The Long & Winding Road (to expert)

Mr Najdorf had it right... and to illustrate it, here is the worst beating of my life. Whenever I play a master, I'm determined to reach an endgame. I've been massacred too many times to play a slugfest against these guys, but I don't have a choice sometimes. I was riding high after winning 5-6 games in a row, but my opponent (anonymous to avoid spoiling his prep, I don't really have prep myself so there's that) was just deadly and demonstrated how to play the black side of the Budapest Gambit:

That was painful... it shows how dangerous it is to just play the same ideas that have worked in past games. In my previous game, e4 allowed me to turn back my opponent's attack and play f4-f5-f6. In this game, it opened up an attack on f2, killed my light squared bishop, and wasted a tempo. So much for reaching an endgame! Just like golf- whenever I think I'm playing well, I get crushed and quickly disabused of the notion.