Mike Caro

Unless I'm missing something, even when you're doing "poorly" you are winning 6 big blinds per hour which, based on what I've read, is pretty damn good. I know that's better than I usually do and I'm happy with the way I've been playing for a while now. I would guess that if you want to win more money you simply need to move up to a bigger game.

If you are unable to get a bigger game, maybe you can play it more like tournament poker and don't push your small edges as hard. I don't know how your tables play, but in these circumstances you probably have little to gain and a lot to lose. If your opponents know you are very aggressive, implied odds may make it right for some of these clueless people to call in some of the circumstances you are talking about.

If they are playing a really straight ahead game, you may want to give up bluffing entirely. Also, is there a difference between the winter and summer with how many players regularly see the flop? Let's say you make a substantial raise preflop. Is there a seasonal difference on how many people call? Is there a time of year that people may be more likely to play back at you? If summer regularly sees 4 callers whereas winter only has 2, that right there is going to be part of your issue. More hands out there means more ways to beat you. If you do hit and bet out again, are you likely to get more callers in the warmer months? If you'll get the calls anyway after you've made your hand, you may want to not play as aggressively preflop.

I usually play limit instead of no limit and I'm sure that factors into it a bit, but on a good night there are enough people that are willing to call or even try and bluff by raising after I've hit a monster flop that I don't usually raise pre-flop except for some very specific circumstances. Few of those apply since you are playing NL, however. But generally speaking, if others are willing to pay you after you've made your hand anyway, you might be better off waiting until you hit the flop hard to bet. You'll likely be risking less and making about the same amount of money.

Still, if you're on average winning that many big blinds per hour, I'm not sure what else you can realistically expect to accomplish. It sounds like you're playing well.