Kinda says it all. This is not a game where you can develop if you hold yourself to so-called "axioms" such as this. As BD says, context is everything.

Against fish/stations you value bet the river because their calling range is huge and their raising range is tiny. TP is plenty good enough to that in many scenarios and in many more it is not.

Moral...it depends, it always depends and it always will depend.

Now get working on what to do in any given scenario (and why) and stop looking for a one size fits all solution.

Expect that to take a quite a while by the way (for most of us mere mortals, you are talking years, not months).

GL

This, and understand that even once you learn a lot about a particular aspect of poker, that you still don't know the half of it.

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I haven't seen anyone comment on the title in particular, but I may have missed it.

Your thread title: Up And Down

Suggests to me that you're having trouble dealing with the ups and downs, yet you didn't really talk about that in your op. Here are some of my favorite sayings regarding variance:

When it rains, it pours.

If you consistently judge yourself relative to your high point, you will be perpetually miserable.

If you spend all of your winnings, your probability of going broke approaches closer and closer to (1).

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After over 15 years of poker, I've put those truths into a personal variance philosophy:

It's all about keeping your head above water between hot streaks, and banking your massive wins.

I may get flamed for using the phrase "hot streak." I don't think we can predict when a streak will hit, but I do think that it's important to recognize that we are in fact on a streak. This is because our opponents will react in different ways:

a) they might think you're awesome at poker and avoid you.
b) they might think you're a donk on a heater and attack you.
c) they might keep playing their unimaginative game.
d) they might make bad decisions based on just your preflop raise %.*

*this is more true the hotter you're running preflop. When this happens, you will get lots of action on your monsters, especially if your hands haven't been going to showdown.

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So try to roll with the beats and remember that it's a marathon, not a sprint.

When I said think in terms of EV I meant in terms of EV for this particular hand. Apart from the river call (Which I think you've identified as a clear fold), you've made decent decisions and got your money in good.

Your goal is not to win money each hand - that is up to the gods. Your goal is to get your money in right and make the best plays in each situation. Sometimes they will hit a ridiculous backdoor straight or flop trips and you will lose money, but more often they won't. And sometimes that crazy lady luck even gives you a little kiss on the cheek as she pops over to cosy up on villain's lap as well .

I got stacked again by a particularly savage hand.

V is a buffoon. Plays nearly all hands and makes absolutely crazy calls. One example: V straddles and I raise on the button AQo. He calls. Flop is Q98 with two hearts. I have no heart. He checks and I bet about 70% pot and he calls. Turn is a off suit 7. He checks and I bet about 80% pot now. He calls. River is J of hearts. He checks. I beat literally nothing so I check back. He shows T2o for the straight.

As you can see, this guy is a gambler. I've seen him bet flush draws out of position and raise in position with flush draws.

On to the hand:

At one point, I built up my initial 200 to about 550. I ran JJ into KK on a board of all under cards and then I ran top 2 into bottom set so I'm back to 200.

V effective stack is infinite. I have 200. V opens MP for 10 which has been pretty standard.

I have J9s on the BTN so I call. BB calls. Everyone else folds.

Flop is 974 with two diamonds. V bets 20. I call and BB folds.

I'm pretty sure this guy has diamond draw or two over cards. He plays so many hands and makes so many crazy bets and calls that I can never see myself folding top pair even if my kicker sucks.

Turn is a offsuit 2. Pot has already swelled to 70. V then bets 60.

So, he is repping a strong hand. But, I have seen him do this before with draws. He just likes to be super aggressive. I open him like a book and read his soul. Yeah, you have diamonds and you are just trying to scare me. I have top pair. You are a donkey so we are doing it.

I go all in.

He asks for a count, sighs, then calls.

River is a off suit Q.

He looks at me and shrugs. I show my hand. He shows QJo.

Equity calculator shows I was a 93% favorite to win and I still couldn't get there. Like, I guess I should be happy that I got him to put his money in really bad?

You got the money in there with a hefty favorite vs your opponent's actual hand, this is good. You might want to put him on a range and see what kind of equity your hand has vs such a wide bet calling range. If you still think that going all in on the turn is profitable with J9s here, then maybe look at the equity of weaker hands to see if they also have the equity to shove vs this guys wide bet calling range. Then you should look at the segment of hands in your range that can't shove the turn, but can call the turn bet and see just how much equity your bluffcatchers have. Then look at some possible rivers to get an idea of your river calling/betting/folding ranges.

This will be much more beneficial to you than posting your bad beats.

