[soah]

I suppose I should explain this post.

I started playing LHE just recently, and I did quite well at 3/6 the past few months, but at 5/10 I simply have not been able to handle the increased aggression. I feel like I'm constantly getting steamrolled when I don't hit great flops, yet I always seem to pick the wrong spots to make a stand. I posted this hand out of frustration because it's such a clear example of how bad I'm playing. I know it's bad, I know what the replies will be, yet I still play bad. When a reasonable player coldcaps preflop and another reasonable player calls four bets cold I think I'm [censored], but I have to call two more here for set value. Then the flop comes out and the players that I'm most concerned about just call. So maybe they both have AK?! But the CO surely must have an overpair to be betting in this spot. He's done nothing to indicate that he couldn't have AA-QQ. On the turn I don't know if I've improved or gotten worse; don't know if I'll win if the river blanks and don't know if I'll win with a flush.

So this in a nutshell is how I play-- my opponents represent hands that beat me, and I have an okay hand, so I just call them down to see if I win. Whenever I try playing back at people, I just end up getting reraised, and talk myself into calling down despite the fact that I now have even more information telling me I'm beaten, because I've seen so many people overplay weak pairs and gosh the pot is so big that it would really suck to fold the winner. And whenever I do fold a reasonable hand, I feel like I'm playing right into the hands of these guys that will go to war on the flop with any pair.