I have been playing limit for a couple a years now. I started with 4/8 moved to 8/16 but lately I am going back and forth between the two.
I know about variance and I am experience it by having big winning sessions of seven hundred to a thousand and similar losing sessions. I can deal with this.
My problem is that lately I win one to two racks in the first couple of hours and three hours later I lost it all. I do not change my play and I try to stick as much as possible to the Sklansky book. Maybe I tighten up when I do not seem to win a hand in over an hour. Sometime I am card dead for a long time but that does not induce many losses, just frustration.
The problem is when I get good hands, and either I do not hit anything to improve or I do and yet I always get beat on the river.
I am sure I have a leak (or more) somewhere, but how do I find it?
Any advice or opinion are welcome. I am almost ready to give up and maybe I should.

Read and respond to posts in this forum, and keep track of some hands during each session where you were unsure of the correct action. Post the one or two that gave you the most trouble. Rinse. Repeat.

It's impossible for the forum to help with your leaks without knowing how you play. Start by posting a few hands a week where you had a tough decision, or what you think is standard. Post you opinion on other's hands.

How many hundred hours have you played of 8/16?

I don't want to be a jerk, but your post suggests you do NOT have a full understanding of variance. However, you could have some leaks that you're not aware of. Post some hands, even if they're not spots that you think gave you much trouble. Often times discussion will reveal we're making mistakes where we thought we were not.

Comment on other peoples' hands, too. Explain why you would take certain actions. Allowing us to see your thought process will help a lot.

To answer several questions: I probably played about 450 hours of 8/16.

A couple of hands from yesterday that I do think I played well:

Hand 1
Two limpers, I am on the button KsQs and raise.
Blinds fold, one limper folds second (agressive player) calls.

Flop Qh10s4c

Limper bets, I raise and he calls.

Flop 6h

Limper bets, I raise all in.

He calls and shows Jo10o and a 10 comes on the river.

Hand 2:

Again on the button with AcKc.
UTG raises, all fold to me and I reraise.
SB folds
BB calls
UTG calls

Flop: 10h6hJs

Bet/Call/I raise and call call

Turn: Ah

Bet/fold/raised (trying to represent a big flush)

River: Kd

Bet/called (too much money in the pot and player showed before two pairs on a three flush board)

She had 8h4h for a small flush.

This is setting off warning bells. You got all in? Why would you do that?


You're really trying to make someone fold a flush?


You may have thought you were two-for-two, but you were really oh-for-two.

So I think ultimately you'll be better off posting hands you had trouble with than hands you think you played well. Also, you should make separate posts for hands you have questions with.

But even looking at the hands you posted, I can see some problems you're having:

Hand 1-
For the most part this is fine; he got there on the river and that sucks. But why are you all in on the turn? It appears you didn't start the hand with enough chips. Why is that? Do you like to play until you bust out, and then re-buy? Because if you do, that's not a good idea.

A lot of people advocate always having at least 12 big bets in front of you, in case it gets capped on every street. Other people say you should always have way more than that in case you're ever heads up with someone and go more than 4 bets per street. It appears you started this hand with 4 big bets in front of you.

Hand 2-
The turn raise is a bluff? Does anyone fold at these stakes if they have a hand? Notice big blind is getting something like 10.5:1 to call your turn raise. She might not realize it, but big blind is probably making the correct play here because she is going to be good far more often than 1 in 10.5 times here.

I'm also not 100% sure why you would raise the flop here; maybe you can elaborate.

I agree with Pid.

Also wrt the first hand, this is a good spot to where you should change up your play to fit the opponents. If you are seeing places where limpers and blinds are folding to pf raises, you should open up your range here to try and steal more.

The second one raising on the flop and turn is just spewy

My all in was indeed only seven more chips.

As far as the second hand goes, the flop raise was to make them pay for drawing. I was sure at that point that I had the best hand. I agree the turn was not such a good idea,and I probably should have folded but based on the player I thought I was doing the right play.
After the next session I will try to post hands where I have doubts.

Don't turn showdown hands into bluffs. Maybe something like 33 on 4 heart board, but not in that AK hand. Just call, you'll have the best hand a lot when you call the river.

You came to the right place. If you put in the time to really think about other people's posted hands it will really help your game. It helps even more when you post responses. It forces you to put your strategy into words. Good luck.

ur post is 2 vague...
cant help with leaks unless we no what they r
but in long run im sure posting/replying here WILL help... stick with it

Should super noobs be doing this? I want to learn and am just beginning, and I know if I reply to others posts in many/most cases I will be "wrong".

Absolutely. It doesn't really matter if you are "right" or "wrong". The act alone of articulating your thought process will help you a ton. For one, you may find gaps in your thinkingg by writing it out. Second, others can respond to specific flaws in your thinking (if there are any) and help you better understand how to think about the game. As a general guideline, try to avoid posting answers that consist of only "easy call" or "I fold all day here".

Thank you guys. I have been reading the messages for a while but I just started to post replies.

Yes super noobs should be doing this. It's how people evolve into good posters. You have to start somewhere if you want to improve. If you disagree with someone else's strat, you should argue. Don't just look at posts like "call" or "fold" and think "ok, I'll do that". You don't learn anything that way.