Relearning old lessons

I'm going to try to get back into poker again over Christmas and get my skills back to a level where I can comfortably beat 400 or 500nl. Unfortunately it seems I am a long way off in some departments. After not playing consitently for a while I think it is quite normal to have lost a bit of sharpness in some areas but at the moment I seem to have one huge problem: my mental discipline. A major part of my previous success was that I wouldn't play when I wasn't properly focused and I would be quick to realise when I wasn't thinking straight and take a break - it seems that I have to work hard on this again.

I played a bit after getting completely crushed in the ptips tourney by constant 3betting and then in a reraised pot my semi bluff shove on a paired flop was called by A high - gg me. So I went back to the cash games and played some 200nl HU and 6max for a bit, things went horribly and I tilted pretty badly and lost 1.6k.... at 200nl.... thats 8 buyins. I have a mountain to climb.

So as embarassing as it is, here are the major hands.

First HU Game
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1814487
A bit of a loose 3bet but I wanted to establish an image early on in the match so I think you can justify PF. Post flot I think is pretty standard; a good spot to 2 barrel and even 3 barrel with a gutshot given that the guy doesnt appear to have a strong hand and he should give me credit early on.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1814497
This hand was pretty horrible. PF and flop is pretty standard early on but the river play is absolutely sickening. Only when I look back on it now do I see how utterly terrible it is. 1stly, dont lead out, check and hope for a free showdown or c/c if you believe the guy is bluffing (this would be a decent spot to bluff for him). Secondly, given that I donked and he raised I should just throw the hand away at this point and move up, this move is unfounded at this point in time. However even if I insist on reraising I should make it much less, say $150 because it should do the same job - get bluffs, Qs and Ks to fold without risking as much. However clearly the best move is checking the river.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1814509
Pretty funny hand, obviously I have a (deservedly) horrific image at this point. I think betting the river in this spot would be pretty borderline and I think I probably got max value here.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1814523
I did think of checking the flop here but I think that there are many worse hands he will call with given my image plus I have a gutshot so betting is good. I think his C/R on the flop is either QJ,KT, T9, a flush draw (inc QcXc) or complete air since I expect a reraise PF with a big A and I dont expect him to C/R a small ace here (instead I think he would c/c 3 streets). Given that I have 2 kings KT is very unlikely so I'm obviously ahead against his c/r range but 3betting would be horrible so calling is best. When he then checks on the turn it makes me think that he does have a draw since you would expect QJ to bet again. So at this point I can either bet and hope to get a call or check and hope to induce some bluffs on the river. Against this opponent who doesnt seem to bluff that much I like the bet because he seems to want to call me down light as opposed to push me off air. Now the double checkraise is a very scary move and here is a tough spot. Even though the majority of the evidence suggests that my opponent is holding a draw I just can't see him making a dual C/R with a draw like this very often unless he picked up a monster draw on the turn e.g. T9h or 6Xc. So given the new info of the C/R I think I have to narrow down his hand range considerably to monster hand, monster draw or insane bluff. Of which A monster hand is more likely and even against a monster draw I wont be a big favourite so I think I should have folded.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1814610
We are entering Tilt Town, its only resident: me. PF is horrible, flop isnt too bad but timing is also poor given previous hand.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1814617
Pretty standard.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1814627
Just plain horrible. PF is ok and I think flop should be a raise rather than a float but a float is ok every so often. The turn is a bad card for me though (both because he could have hit it and because I can't bet to effectively represent a pp) so I should have just given up. As played river is just horrrrrrrrrible.

So this was a horrible match, far too much tilt and also some basic errors.

6max table
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1814639
This hand was pretty standard I think for a 3 handed game, I've played this guy before and I know he is a very loose and aggressive player so I think the call of his shove is just +EV. His range is almost entirely FD's, pairs and air. Given that I have 7 outs against most pairs and I'm ahead of FD's and air with 2-1 odds then its a decent call i think.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1814665
Pretty standard. I would have done the same if I was him so no complaints here.

2nd HU Match
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1814674
Pretty standard I think.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1814687
Hand was played fine until the river, should have been a fold but I got curious. :(

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1814677
Tough decision but given the information I got from last hand I think I should have folded. At the time I was struggling to find a hand I could beat because I expected him to bet an ace on the turn or river so a strong 2pair seemed unlikely and I didn't think he would shove a weak two pair like 95. So that leaves a slow played set or 87, and as hard as it is to say I think I should have folded a set HU.

2nd 6max game
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1814699
Only played one meaningful hand at this table. PF is interesting because even if he has AA I think I'm getting good odds to see a flop but the pot size it creates and the resulting stack sizes makes it bad to play post flop - I made a slightly -EV move here and I should have folded the flop but I was on tilt at this point so it didnt happen.

Thats all I have time for right now since its 2am. Overall I am pretty appalled at what the hands I've just gone over. It makes me sad to see the sort of poker I am playing now and I am determined to turn things around. The new age of discipline begins....