Plod, plod, plod - and when to just stick it all in.

Profit: $13

Played another 3k hands for not much progress but I'm not too bothered as I think I've been playing ok and I haven't really felt frustrated.

Basically two hands have cost me any profits I might have made and I'm not sure if I played them right. Typically they were both in the 20NL rooms and they cost me full stacks which now means my current record for 2009 stands at:

10NL = $142 profit
20NL = $19 loss.

Irritating.

Any, the two hands are these.

***** Hand History for Game 1395875915 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, January 25, 08:19:53 ET 2009
Table Athena (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Seat 1: NobleArdes ( $26.52 USD )
Seat 3: fabislovi ( $15.09 USD )
Seat 5: lank1 ( $4.20 USD )
Seat 6: RTRFelix ( $19.60 USD )
Seat 8: MajorLeak ( $31.58 USD )
NobleArdes posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
fabislovi posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Ac As ]
lank1 folds
RTRFelix raises [$0.80 USD]
MajorLeak folds
NobleArdes folds
fabislovi calls [$0.60 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8s, Th, 5d ]
fabislovi bets [$0.40 USD]
RTRFelix raises [$1.20 USD]
fabislovi calls [$0.80 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3h ]
fabislovi checks
RTRFelix bets [$2.20 USD]
fabislovi calls [$2.20 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 2h ]
fabislovi bets [$3.00 USD]

Now at this point I'm thinking about whether I have the best hand or not. This guy was a 77/45 so I don't think much of his game and shown down some strange hands already. The thought process is this: if I do think I have the best hand then surely I should raise it up and get all my money in the middle. In the past, or what I usually do, is just call because I have doubts about my hand but if I'm calling then I believe there is a good chance I have the best hand so I should raise... correct? Well I did go all in and he table the old 97h. Fair enough.

***** Hand History for Game 1395846399 *****
$20.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, January 25, 08:05:12 ET 2009
Table Argonauts (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: Dildo88 ( $20.52 USD )
Seat 5: HareKrsna ( $27.88 USD )
Seat 6: RTRFelix ( $21.04 USD )
Seat 8: mancmart ( $27.42 USD )
Seat 10: Pokerpython ( $26.13 USD )
HareKrsna posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
RTRFelix posts big blind [$0.20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to RTRFelix [ Ad Kd ]
mancmart raises [$0.80 USD]
Pokerpython folds
Dildo88 folds
HareKrsna folds
RTRFelix calls [$0.60 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3s, 6s, Kh ]
RTRFelix checks
mancmart bets [$1.40 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$1.40 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5c ]
RTRFelix checks
mancmart bets [$4.50 USD]
RTRFelix calls [$4.50 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Jc ]
RTRFelix checks

Not really sure what I'm doing in this hand with the check calling. I guess I should be 3betting pre flop but I don't like to do that oop. Again though, by the river I think I have the best hand and plan to check raise him all in. He does bet, I do check-raise him all in and he has 33 for the flopped set. I'm not complaining about the result of the hand because I don't think I played it very well but how should I have played the hands to prevent this from happening? 3bet preflop, check-raise fold the flop, or is that a hand where I shouldn't be folding and losing a stack with AK because the majority of the time I will have the best hand?

These hands are the reasons why I'm not doing anything at 20NL I think.