[JamaY]

I first started with a 50$ deposit, and in 2 weeks went up to 110$ playing PLO5. Ever since, My bankroll has gone up and down between 110 and 120$ and I can't seem to break the 120$ no matter how hard I try. I'll start the day winning a couple of pots and maybe win one or 2 buyins, but then I'll lose it all small pot after small pot until I'm break even or losing. I don't know if it's a problem with my poker game or my game philosophy, but I just can't seem to become something better than a break even player.
One thing I've noticed is that most of my win comes from 5$ pots where I hit the flop hard and the hand plays for itself, or 1$ pots where I get a decent hand and push people drawing out of the pot. In these situations, I always have a decent or great hand so I can't be sure I'm playing well or I'm just winning because the cards were good. The problem lies when I don't get a good hand, because I try to represent hands that the opponent will have a hard time believing (or play like a donk and call my bluffs with crap that's better than my hand). I guess my questions are...do you guys make all your money from made hands or draws that hit, or do you make money from stealing pots too? Is there a way to know if I extracted the most value from a hand? Do you have any advice to lose less money when I'm behind?
Another topic I'd like to talk about is game selection. I've played with some regulars at my limits long enough to carefully analyse their play, and I usually join their tables and try to outplay them with the information I have on their play style. For example on of them plays very passively on the flop and turn calling with the nuts or air, and often wakes up on the river and bets his made hands. I know he's losing a lot of value not leading, but at the same time I can't seem to extract any value from him and often will go out of my way to beat him and end up playing badly. Is is better to play against players that you know don't play optimally but don;t make silly mistakes either, or hop in a table with 5 unknowns and hope they're fishes?

Sorry if the post is long and the ideas are kind of scrambled, but I hope some advice will help me improve my game and win some money in the process [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]