Limit Holdem Challenge Day 5 - Grinding it out

Today I experienced what it means to ‘grind it out’ in my Limit Poker Challenge. I had another successful day to keep my streak intact at 5 days and counting by winning a total of $5.30. I played for about 90 minutes and it was a day of few ups and many downs in that I was not catching cards like I had the past few days and was down below my buy-in almost the entire time until one of the very last hands (in fact, the last hand I played). I did manage to win my first hand played to put me up just short of $2 dollars and after that I went down as low as $7 and then built that back up to just over my buy in of $10 when the last hand I played came up and I have put the hand history below.

I Played 90 minutes and won $5.30
Hand stats
During current Hold'em session you were dealt 78 hands and saw flop:
- 6 out of 8 times while in big blind (75%)
- 4 out of 9 times while in small blind (44%)
- 9 out of 61 times in other positions (14%)
- a total of 19 out of 78 (24%)
Pots won at showdown - 5 of 6 (83%)
Pots won without showdown – 5

I was up and down for about 90 minutes until this hand came up. I think I played it all right but what my opponent had stunned me and made my day.

PokerStars Game #5804775367: Hold'em Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2006/08/05 - 08:50:19 (ET)
BaacUK: posts small blind $0.10
_hycterikal_: posts big blind $0.25
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to lzfsb3 [Qs Qd]
PipDancer: folds
Tekil: calls $0.25
audreyursula: raises $0.25 to $0.50
lzfsb3: raises $0.25 to $0.75
BaacUK: calls $0.65
Tekil: calls $0.50
audreyursula: raises $0.25 to $1
Betting is capped - Capped the betting preflop.
lzfsb3: calls $0.25
BaacUK: calls $0.25
Tekil: calls $0.25

*** FLOP *** [7h 9s Kd]
BaacUK: checks
Tekil: checks
audreyursula: checks - King is kind of scary but no one bets or reraises my bet.
lzfsb3: bets $0.25
BaacUK: folds
Tekil: folds
audreyursula: calls $0.25

*** TURN *** [7h 9s Kd] [Ts]
audreyursula: bets $0.50
lzfsb3: calls $0.50 - Board still scary with King and possible straight

*** RIVER *** [7h 9s Kd Ts] [As] - I think Ace is the killer card but I have to bet out as Sklansky says it is better to lose one bet than it is to lose the entire pot by folding the winning hand.
audreyursula: bets $0.50
lzfsb3: calls $0.50

*** SHOW DOWN ***
audreyursula: shows [3c 2d] (high card Ace) - She had nothing, a total bluff and it cost her
lzfsb3: shows [Qs Qd] (a pair of Queens)
lzfsb3 collected $6.45 from pot

Unbelievable way to cap off a tough session of poker. She had literally nothing and was willing to throw away several dollars, which I was very happy to take from her. The one hand made me a nice profit after grinding away and basically just treading water. I am up $45 after 5 days of my challenge. I will be moving up in limits in the next day or so. Ultimately level 10 is my goal but when I get to level 5 I will reevaluate how the Challenge is going and if I want to continue it or not. (See Chart Above)