IN LIKE A LAMB

So far, March is proving brutal to my bankroll. I made a good cash early in the month, then since the Bike incident, it has been pouring misery. I haven't even gotten to the midway point in any tournament I have played in this past week. I have been spending time at the NL tables, looking for a comeback, and I am playing decently, but hours of grind can so easily be wiped out by one bad hand.

Yesterday, I had bought in for $500 and hours in, I was still around even. I wound up getting involved in a postflop coin flip situation. I raised preflop and both blinds called. I flopped top pair, top kicker, yet the big blind bet $30 into me with two clubs on board. I recognized this as giving himself good enough odds to chase. I put in a huge raise, but he got stubborn and went all in. I didn't put him on a set. I really thought he had a flush draw, and with all his money in, I knew it was the nut flush draw. Okay, well let's say he has two overs to go with his draw. I've got his ace counterfeited, so that leaves nine clubs and three queens that he can hit, 12 outs with two cards to come, just under 50%. I'm nothing if not a gambler. I had a bunch of money in the pot already, and I was likely a slight favorite from here, so I tossed in my remaining chips. My read was spot-on, but a club on the turn busted me.

Today, I played dual $3/6 NL tables with $500 on each. On one, I flopped a set of eights against the preflop raiser with a JT on board. I check-raised him and he called, hitting his miracle K for a straight on the turn. I was not putting him on AQ and calling my raise with a gutshot draw, so I had him on AK or AJ or KJ and I got all my money in. I was lucky enough there to hit another king for a boat. That put me up over $1000, but the empire would soon crumble. With my stack at $900+, I flopped a set of sevens with an ace on board. I thought it was my lucky day. All my money went in on the turn, only to find he was sitting on trip aces. That wiped me out.

I won enough on the other table to make it a manageable loss on the day, but this losing thing is really testing my mettle. I really feel like I'm playing okay, and I'm not at all tilting or chasing, but this set-over-set and other assorted nonsense sure is irritating. My goal now is shifting towards getting even on the month. I need to hit a giant tournament like last month, or get some breaks to go my way in the NL cash games.