"Hippopotamus" Themed Chess Blitz

To promote awareness of unusual openings, the chess club hosted a themed blitz tournament. In such an event, the first few moves are prescribed, usually causing a very strange position. From there, the game is played as normal. This time, we had to play the Hippopotamus, one that appeared terrible for Black yet actually allowed some good tactics. However, I did not do so well with it. Time for an account of each game!

1. Playing White against an extremely superior opponent. Things went well for most of the game, but them he just kept breaking down my structure. I could not stop an attack on my kingside, which caused me to lose.
2. Playing Black against a moderately superior opponent. I probably would have done a lot better had I not dropped a bishop within the first two nonprescribed moves. This game was essentially a disaster when taking into account my other blunders - dropped pawns, failed exchange, etc...
3. Playing Black against an opponent of uncertain strength. My opening was surprisingly OK. In fact, my middlegame went very well too. The issues came when he destroyed my castle position and took four of my pawns. Despite being down a few points, I did manage to eek out a draw from a three-move repetition.