How important is Metagame?

[Eiuvltr]

Forgive me for the roundabout way I'm about to ask this question.

A few years ago I was a very good 2/4 and 3/6 6max player without knowing too much about the science behind floating, 3-betting, etc. I pretty much just read supersystem and proceeded to bet my overcards to the river. Made a lot of money doing that too. However, I decided that I should do some research and started to read a lot of twoplustwo posts (Pokey, Fenix, etc.) and felt that I had learned a lot about the game. I read about all these holes I supposedly had like open-limping, over-valuing TPTK, betting overcards too hard, not 3-betting enough, etc. So I tried to improve my game by implementing these ideas and I went broke. Ever since then I could never get back that natural ability I used to have, even though I feel as if I know more about the game now.

Recently, I tried 6max 1/2 on sportsbook.com and lost 10 buyins within a few hours with a combination of bad luck (lost 2 6-buyin pots with KK vs. AA all-in preflop to the same guy on the same table), tilt and bad play. One of the main problems I had was in reraised pots. I tried light 3-betting people but then I would get called and reraised on the flop or they would 4-bet me and I would have to fold. I tried to never open-limp, so I raised all my pairs from all positions, SCs in LP, and my high cards as well, but since I opened more hands, I wouldn't hit the flop that often. And my cont-bets probably succeeded 20% of the time. When I would raise 45s and the flop came 57J and my opponent min-reraises my cont bet, wtf do I do? I tried coming back over the top in case he was light but then I was risking a lot of chips with a [censored] hand. So I tried to tighten up hoping that they would continue to give me action, but then they must have realized I changed gears and would only play back at me with the nuts.

My questions are these. Do I really need to open up my 3-betting to get action when I actually have good hands? Can I get away with limping preflop or do I have to raise everything? All of these theories about floating, open-raising, and light 3-betting seem to be based on metagame ideas. Like, If i raise all my hands, then they won't know if I have air or the nuts. If I light 3-bet, then I'll get more action with AA. If I fire a second barrel occassionally, then they will call me light on the turn more often when I have a good hand. All of these ideas sound great, but how come I used to be able to destroy these games when I would limp with my small pairs and SCs, and raise my big pairs and big cards. I rarely light 3-bet, and I never floated. I played marginal hands OOP. Yet I still won!!!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm thinking about switching sites since sportsbook is somewhat small and everyone at 1/2 are regulars. Hopefully Fulltilt's 1/2 is a bit softer.