I'm such a nit fish, please roast me. Two hands from today's session

Is this 2/5? Better to include positions and stack sizes.

H1 is a difficult spot. If you call or raise, you are sort of face up as an overpair. I don't blame you for folding, but it might not be the best play.

H2, I am not folding to the lead getting almost 4-1. River seems to only help JT or AQ, and it isn't clear he would play either that way on earlier streets. Maybe he could be slow playing a set or aces up? Could he have a worse top pair and be sort of block betting? Not clear what he is representing.

Your screen name, alwayslimpAK checks out. Lol.

Anyway it seems like you recognized your mistakes, which is half the battle.

Like in hand 1 it's OK to just call in position. With the pot odds you're getting you don't have to win the pot that often, and you have the advantage of acting in position so you'll be able to make better decisions on the turn after seeing what your opponents do.

Hand 2 again just try to focus on pot odds. You don't have to be good that often to make that call.

What you're dealing with being risk-averse is kind of natural human psychology that you have to overcome to be a successful poker player. Losing money is more painful compared to the psychological reward of winning money. So it kind of goes against our natural wiring to call in spots where you're going to lose most of the time, but pot odds mean you only have to win 1/3 of the time or whatever for the call to be profitable.

Not 1/3 of the time in H2. 100 to win 370, so you can win less than 1/4 of the time and it's a call.

I know it sounds counter intuitive, but before you fold in situations like these, take some time and seriously consider raising or jamming

You have to take chances in this game.

I might be the one to help you as I play for money. I see these people go to the atm for unlimited cash, but I’ve never used one of those machines. If I lose my buyin, I go home

So, what I’m saying is that I am apt to fold situations with variance or when it’s a flip and wait for a better spot. But you have to play the game.

1. You should almost never fold a strong hand on the flop. Flop bets rarely give meaningful info as people are jockeying for position. Need to know stack size as I might call really deep or shove if shallow. Poker cruncher has you at a 70% favorite with this board. You can catch up & counterfeit 2pair. Only a set crushes you.

2. These are not great players making calls from the SB as this is a raise or fold position usually. I utilize reads, so I’m not sure what I’d do here. My first instinct is that he hit, and is afraid you’ll check behind. It’s probably more rare that he knows his Ax is no good and goes for the steal. I’m more wary here than the first situation, but with those odds a call is reasonable. Having villain descriptions would be helpful as I can be swayed by image.

You can play your cards anyway you want to - these are not terrible folds, don’t get that in your mind. It’s just one hand of poker, I always like to point out that a guy folded pocket queens preflop, and won 10 million and the WSOP after that.

So, on to the next hand, no worries
If you have doubts, nothing wrong with folding

But you do have to take chances when you think you have an edge. You do have to put villain in uncomfortable spots, not just let them do that to you. I’m willing to go home in some spots, because when nits like us shove, people get out of the way.

Finally, relax bro, most players lose because they play too loose, you’re on the right track. You have learned to fold, now focus on when to attack.

Grunch:

What are the stakes here?

Hand 1 - folding flop facing this action actually doesn't seem all that nitty. Just the opposite, it seems very disciplined. Probably a good fold more often than not.

Hand 2 -

PRE - seems fine.

FLOP - on ace-high flops, I like to over-bet or check. This one could go either way, but probably lean towards over-betting, targeting his worse AX combos.

TURN - probably just checking it back once V calls our c-bet. I don't think your 1/2 pot bet sizes on flop and turn are accomplishing anything. Either check back, bet small to keep more of his range from folding, or bet big to get value from the top of his range.

RIVER - the check-call twice donk river line tends to be under-bluffed. Triple Broadway boards also tend to be under-bluffed. The only thing that seems odd here is his less than 1/3 pot sizing. I'd think he'd size up with thick value.

Hard to give V credit for JT that drills the gut shot. More likely a hand like KQ that called flop and turn getting a good price, then blocks the river when he makes kings up.

I don't hate the fold. If we have the right image and I think V is able to lay down middle 2P, I might turn our hand into a bluff by raising huge. Our specific combo has decent properties for turning it into a bluff. We block combos of JT and aces up.

Again, probably a disciplined and correct fold. Instead of focusing on the last decision made, I'd focus on the decisions you made leading up to that last one. Specifically, I'd focus on your bet sizing and decisions to bet versus checking.