Try, and try again

As you may have been able to tell from the frequency and content of my last few posts, the poker gods have not been kind to me recently. I now have an overall loss for the month of July of $15, after being $70 up at one point!

Some more examples: there was one game where I ran first KK and then QQ into AA (the first event did not quite finish me off). Then there was a game where I ran QQ into JJ *and* AA at the same time, and the board not only contained an ace but also a jack for good measure.

I called an all-in of a short stack when I held 99, he had A6 and everything was fine until the river ace.

On the first hand of a game, I got TT and played it perfectly, and I do mean perfectly. I raised to 100 = 5BB PF (I was in early position), got three callers. Flop was Txx with two diamonds. I bet half the pot (200) to chase away flush draws. This does not quite work as the guy with the flush draw (AQd) instead decides to go all-in and of course makes his flush on the very next card. Sure, he had overcards, and he could not know that I held three of a kind, but even if I didn't I don't think he was favorite to win that hand.

Then very early in the next game, I got AA. There was a fairly big raise and a call in front of me, so I just went all-in immediately, though with heavy misgivings - it would not surprise me if I lost that game similar to the TT just before. Anyway, so the first raiser actually called... with 54 offsuit... got a 5 on the flop... and a 4 on the turn. Fortunately, there had also been an Ace on the flop and there were no further fives or fours on the river!

Twice yesterday, I was way ahead of somebody until they made a runner-runner four flush on the board. The second time, I was fortunate enough to have just made the money, so it was not a complete loss overall. Actually in that game, for the first time ever I think, I got AA three times in one sit and go. And I won all three hands (one of them is described above), but the second and third time I only made small profits. Indeed, one of them was in the BB and it almost looked like the hand was going to be folded round to me at one point, until the SB decided to take a shot.

So anyway, to sum it all up, I believe that I am playing reasonably, just not getting rewarded for it. You always know that there are going to be phases like that, but that does not make it easier to accept.