My boat is slowly sinking

Well, pretty poor night results wise. I was up right near the end of the session, but let it slip to finish about where I deserved. Early on I was motivated to grind some NL50 6 max. My idea was to tighten up even more post flop, and just stop the hero calls on the river without reasons. Interesting start, I couldn't find a table :) Nothing opened in 5 minutes, so I played a SNG and won that. I then found heaps of tables and opened 2. 2 hands later I have a flush and am getting bet into for my stack, up another $50. Good start.

Things went backwards from here. Now for one, I was mostly happy with some plays I made. I made the bluff of the year on a LAGGY player, but he 3 bet shoved me on the turn, so it was obviously bad timing. When I folded, this turned on his bluff sensor, and he continually 3 bet me PF. I should leave, but wanted to stack him, and found my KQs being 3 bet, and then 5 bet. Normally, this is very bad play, but I couldn't get it out of my head that he was not holding a great hand. We were 150BB's deep too, so it was almost a crying call, he turned over 98s, same suit as me, so I got it in 65% favourite and naturally lost. Yes, I felt tilted, as I was about even overall until that point on the NL50 after getting 3 bet a bit and losing a couple of pots. I had a pretty bad run when I think of it, because for about the 5th time I got stacked when I had TPTK, but it seems other people win huge pots with these hands. I also flopped the nutz, only to have a guy call me down and hit a boat on the river. Same guy also tied a pot with me where I had best hand until the river gave us both the same boat. None of this should bother me that much, but when it's all on top of each other, it does. I left, down about 4 BI's I think.

I think overall in 6 max my hand reading is getting quite good, but I'm very lost when it comes to 3 betting. I'm almost over my curse of not calling hero calls, and of course the first hero call laydown I made, he showed the bluff to tilt me further. Still I think in general people bluff their stacks very seldomly and making hero calls is -ev without very solid reads. I think I need to leave tables where I'm getting 3 bet a lot, and instead look for tables where that doesn't happen, maybe even move down to NL25 until I get some more confidence.

I returned to SNG's, and played well, ran pretty well. Until I didn't. Basically I was getting hands in good a lot, but then when the run stopped, those hands didn't hold up. Like A9 vs A6 all in PF, KQ vs QT all in PF, KK vs A8o all in PF, and JJ vs 76s all in PF. It took a lot of variance to stop me winning big there, and I was still up for the whole session until the end, where I dropped my last 3 in a row (including a couple of bad beats, and a cooler) and called it a night. So I ended my session, down around $140 unfortunately. I will add one big winning hand. I flopped two pair with KT on a KT9 board, and got it in against a looser player, he had QJ unfortunately. It's a cooler I thought, as the blank comes in on the turn, and ten rolls off on the river. OK, so I don't always run bad :)

I suppose I should write these nights off to variance, but it's all variance right now. I run good for 5 minutes, then get stomped on for 2 hours every night.

I'm now one night off Silver Iron man status. As a side note, I made some predictions about poker earlier in the year, and it said to be playing NL100 by September 1. I feel like I got distracted with all the things I did in between, but definitely feel I'd be capable with a little practice and a bankroll. Unfortunately I'm not bankrolled, and moving down seems more likely than moving up right now, what a shame. Once I get my Iron Man status I may take a couple of days off any serious play, as I need a weekend free of the shit poker is bringing me right now.