First session of October

Well, the first session of October wasn't anything special.  I walked away up $121 in my usual $1/2 game with a $200 max buy-in (which is what I most always buy in for).  It was almost a 4 hour session (3:45 I do believe), so I guess making $30/hour isn't bad, however, like most times I play I feel like I left money on the table.  My problem is that when I have a good hand I tend to not extract as much value as I should even though I'm fairly confident I'm ahead.  I call instead of raising, and I'll check the river.  Part of the reason that I do that is because I feel the only way I get called in some of these scenarios is if they have me beat.  But scared money doesn't make money, right?

Here is a hand example that I'm uncertain how I played it.

The scenario is that there is an aggressive player on the small blind.  This guy had made many preflop raises and was called down with a rather weak hand.  I'm 2nd to act and have QQ.  I bet out $12 (standard openings at this place seem to be between $12-17 with big pairs, AK, etc.) as there is only one caller (2nd player to act) for the $2 blind in front of me.  It's folded around to the small blind who raises it to $24.  I'm the only caller.  The flop comes 10 10 8. He checks and I check.  I really put him on a wide range of hands, but felt like he had a pair in the 99-JJ range (which made the flop a little scary for me), and I didn't like the check as he had been fairly aggressive post flop up until now.  The turn comes a 10.  He fires $24 and I raise it to $50.  He calls.  The river is a J.  He checks, I check.  He shows AQ, I take it down with 10s full of Qs.  The $36 preflop bet is what made me cautious on this hand.  Not to mention that many of the hands I put him on had me beat (88, JJ, KK, AA).  I still can't help but wonder if I should have bet on that river.  When he checked it I had a fairly strong feeling that he did not hit, however, I did raise him on the turn, so me betting was a possibility in his eyes and if he hit the J it would make sense to hope that I would bet.  Regardless, it was an interesting hand that I won (and should be happy about) but need to further exam if I want to be a better player.

That hand brought me back, as I was down in the session at the time.  My problem is that I tend to either be too impatient early or I just feel I need to bet position.  The place I play has a lot of action and players are more likely to call than fold.  With that being said,  I tend to want to bet my position more than I probably should in that scenario.  In the last half dozen sessions I have gotten down early (sometimes down $150) because I raise preflop and than throw out a c-bet and get called.  My holding is air in some cases (missed suited connectors), so I might fire again on the turn but tend to ease up on the river.  I do this because I feel my image is really tight most of the time.  This process has gotten me in trouble the last few times I've played.  I've been fortunate on all but one occasion to get down to a certain point (between $50-80) then get into a 2 or 3 way all-in and come out the winner.  Obviously, this isn't something that I can bank on happening all the time.  I just need to open less early on, especially when I know the table is loose.

I'm glad I won some money and I just have to continue to work on my game.