Today is "trudge through the sludge day" here on the ranch. By "ranch" I of course mean my palatial Indianapolis estate, which occupies 45 acres for the house and swimming pool alone, and in which I am regularly fed grapes by beautiful, topless young women of a certain pedigree.

And by "sludge" I of course am referring to Party's 50 NL game. I've put in about 3 hours and am roughly minus one buy-in. It's not for lack of trying - I've simply been cold-decked like hell. I've sat in at least five very juicy games today and come up empty-handed - not able to take advantage of any of the fish I've come across. Basically it's just dire starting hands and missing a lot of draws, or getting outdrawn when I have a thin edge. Nothing's working, but I'm hanging in there - or trying to. In retrospect, I should have realized Saturday night when I was playing my last 25 NL session and getting aces seemingly every other hand (including - not kidding - back-to-back TWICE on different tables), that things were bound to swing the other way soon enough. Soon enough in fact for me to enjoy hours of staring at 24o today.

Oh well. I do feel like my legs are back under me for this level, and if I can ever get some cards or connect with some flops, I'll prove it. I'm playing well, I think - considering that I've only won two $10+ pots today, and one was on a stone cold bluff, I'm really not doing too badly.