What do you do when you need to drop to a lower game but can't?

[Bokonon1972]

This post is a personal rant, advice is appreciated, but don't read on if you're looking for anything else.

My game is 20/40 live in NoCal. I've played it for about 3-4 months. I had little previous NL experience. The primary motivation for jumping into this game was the same reason I'm stuck there now: its the only live NL game in the area. There may be $1/$2 games in the South Bay, but not much more. The other games in the casino are spread limit; I think they hurt more than help.

I got up $30-40K within the first couple months playing the 20/40, thought I was on my way. Knew I could lose, but didn't imagine evaporating the bankroll. Ha! First mistake.

The last month has seen what I guess everyone sees from time to time. Everyone seems to hit their draws, I never seem to. I can't count the number of AK vs. AQ/AJ 3 outers that have turned and rivered me. Yet I realize that while sometimes its just bad players that do this, the good players are sticking in with their weak aces as well, probably assured the odds of me paying them off are good enough to gamble. And they've typically been correct.

The whole thing bottomed last week, when I got a truly excellent player to call my preflop all in with AK off against my AA, without being pot committed when he made the call. Naturally the flop had 2 kings in it.

I would love to drop limits. I've played 5-10 the last 4-5 vegas trips we've made, and won 3K+ every time; enough to pay for our gluttony and bring home cash. But again, no such option here.

I also realize that one of the issues is that buying in for the minimum 2K was a good idea a couple of months ago, but with experience you realize that you need at least 5 or 10K in front of you to really splash around and play this game. I still don't sit down with 10K (and now I don't really have the roll to do so), but I splash around like I do.

I think Bill Chen ruined my bankroll.

Anyway, if you can relate, and if you dug your way out of a similar hole, I'd be grateful for comments.