Am I beat?

Busting out (again) has shown me where I think my failing is:

Every book I've seen says to be cautious for example with a flush when there's a pair on the board. A guy could have a full house.

And I always seem to think "Yeah, but does he?". The way I play I don't require the nuts in order to bet on the end. Just because J7 can beat me doesn't mean opponent has J7, does it?

Apparently it does. This is especially troublesome at the tiny limits that I'm stuck with now. When people consistently show down unimproved Q2, I get the idea that you don't need the best hand to win. So I'll play fast with cards that are good (like top 2pair, or trips with weak kicker) but not great.

Now and then a guy won't have the nuts, and I'll win like that. But because I'm semi-jamming the pot on all these hands, the win doesn't make up for the losses.

Be patient and wait for opportunities where you have a flush and there is no paired board. When you make your flush on a paired board you want the pot to be fairly small so if the guy bets big you can drop it. The guy with the full house is just itching to get you to go all in with your flush. Don’t give him the opportunity. If he slow plays it then goes all in at the river he probably has it. If he has been betting to discourage the flush then he probably has just trips, but don’t count on it.

Also use his position to determine whether he might have the full house. If he’s a good player then he probably doesn’t have a 2 in early position. Be wary of the blinds and small card paired boards. Use his betting behaviors from earlier rounds to determine if he has a pocket pair full house. Remember that if he is a decent player then he has been betting during times when is hand is more susceptible and just wanting to keep people in with as much money in the pot by showdown if he’s got the full house. Use this to determine what he might have. Keep the pots small when you are unsure. When he has the nuts its his job to make a big pot. When you don't have the nuts it’s your job to either determine that he has inferior cards or get out. If you can't determine what he has then don’t get involved by putting in alot of your money. Choose your opportunities carefully to win big pots and practice damage control until those opportunities arrive.

Be more willing to call an idiot with a small stack and more willing to fold to a smart player with a big one at river time.

LeFou I'm just playing micro's right now for fun and to get experience in ring games.

My guess is that it will help to focus in on who are the fish. Usually at a full table of 10 at UB, there will be at least 3 who don't have a clue. And then maybe 3 or 4 who sort of know what they are doing but are usually playing too weak post flop and get scared easily. Then the rest are folks like us looking to rip the place up.
If you can identify the people who are pretty solid players (usually a good indicator is that they will have the bigger stacks because they've been milking it for a while), just remember who they are and don't tango with them as much unless you are pretty confident. Usually they will fold before showdown if that's the case.

Against the fish it's another story. You can try to bully them all you want but they'll go right along.
Say, you've got AK in early position.
You put in a 4xBB raise. Get 3 callers. lol, this is actually very common.
Flop comes up J32 rainbow. Chances are you are beat here, so you can't keep your preflop initiative. Besides, it doesn't matter to them because they wouldnt even realize. Check and fold.

The best is when the flop comes AT3, and someone hit their ace (with a 9 kicker or something), and will call your pot sized bets down to the river.

It's a different ball game, but one that I am starting to really think is fun.