+three big blinds

One thousand hands, 3 big blinds cents profit.

I can't be too irritated, though - I was down 200 after 550 hands. Showdown problems, people hitting rivers, all that stuff, and then the inescapable set over set. Zoooom goes the buy-in.

It was enough to let me feel like it wasn't my night, but I felt like I was playing well, in a zone, feeling good, so I kept cranking. And I finally hit some flops and won a few pots.

The biggest pot of the night - 100 blinds even, was a gutty read. Not sure if it was hero or folly. A 21/21 raises from UTG+3. An unknown calls. I reraise on the button with pocket queens. A blind calls, as does the initial raiser.

Flop King, Four, Three. Two hearts. Both players check to me, I bet 25 blinds into 40. The 21/21 checkraise-shoves me. Now I see his aggressive stats, but I only have 24 hands of history on him. Will he do this with a flush draw? Did he call me preflop with aces? Am I just dead to the old ace-king? Or does he see my bet as weak and he's just putting me to the test.

Ranges, ranges, ranges. I try to think about ranges, and I see his 21% opening range. Lots of hands. Lots of hands. Lots of hands that my queens beat.

I finally decide he thinks my lead looks weak - like he can push me off the hand. I call. He's got 5c6c for an open-ender. Nice semi-bluff by him. He's got outs to catch me, but he doesn't hit them. Whew.

I actually crawl back to +50, but I get aces cracked late. I deserved to get them cracked with the way I played them. When a dude called me in position, then called my cbet, I started fearing the worst. I check-called the turn and river, and he hit a set of nines on the river. Sometimes this works - you check and the guy gets the green light - he bets twice with pocket nines, thinking they're good, and you scoop up two bets. When he hits his two outer and he gets the 40 blinds, you kick yourself to sleep.

So I end up with 3 big blinds profit.