heh, yes i indeed wrote that swings were fun! weeeeeeeee! personally, i avoid making thin vbets and thin calls, bluffs, etc. because even though a play might be +EV, i will forgo it to keep my sanity from the corresponding swings.

of course, do this too much and you won't move up past 200NL, or you'll be a bot grinding out 1ptbb/100 and relying on rakeback for profit.

as for hand 5, yeah that's as tough as it gets. i find it harder to play as a shortstack than as a full stack here. the implied threat makes laying down queens here a lot easier with a full stack. but with a shortstack you find yourself in a position of damned if you do and damned if you don't, so you just push and hope for the best.