Grinding is rough

Hello all. Thanks for stopping by to check things out. Didn't get to play poker yesterday, as I had a TON of yardwork to catch up on since I was gone for 3 weeks. However, I did play for about 5 hours on Friday evening. And I'm up a whole whopping $0.75 for my troubles in the Limit Challenge.

Sat with my usual 30X BB in the .10/.20 game, $6. Had that slooooowly drain away when I couldn't hit flops for about 3 hours. Got to the point where I was going to just get it all in the middle by betting/raising just out of sheer frustration. But I held back, and continued on the grind. Finally found AJ on the button and raised. Four callers. Flop was AJA, two hearts. Beautiful. BB bet it, one caller, one fold. I decide that they are going to pay me off no matter what, so I raise. BB reraises, other guy calls. I cap it and both call. Turn is a blank (maybe an 8?) but still no flush yet. BB bets it again. I started the hand with $1.05 and manage to get it all in by raising here on the turn and having the BB reraise me for my last $0.15. The MP guy was along for the ride as well. River brought the flush, and the other two capped again in the side pot. BB turned over A4 offsuit. (yep...all that for a set with a crappy kicker). MP player scooped with KQ hearts for the nut flush (and almost royal, whew). I tripled up in the main pot and was on my way out of the hole.

But getting back to even still took some time. Variance is a bitch around the donkeys. They tend to get lucky and their A-x hits two pair when you have them outkicked. Ugly, ugly stuff. I am still wary when a bunch of middle connecting type cards flop (like 784) as you never know who played connecting cards here and is sitting on the 56o. It happens. The nice thing is that these donkeys usually will pay you off and even raise into you when they have TPTK, or even just TP, crappy kicker.

So after 5 hours, I was up to $6.75 and decided to call it quits. I might be playing for a bit this evening, but I still have more yardwork to catch up on today. Have all the flower beds prepped for mulching, so I need to get the mulch down. I'll update later.

Cya at the tables.