Advice on making plays based of reads

Sorry if this doesn't seem like much of a question, I want advice but not really sure what sort of advice I'm seeking, just this has been on my mind for awhile now. Basically, how much can one incorporate live reads into their game, if that makes sense. I'll post some examples to explain what I mean:

I was at a live venue and I was in late position with AKs and there were no limpers. I raised it 3 BB and the small blind called; this player is tight by local standards, loose by online standards, the loosest I ever seem him limp is Q6 mid position.

The flop comes K99. he checks, I bet 1/2 pot, he calls. Can't remember what the turn was but it wasn't significant; I bet 1/2 pot again and he gos all-in; I was getting about 1-2 on my money to call and that hand would cripple my stack by about 40% if I lost. I immediately, and correctly put him on A9, I couldn't see him making that play with any other hand. So I said to him something like, "you've got A9 hey?" and he replied with something like, "I could have this that blah blah" Basically declaring that he had the A9 yet didn't want me to think that so he told me a bunch of hands he could have had.

I think this hand was a clear fold but I still stupidly called him; after I seen it I was kicking myself, all the pieces of the puzzle fit; this is too common with me, I realise the tells and the mistake I made [i]after[i] the hand.

Another hand which went more on a physical tell; I can't remember exactly what I had as it was awhile back but basically I had AQ or AK and mid-early, the BB called. The flop came AJJ and when the player seen the 3rd J he visibly kind of jumped for a split second. However, I completely ignored this and made my normal continuation bet, and called his shove as I was getting 1-3 on my money, and of course, he had KJ

Another time I had AA in the BB, there was a person who had been raising a fair bit preflop and followed it up with a c-bet every time; because of this I elected to call and check raise the flop. The flop came KJJ and he immediately grabbed his drink and I noticed that his hands were shacking, yet I ignored this as after all, I have AA, and lost to his 3 of a kind, I commented on his shacking hands and someone else said something about old age and I foolishly believed them, sigh.

And the final example: Basically I had QQ in the BB, a tightish passive player that barely spoke and hardly raised put in a decentish raise on the button and the SB called, I decided to push; I ignored his betting patterns but most of all, I ignored the fact that he became very talkative in that hand, more talkative throughout the whole night, so my QQ lost against his AA.


So what do you guys think? I've got a bit more to say but I don't want to influence your responses or bore you to death

Here's something Jonathan Little emailed me awhile back regarding this topic:

I played a hand in the $10,000 WPT event in Cyprus where logic
(pot odds) and intuition (reads) went totally against each other.
Normally, my reads are fairly accurate and I trust them 100% but
I failed to go with my read in this spot simply because of the
pot odds, which I did not actually have.

Ran Azor, an older Israeli guy who recently final tabled the
$25,000 WPT main event, raised from the cutoff to 6000 at
1000/2000-300, which he had been doing fairly often. I picked up
KThh on the button and decided to reraise to 20,000 and call his
push, which would be for 60,000 total if he did decide to push.

Anyways, everyone folded to Ran and he went all in for the
$60,000. At this point I was 100% sure I was going to call,
simply because I only needed to win 33% of the time and KThh
clearly wins that much against his range. The only problem is
he instantly stood up and started walking around.

When someone stands up before the action is closed, it is almost
always a sign of extreme strength. This is because the body gets
so excited at the proposition of almost certainly winning that
you subconsciously want to get up and move around. I saw this,
made the comment, "wow, maybe I should fold." At this point, he
looked at me as if to say "no, please don't fold."

I would love to say I listened, but I did not. I let the logic
side of my brain get the best of me and I called. He turned over
AA and doubled up.

All of this is basically to say that you need to figure out
which side of your brain you trust the most and go with it.

Learn to trust "you".
Jonathan Little

A lot of my reads from live games have been ignored. Now that I have a library of reads and have learned to put them into better use, as I'm able too figure out what kind of hand my opponent is likely to have and know my odds against the hand.

However for a long time I would say "oh god, you have j9" on a 78T board and I'd just know he had it, but I couldn't fold my QQ.

Not trusting your reads has cost me more than it would have to trusted them.

Eventually with enough experience you get to the point where you're seldom wrong but are used to not being correct.

Consider it a stepping stone on your path to reads, and try to trust yourself more.

My gut tends to be a better poker player than my brain. If I could just get the two of them too work together all the time I'd be the next guy to win 8 BBs/100.

I think what my problem is that I am fairly certain that my opponent has me beat, but I'm offered decent pot odds and have such a strong hand I can't lay it down. I need to get rid of this mentality; it's kind of like that idea that no one can ever fold a full house.