I might sound like a broken record now, but we should always focus on our own decisions, because they are the only part of the game, which we control. Opponents "making questionable plays and getting lucky" is NOT the reason, if we fail to acheive long term success in the game.
Hand 1 AQs
Preflop
I like the isolation raise, but even though its a small detail I would prefer it to be a bit larger. At least 4BB to simply get more value with a hand, which is far ahead of his limping range as well as the players in the blinds. When you face a jam from the short stack in the blinds, and the limper calls, I would overjam and get it in. You are still far ahead of the limpers range, and postflop will be very awkward with a 1 SPR pot and someone already all-in.
If you overjam two things can happen, which are both great. Either the limper folds and leave a ton of dead chips in the pot, sweetening the pot
odds, and you also limit your risk to the chips, which the all-in player has put in. Or he call and then you play a side pot, where you have at mininum 45%
equity and often a lot more, if he call with a hand like the one, he had.
Flop
As played this is an easy fold for me. If the limper has a K, you only have 3 outs, and even if he has a hand like 87, you still only have 6 outs. You are only getting 2:1, so your
pot odds are simply not good enough to call here and try to improve. When you call here, you are really hoping, he is on some total airball bluff like Q9 or JT. And this is just so unlikly, because even if he makes you fold, he still need to beat the other guy at showdown, and there is not yet a side pot, which he can win.
Hand 2 JJ
Standard spot to get it in for 6,4BB, and then the outcome just is, what it is. The only non-standard part is, that BTN should have jammed his Q4s into two short stacks in the blinds rather than min-raise and call it off. But the result would have been the same obviously.
