I'm still thinking after my first few hands back after a 6 week break.

[x-post from blog] pots where you lose a bunch of $$ because of playing badly are very important. Hands where you play badly are all incredibly important. Avoiding bad plays is all about figuring out ranges, considering available options, identifying the decision you like, then sticking with that fucking decision. Pots where you get bad-beat/coolered and are generally happy with the line taken don't matter much at all. It's fucking cool that the important aspects of winning at poker are very much within the sphere we have control over! Variance happens, that's less important, so why spend time focusing on it. [/x-post]

an example of the type of hand that doesn't matter:
UTG is a bad limp-calling station who thinks that TPTK+ is the nuts, over a decent sample. BB is a stabby fish.

Full Tilt Pot-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (9 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (MP2) ($28.47)
MP3 ($12.04)
CO ($0.75)
Button ($16.34)
SB ($21.03)
BB ($19.35)
UTG ($51.92)
UTG+1 ($10.81)
MP1 ($29.66)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with K, Q
UTG calls $0.25, 2 folds, Hero bets $1.10,
Pretty standard iso, we have a card advantage vs his l-c range, we have a positional advantage, and we are arrogant enough to be confident we have a skill advantage. Nobody at the table is prone to making decisions to 3b on a situational basis (e.g. here where i have an obviously weak-ish range after my fish iso)
1 fold, CO calls $0.75 (All-In), 2 folds, BB calls $0.85, UTG calls $0.85

Flop: ($4.15) 9, A, 7 (4 players, 1 all-in)
BB bets $2.50, UTG raises to $11.65, Hero raises to $27.37 (All-In),
flop nuts ez game, or is it? ok, we have two options here. Raise all-in, or call and get it in on any turn. BB is folding vs the utg raise unless he has a flush or set, hard to tell what he'll do with A7 (what about AxJh?, what about A9?)- cos stabbing is what he likes to do. He's not folding a flush or set no matter what, so a raise is fine against his range, it's unlikely we miss much value and if we do it's marginal. UTG has two pair/sets/AK/weak flushes and he isn't folding any of them after that raise, but he may somehow find the fold button on some turns. figuring out ranges, considering available options, identifying the decision you like, then sticking with that fucking decision. EZ game.