[Snickers99]

Help me out here. I'm trying to be more aggressive. I'm trying to raise if I'm the first in a pot with a hand I want to play (although I haven't done this a lot yet...still trying to get used to it), I'm raising most pocket pairs if I'm the first in, of course raising the big hands.

But I'm having trouble post flop because when I'm first in the pot preflop and raise, it usually means I'm out of position for the rest of the hand. And you know you miss the flop more often than connect. I'm talking in cases like mid pocket pairs where there's a couple overcards on the flop (especially face cards), or having AK, AQ, and missing. Not big pairs where obviously you already have a good hand. I almost always c-bet, depending on the situation. But it seems often people are flat calling, creating a bigger pot than I want considering I have no real hand. Then the turn comes and I'm faced with making a bigger pot with no real hand or giving up control and check/folding. Or I c-bet the flop and am raised since the c-bet is pretty much standard now. Seems like I'm wasting money since I either win a small pot (everyone folds pre or folds to my c-bet) or lose a biggish pot by eventually giving up on the turn or river when I miss...which seems to happen often.

This is 10NL, BTW, although it was happening at 25NL before I stepped down. So what do I do? Is it just the nature of 10NL? Mix it up and play back with no hand occasionally? Stop the c-betting the majority of the time? Check/raise occasionally? I don't think it's a case of individual people knowing my game and knowing I'll give up.

And before I try to look up hands in PT, is it just perception that I think I'm losing more than winning in these situations?