Back to back

I was playing some 2NL on Pokerstars yesterday (I was pretty tired, so I didn't feel like playing 10NL) and after about an hour I was stuck a little as I wasn't getting any good starting hands and was missing a lot of flops.

I was already thinking stars had decided to just give me no cards at all and I figured I was probably going to get cold-decked on my first big hand :)

Then a funny thing happened: I got QQ on one table, AA on another and TT on a third table at the same time.
TT: I raise a bunch of limpers from the BB and take down the pot preflop.

QQ: I openraise from the BTN and take down the blinds.

AA: I raise from MP to 4x and get two callers. Flop comes 347 with two clubs.
Now the BB bets out $0.10 into a $0.25 pot. I really don't like this flop and the donkbet. Sure he'll probably be on a draw, but at these limits, it's going to take a big raise to make him fold his draw, plus I have another player behind me. I decide to play it cautious and just call. The third player now raises to $0.20 and the BB calls. I really don't know what to make of that minreraise, but the pot is getting big already and I decide to fold (very weak play, I know, but I had a bad feeling about this hand.) Anyway, the turn is another 7 and now the guy in LP bets big and takes it down. I guess he had at least top pair on the flop, possibly even a set.

The very next hand on the QQ table I get QQ again, back to back (and take down another small pot).
And... the very next hand on the AA table I get AA again, back to back (just thought that was pretty funny). I raise again, this time to 5x and get one caller. The flop comes Kxx, I bet halfpot, villain reraises and I shove and felt the villain who had, get this, K6o. So, aces and queens back to back at the same time :)

I had another hand from a previous session I'm not sure about how I should have handled it:

10NL, I just sat down at the table (in fact it was my first hand at that table)

Villain with a stack of about 65BB UTG raises to 5x (which is definately more than usual).
I have AKo in the BB and call (a mistake, I probably should have reraised there).
Flop comes Kxx rainbow and I check.
Villain makes a potsized bet that I flatcall. The pot now is $3.
The turn is a low and second club, I check again and now the villain shoves.
I'm almost getting 2 to 1 here and don't know what to do: if he's a good player, he most likely has AA, KK, AK, maybe KQ and once in a blue moon Ax with with a FD. If he's a bad player, he could be doing this with QQ, JJ, TT, figuring my calls are weak. In the back of my mind, I knew I was in trouble, but given my pot odds I couldn't lay down TPTK. He shows AA and takes it down.
Is this an auto-fold or would you call as well?

Never go broke in an unraised pot...

I know!! Still managed to do just that twice this month and even with the same holecards AND even with the same flop.

Hand 1: I'm in the BB with K2o in a limped pot.
Flop comes K92 rainbow, I bet, get raised and soon enough all the money is in the middle. I'm up against K9 and loose.

Hand 2: I'm in the BB with K2o in a limped pot.
Flop comes K82 rainbow, I bet, get raised and ... you get the picture.

Donkey anyone?

At this point, I've got a nice little streak of 5 consecutive loosing sessions going and I'm down 10 buyins overall at 10NL and beginning to accept my future poker career will be spent grinding it out at the 5NL tables. Fortunately, the next sessions have been a lot better and after a monster win of $50 in my last session, I have recovered 9 buyins. Especially that last session, I played my best poker (and was running pretty hot too), so my confidence got a much needed boost.

Anyway, I already cleared my $50 bonus at Everest and I'm still on pace to pick the $50 Take2 bonus on Full Tilt. The rest of the month, I'll be playing a mixture of 2NL, 5NL and 10NL and really focus on my game instead of volume.

I'm also practicing hand reading by recording all hands with a showdown using holdemmanager. I'd be pausing the video to analyze betting, position, stats and trying to narrow down hand ranges.

My game needs some serious work and I'm quite sure I have leaks all over the place.
Exhibit 1: position is very important and good players show a bigger profit in later positions. Right?
Well, not me. Here's my ranking of positions based on profit: UTG, MP, LP, CO, BTN, SB, BB. That's right: my most profitable position is UTG. I have no idea what a decent BB/100 in the BB is, but I'm guessing a whopping -50bb/100 isn't very good.

Exhibit 2: big pots are for big hands. I know this, but still have stacked off 10+ times with just a pair.

I do feel I'm getting better in the stealing and valuebetting stuff though.

Finally, some good news: against all hope, Simbapoker has refunded my $100!
With a little luck, I might see a $250 bankrollboost this month.

Bonus chasing

This month is bonus chasing month as I got a nice bonus offer from Everest and Full Tilt is running another Take2 promotion.

On Everest I get $50 if I reach 600 points by the 16th. Currently, I'm at 230, so I figure another 4k hands at 10NL should do the trick. Because I'm at Base Camp, I'll get another 1200 points extra (200% bonus) and at 1$ per 250 points, that's a few more bucks.

Full Tilt is running a Take2 promotion which actually is a double bonus.
First, you get double points if you multitable. Nice, but not that great...
Secondly, and this is a great bonus, you get cash for playing regularly during this month: $5 if you play 5 days, another $10 for 10 days, another $10 for 15 days and another $25 for 25 days. So that's a potential $50, plus you only have to earn 1 FTP for that day to count. Bottom line for me: play about 10 minutes a day at Full Tilt and pick up $50.

Combined that's over $100 in bonusses to be earned and I'll definately make an effort to pick that up. I just need to make sure I don't drop too much on the tables when chasing these bonusses (as I have done in the past).

At the tables, I'm still struggling, making too many mistakes for sure, but it is sooo hard to put the many fish, playing >50% of the hands, on a hand. Often they really could have anything, from AA to J6...