You can put almost any two cards in this dudes range. He called a near pot sized bet flop with nothing, called a near pot sized bet on the turn with a gut shot, and when he hit, he didn't even bet.

The dude is a donk. I'm pretty top pair is plenty good enough to gii with this guy.

Then what's the problem.

I don't think I am risky enough player. To win big pots, I think you have to make bad calls and cross your fingers. I keep losing these giant pots and I can't wrap my head around it. Maybe I should have done something different with the AQ hand for example. Just put him all in. Although, he would have called and took my 450 stack then I guess.

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The problem is that he hasn't yet found the breakeven calldown hand yet. It's obviously not J9s or else we would be talking strategy. There is no fruit on the limb of bad beat review. You got it in with a favorite. Nice hand.

You are still looking at results too much. TELL ME THIS ... How did the betting go differently in the JJvKK hand and the J9vQJ hand? You lost both hands, right? Why do you feel differently about them ... or do you?

I think this is the type of analysis you need to do. IMO the betting in both hands should look exactly the same. Certainly your opponents could bet differently, but they shouldn't be either. You used other clues in the J9 hand perhaps in your 'soul' read? You said this V could have ATC, why not KK?

It's almost like you feel better when you get your chips in bad? The key for long term poker 'health' is to react the same in each case, coming to an understanding that both hands 'make sense' in both a strategy and variant viewpoint. GL

The JJ vs KK hand was against a different V. He was short stacked. Flop was all under. I am OOP with JJ so I continue and he calls. Turn looked irrelevant. I continue on the turn and he calls. He only has about 30% of the pot left behind so I made him put the rest in on the river and he had KK.

The top two hand was against a different V and perhaps is a bit more interesting.

V is in CO and raises to 12. His stack is roughly 200. I had about 450 stack. I am on the BTN with KJo so I call. The BB calls as well.

Flop is KJ6 with two hearts.
BB checks.
V continues for 30.
I bump it up to 75.
BB folds.
V calls.
Turn is a off suit 9.
V checks.
I didnt quite count his stack correctly and I bet 100 even which left him with about 15 or so behind. he puts the rest of it in and I obviously call and he shows 66.

It was two big hands. Seems understandable.

This other guy calling my all in with just two over cards? Yeah. That is just stupid and irritating he got rewarded for that. Oh well.

A few different ways to look at this one. What were you trying to do with the raise? Get the BB to fold or induce a shove from V, or both? What was the BB stack?

Your raise was 'only' $45 into $97, so pretty much any draw is priced in. Based on the pot and V stack size you might consider just a little bit bigger which almost forces the V to call your Turn/River shove or shove right now.

Can you check the Turn? The 9 does complete QT but the flush is still there as well. Again with stack sizes it's probably wise not to give a free card here. But you also have to consider .. What did he call me with? How often does he call one of my raises? That's why I like just a bit bigger if you are going to raise. Almost any player is going to continue getting 3 to 1, but calling the raise getting worse odds should tell you he's pretty strong.

These are all pretty tough spots ... I just didn't want you to be more upset when you actually got the opponent to put his chips in super bad as opposed to losing when you were crushed .. and still putting in chips. You played well against each player's range IMO, well done. Just need to get on the good side of variance. GL

OP your posting does NOT come across as a clueless beginner. OTOH some of your comments sound like somebody on Tilt over coolers and bad beats that are quite common. Played for a year could be monthly or everyday, so IDK how experienced you are at poker. Maybe you are dwelling too much on some totally normal negative results so they seem more common than they actually are. That is a normal human reaction.

I started playing poker a little over a year ago. I have a background in competitive gaming so I try to do my homework and look at what better players are doing. But, trust me, I still feel very much like a clueless beginner.

I only started recently trying to play the game "in earnest" and started doing hand ranging, hand equity, pot odds, Equilab, and the like.

What I am currently trying to do (and maybe this is just a bad idea in general) is playing 1/2 to fund my entries into tournaments. Tournaments are really what I want to get good at and I know for a fact that I play way too aggressive in spots when I should be careful and I play way too passive in spots where I should be aggressive.

I have a weekly tournament that I play in and I punted a hand real bad where I flopped a straight, but the third club came on the turn and then the board paired on the river. So, I played it super cautious and it turned out he had top two. But, I was so afraid of betting because the board kept getting scarier and scarier and I am certain I could have gotten at least one more street of value from him. I feel like it is better for me to check / call the turn and river at that point than it is to bet the turn and then get raised since I was OOP.

Game is hard.