Slow learner

The first, and probably biggest, mistake you made was that you say you raised big preflop. Are you typically varying your preflop raise sizes depending on your hand strength? You should NOT be doing this, and you should not be raising to large sizes. Hopefully the first point is obvious — if you raise small with marginal hands and large with premium ones, opponents will catch on and exploit you. They will fold when you raise large and 3 bet aggressively when you raise small. You can vary raise sizes preflop a bit, but for reasons other than hand strength (mostly if there are limpers ahead of your raise). You should generally raise one size no matter what hand strength you have (and if you aren’t already doing so, you should almost always be raising preflop with ALL hands that you aren’t folding).

The consistent size you use should be small (generally). Why? Well, it has to do with how opponents will react to a raise. With a large sizing, most opponents (the one you posted about here is an exception) will fold those speculative hands like 45 and only call with strong handa, and maybe only truly premium ones if the size is large enough. While you are disappointed that you lost this particular hand, having opponents call with hands like 45 is what you want to happen. In more general terms you want opponents’ calling ranges to be weaker than your opening range — that’s how you make money. Yea, you will get outdrawn like this sometimes (and learning how to recognize this is a big part of learning postflop play), but on the whole you will profit when your opponents call with speculative hands.

Not that obvious, I’m usually betting $12 or $15 like most others and I always come in with a raise or fold. Wasn’t playing with any limpers. Everyone had a similar style - not a great game but there were no other choices

My postflop play is the mistake. Because we were heads up, I couldn’t imagine him hitting that flop. When he called the flop bet, alarms should have gone off, but I thought he had a smaller pocket pair.

I’m hoping that something like this doesn’t happen again for a while, but I feel foolish owning myself with a pocket pair like a rookie.

Thank you for your comments sir
I’m here to learn and think I can learn from you
I love this game.

Yes. Focusing on one hand with the thought, "I should have known he had a crap hand that hit it big" is a fools errand. How many times have you won a big pot in the same situation?

Thanks will check it out, my memory is not always great. I think the runout was 9T, but I’m not considering it a one hand bubble. As the caller, I think he has all the sets and I never do. So my recent thought is it comes down to

(sets vs worse pocket pairs)

This matchup depends on what worse pairs give up to pressure

Plus, It’s never that bad a play to ‘pot control’ with a pocket pair cause mostly only better hands will call - now if you flop a set or the board pairs there might be more incentive

I’m not professing to know the answers to anything, but I will tell you what I think. Here for the learning! I want to know when I haven’t got it right. Thanks

So, maybe I could have saved a little, maybe not, but tell me does this make sense?

What can I do to improve the thought process in a similar spot in the future?

Will look into improving future hand histories

maybe youre a slow learner as the title says, or maybe you havent found the type of learning that suits you best yet. some learn best with visual cues, some with sound, some with both, and some need a more abstract approach. some people learn facts and are able to integrate new facts into their concept of strategy. some need it laid out in front of them to get it. focusing on what type of learning suits you best will help you in the long run.

with kk in that spot, youre not just beat by 54. you lose to sets and 2 pair as well, which are plentiful especially if he called a raise in the big blind. if he bet the flop, or if he check raised your flop bet, or if he check jammed turn, the moment he takes aggressive action by betting or check raising, you should ask yourself what strong hands that can win showdown unimproved would he bet here? if the answer is 2 pair or better, you have a bluffcatcher with kk and you need to play according to bluff catching pot odds laws without a good read to sway your decision. as others said youre probably supposed to get stacked on favorable runouts, but if they dont bluff a lot you can probably find a fold on the turn vs a big bet. the micros players that bluff a lot stick out like sore thumbs, because they dont hide their bluffs among plentiful strong hands. theyre constantly getting caught bluffing. when u play higher theyre much better at hiding their bluffs with cover provided by strong hands. proper strat at 5nl differs from 200nl quite a bit in this regard.