[BrandiRose]

David ~ Being a woman (and a young woman at that)... I find it difficult to bluff. Men tend to call me down with anything, or check-raise me with nothing (and then show me their cards to rub it in). I've found that my best way to make money is to wait for position and good starting hands. Sometimes if I've won a huge pot, and have played very little hands... I am able to bluff. But most of the time, guys will say something like "I wanna see what the little lady has" and call me down ~ no matter the size of the bet, the odds they are getting, or whether they have anything on the board or not.
The only problem with this, is that sometimes the cards don't come. For example, I just started playing again Thursday night. I sat down short stacked at a 2-4 game. The action was insane. Almost every hand was $50 preflop with 3 to 4 callers. Because of my stack size and to analyze my opponents, I waited for top hands. During that hour, I was lucky enough to get pocket jacks and call the $50 preflop bet. There were 3 other callers and I was in mid position. The flop came down J A J giving me quads. The first hand I played!! Of course, I ended up tripling my money when one guy made a huge bet, another went all in, I called, the initial bettor folded. Piece of cake. During the next round, I re-raised to $30 (it was $15) with AXs in late position. I once again had several callers. The flop came all diamonds, giving me nut flush. I was able to get another all in on that hand too.
But even after only playing the nuts, every time I got into a pot I would be bluffed out. I folded the better hand quite a few times, because there were too many things that could have beaten me and I wasn't getting the proper odds to call. (For example AJs, would flop top pair and get pushed out of the pot with A2.) You'd probably say that I should know how these guys play ~ and I did ~ But I didn't want to make a call without the right odds holding only top pair ~ when these guys could be playing any two cards (in fact, they played almost every hand) and it was more than possible I was up against 2 pair or even a straight.
So by the time my stack got down to $350, I stopped playing hands. I waited for hours (somewhere between three and four) with patience. Flirting with the guys and talking them into drinking more. Then, I started playing again. In less than two hours, I got my stack well over $1200. By that time they were getting tired and not betting as much. Then I left.
I always tend to do very well in the games I play and ~ when I'm deep stacked ~ also mix up my play and variate my bet sizes so that no one can put me on a hand. But it aggravates me sometimes that I'm almost always called down and have to wait so long for cards.
I know you're not a woman, but do you have any advice???

~ Brandi