So after grinding through .01/.02 up to .05/.10, I hit my first "big" downswing today (dropped 4 buy-ins before I got too fed up). I don't think I played terribly and actually think I may have saved myself several more buy-ins by folding to what looked like obvious sets (or at least they did a great job representing sets)

1) So first, being newish to cash games, how large can "normal" downswings get? I've seen the number 10 buy-ins thrown around, and I'm sure it depends on how they are dealt with, etc, but I'm just looking for some general numbers.

Next, I got into an interesting spot with AA.

Seat 1: DreamSS ($9.75 in chips)
Seat 2: Wilston Brot ($11.30 in chips)
Seat 3: beixa ($10 in chips)
Seat 5: andyE5001 ($10.20 in chips)
Seat 6: DaNumbaOne ($11.90 in chips)
Seat 7: FATSALI1 ($12.15 in chips)
Seat 8: realbogetti ($8.95 in chips)
Seat 9: uriowi01 ($11.60 in chips)
andyE5001: posts small blind $0.05
DaNumbaOne: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to uriowi01 [As Ah]
FATSALI1: folds
realbogetti: raises $0.20 to $0.30
uriowi01: calls $0.30
DreamSS: folds
Wilston Brot: folds
beixa: folds
andyE5001: folds
DaNumbaOne: calls $0.20
*** FLOP *** [6c Tc 5s]
DaNumbaOne: checks
realbogetti: bets $1
uriowi01: calls $1
DaNumbaOne: raises $3 to $4
realbogetti: raises $4.65 to $8.65 and is all-in
uriowi01: raises $2.65 to $11.30 and is all-in
DaNumbaOne: calls $7.30

I had played a number of hands with Numba and was confident I was ahead of his range. The only hand I see bogetti having that has me beat is TT, so I was willing to take this chance.

Taking Numba out of the equation (who had shown the ability to make a BIG bluff in spots like this) does it really look like I'm behind bogetti's range? Realtime I was completely thinking this was AA vs KK vs QQ/AKc

Here are results:
*** TURN *** [6c Tc 5s] [Qc]
*** RIVER *** [6c Tc 5s Qc] [8d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
DaNumbaOne: shows [Qd Qh] (three of a kind, Queens)
uriowi01: mucks hand
DaNumbaOne collected $5 from side pot
realbogetti: shows [5c 4c] (a flush, Queen high)


2) Knowing these hands, this is a spot I want to be in, correct? I think I have around 40% equity and am only paying 33% in the main pot and 50% in the side (I am 90% to win the side pot). If i'm missing something big here, can someone point it out?

Looking back through the rest of the session, I got check raised A LOT. Probably close to 20% of the time I was c-betting. I ended up laying down to all but the tightest players (who I thought I had a better chance of me having AA over their KK/QQ rather than a set)

3) Against standard players with reasonable stats, check raises are almost always beating 1 pair hands, aren't they?