I have been only playing real money poker for three weeks and I know I have a LONG way to go. I am currently playing 10NL on Party Poker but have only played about 1600 hands. I am holding my own, basically staying even and maybe even inching slowly up.

Last night was one of those "swings" I hear about. I lost $10 or so. Not a big deal, the money is not an issue, but I still wonder if I could have/should have seen it comming at times.

For Instance.. take the following hand (with my comments):

Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $0.05/$0.10
7 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: $9.40
UTG+1: $8.01
Hero: $11.19
CO: $10.58
Button: $14.54
SB: $7.27
BB: $1.45

Pre-flop: (7 players) Hero is MP1 with ad ac

*YEAH! Finally a good hand. It had not been a lucky night.

UTG folds, UTG+1 calls $0.1, Hero raises to $0.4, CO folds, Button calls $0.4, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls $0.3.

*My standard raise is about 4xBB. I try to stick with that no mater what I get dealt, to minimize any betting related tells about my hand.

Flop: th ts 5s ($1.35, 3 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $1, Button calls $1, UTG+1 folds.

*I bet most of the pot, trying to give bad pot odds on any draws. He called. I figured he might have a another 10 and be slow playing. Or he has nothing

Turn: qh ($3.35, 2 players)
Hero bets $2, Button calls $2.

*Again, 2/3's the pot as my bet and again, he calls..... Now I think he is on KK, since the Q here didn't seem to excite him.

River: 7d ($7.35, 2 players)
Hero bets $3, Button calls $3.

*I thought hard about what to bet here. I almost went with $7, which would have been basically an all-in for me. But.. I only had AA and the Button had only ever called. So, I went with a 1/2 (roughly) pot bet and he called again....

Results:
Final pot: $13.35
Hero balance 4.79 lost 6.40 Ad Ac
Button balance 20.84 bet 6.40 collected 12.70 net 6.30 5d 5h

Yeah.. he FLOPED A FULL HOUSE. *sigh*

Maybe I should have checked on the River to see where he was?

Any help or suggestions or sympathy is welcome!