Hee Haw

Tonight we played our weekly home game. I played like a total donkey. Way too passive and I ran into a couple of calling stations. Everything was going well in the beginning, but the wheels fell off and I just was not feeling the poker vibe.
The first major mistake I made was raising with 85 suited out of position. One of my mantras is to always play in position. I went against the first rule. Then I proceeded to three barrel bluff a 10 high flop, with no draw, and ace on the turn, and a brick on the river into a calling station who smooth called the pre-flop raise and the bets to the river with kings. UGH!!!
So I slowly build my stack back to about the starting stack, with the blinds still small. However, I then proceed to play QQ like a total idiot. I raised preflop 2.7X's the blind, not a bad play. The flop came K-10-8, and I checked, bad play. I should have made at least a standard continuation bet, but I didn't. A blank came on the turn, so I fired a bet out, and got called. A 10 hit the river, so I fired again, then got raised. Of course I called off the raise to find my opponent with A10, again don't slowplay against weak or bad players. Make them pay to draw or punish them for holding weak hands.
The next bad play I made was when I had J7 in the small blind. It was a limped pot and the flop came K-Q-J rainbow. It checked to the turn, where I hit a 7. It checked again. The river brought another J, sweet, I have a boat. I bet about 2/3 the pot and got minimum raised. If I was thinking straight, I would have re-raised and pushed on my opponent. However, I just called, another bad play. He showed A10 for the nut straight, but I could have maximized a lot more on this hand. Especially because I know my opponent would have overvalued his hand and probably pushed in on me.
I was short and was limping way too much and playing way too many hands out of position. Future thought, DON'T DO THAT!!! If you are short, go with your read and push when you think you are ahead. That was the other big mistake I made tonight. I didn't trust my reads and really wasn't trying to read the players as much as I should have. I need to pay a lot more attention next time. Remember to take your time, trust your reads and use small ball and information bets to get whatever info you need. Don't let the other players dictate the hand and if you think you're beat, FOLD!!!
Finally, I was short and pushed with K8 suited, got a really loose call without the odds from the big blind with J4. I doubled up. However, the very next hand, I pushed again instead of re-evaluating my situation and position. I pushed with 77 and got snap called by 88. We were 5 handed and it just illustrates that it was not my night. I could have played better, but I just need to get over it and move on to the next tourney. So for future thought, watch the table, play position better, and play aggressively. That has been my formula for success. Don't get overly complicated and try plays that won't work against weak, tight players. So back to the studies and the grind.