 or more limpers before me with AK I raise to 5xBB and up. That is, 1 limper 5xbb, 2 limpers 6xBB and so on, up to a max. of 7.5xBB's. If I had AA/KK and lets say someone raised to $8 with a caller I would raise it up to $25. I sometimes did that with just the raiser too. One pet peeve is getting AA/KK UTG. Recently I have been limping with those hands UTG looking for someone to raise. The problem is when no one does and 3-5 people see the flop I am in a very dangerous position. You can guess what happens...I lost a lot of money overall. So another rule I am employing is no more limping (UTG specifically) with AA/KK.

So playing quality hands in such a way as described above I was able to turn my losing streak around. Over the next 3 days I won $800 and basically ended up about $400 down for the week. No one likes a losing week but I was very happy with the end result and glad to have my game back. I seem to go through cycles where I win for a while then forget my "game" and loosen up and bet aggressively with marginal hands. Then I have to find my "game" again. I hope one day I will cut this regression out of my play.

Like normal I still had some tremendous suckouts against me but the key difference was I wasnt leaking (which was obviously a ton of money) from my own bad/marginal play. I think I won my biggest pot ever on Friday which was just after a suckout loss actually...

I had KT in the BB and a few limpers saw the flop.
Flop: 9J8 (2 hearts)
I checked and I believe one guy bet $4 from MP, LP caller and I called too thinking if a Q (non heart) comes it will give anyone with a ten a straight but will give me the nut straight with my K. Thus I called.
Turn: Qc
I led out a $20 bet, MP raised to $40 and LP called. This narrows down the hands that my opponents might have. I assume MP must have a ten possibly trips and I guess LP has a flush draw. Thinking this way I know I could be outdrawn easily and the pot is already juicy so I push in about $130 more and they both call! The river pairs the Jack and I curse thinking I lost to a boat, but I didnt!
MP had JTh - he had a Q high straight and a flush draw.
LP had Q9 for two pair - he played this poorly. His chances of winning were slim and his cost to see the river was high.
So I was happily surprised to see I dodged the bullets and the pot was about $587. Very nice!

The other hand I will report happened late Sunday night. I was having a down session due to my KK losing to KQo. Was typical poor play by my opponent that paid off. He bet $4 PF from EP and I raised to $15 which he called. That is such a bad call on so many levels I am not going to even bother. Flop was JTx and he called my pot sized bet...to cut to the chase the river was an Ace and he won a nice pot. Anyway I was down about $100 and had been playing for 2 hours and decided it was time to quit. I had wanted to quit earlier but on one of my tables there was a maniac who raised a lot and would call down people with Ace high and would fire out bluffs bets all the way to the river. But I was tired and he had dwindled his stack down so I checked off auto post on my 3 tables and was waiting for the blinds to quit. Then maniac boy won 2 hands one of them big and had a stack of about $270. I had already closed one table and then thought "I hate to leave a table with such an easy mark...fuck it, I'll stay until someone busts him, hopefully me!". So I continued playing 2 tables. Maniac is literally raising to $8 every single hand. He does this again from EP and I call with AQ and everyone else folds. Flop comes xxQ and he checks so I bet $15 as he often will call on a missed flop. He must've had total junk as he folded instantly. Very next hand he raises to $8 yet again from EP but this time I wake up with QQ and as said above I now bet aggressively with it and thats an even better policy against this type of player who will most likely call with a worse hand. Maniac guy also had a tendency to chase his draws. I am glad everyone else folded and maniac called.
Flop: Kc Tc Qs (first card I saw was a King and I though "SHIT!" but the final card to show was the beautiful Q)
Maniac led out with a $30 bet. I thought if he was lucky enough to have AJ I would pay him off or try and get lucky with a boat. The board was draw heavy, he could have a flush draw or a J for a straight draw. Whatever he had I was going to make him pay big for it. I raised his $30 bet to $100...and he called!
Turn was 6d - a good card for me
Maniac checks and I push my remaining $90 in and he calls. I pray to the poker Gods for a harmless river card...
River: 5h
As long as he doesnt have AJ/KK I am golden.
Maniac had 8c9c for a draw heavy hand. after his initial $30 flop bet his calls actually werent terrible. His mistake was the initial $30 flop bet. He should've check called the flop and turn but as was his style he liked to bet.
Either way I was ELATED that I had decided to stay just because of this guy and I had managed to catch him out. So I quit right away and turned my losing session into a modest $100 up session. Thus ended my week.
Sidenote: I found it terribly funny when with his last $60 he got it all-in PF with two others and he got his AA busted by AQ which tripped with Queens on the river. BAHAHAHA! Love seeing a suckout player getting sucked out on.

I now am extremely confident I can get my game going on a positive swing again now that I have found my game again. Lets get it on!