Summer Travel Continues....and the Foxwoods 2k

Hey guys. This has been a crazy summer. Since April, I have been crazy traveling, but only within the U.S. Vegas twice, Jersey shore/AC three times, Foxwoods and Mohegan, and Pennsylvania a few times. In September, I will be going to Vermont for a week, and Aruba trip is still up in the air for October. So far, it has been a great time, but I am happy to be home for now. My goals for the fall are to build up my practice and continue to build my bankroll. I have been thinking about visiting Australia a lot. I want to go so badly, I haven't seen my cousins in over 10 years; it would be an awesome trip. I think my first 6 figure cash, which I know will happen eventually, my reward will be Australia.

All of this traveling has caused me to start thinking critically of the direction my life is going. I am a super planner, but- extremely happy with a non-conventional job/schedule. I used to think that this is how my life would be- financially stable by 30, married by 33 and 1 child by 35. A very set plan.

Over the last month, I have realized that you cannot map out your life. Goals change, life is unpredictable. Athough I love kids, I don't want to give up my lifestyle and my freedom. I don't want to stop traveling. Domestication scares me. I can barely plan to renovate my bathroom without dreading how domestic that chore is. How can I get married, have a kid and be chained down? I always pictured myself as being a success, no matter what I do. I am still working at it when it comes to poker; I think its a never ending journey. As far as being an attorney, I have found my niche in per diem work. While I will not get rich in the area I am practicing, the flexibility and mobility it provides me is worth more than any amount of money. It is a nice balance- having a steady source of income, while focusing on my poker endeavors. Overall, I just want to be happy, no matter what happens. No amount of money or life planning will give me that.

Ok. Sorry for the life rant, just felt the need to blog about what was on my mind. In more relevant poker news, I played two live tournaments at foxwoods, the $340 with my dad last Tuesday and the $2,000 on Thursday. The $340 was easy, I had a super easy table. Late in the day, I lost two monster hands, and then shipped 12 bbs w 44 and ran into 66, LMAO. Nice game. I played really well though, and my reads were spot on.

While I was up in Foxwoods, I met up with a friend of mine, Matt aka ipayurrent online. He is an extremely talented player; and he is one of a few players I can actually discuss hands with on a deeper level. I was not planning on playing the 2k event because of my deep runs/no cash phenomena in 1k + buy ins in the last 8 months, but he offered to stake me for 1/2 so I decided to take him up on his offer. On a side note, I actually do like being staked. I thought I would feel stressed about it, but in a lot of ways, it forces you to bring your A game to the table and focus harder. I actually liked the pressure of it (even though players tell me all the time, you should feel no additional pressure). I played well. Starting stack was 30k with 1 hr levels. I chipped up to 40k early, then lost a few pots ak v. jj, etc, and was down to 29k. I played tight for a while, opened up a bit and chipped up to 55k. Then I lost a monster pot with top two against a set (my opponent was short enough that I could just not get away from my hand there). The sick thing was I raised early pos w j9hh, got two callers, and the caller on button had jj w only 15 bbs behind. Flop is j 5 7 and turn is 9, so sick. Pot was so big at that point, and I thought he slow played jj-aa, but I figured he would be lucky to have jj there, and my hand is so hidden. Anyway, not being results oriented, I think I played the hand well, it was just a huge set up/cooler. After that I had 20 bbs, so card dead, and ended up squeezing w 88 into KK of the big stack, that was fun. lol. lasted about 11 hours, there was 130 left when I busted, 315 started.

Matt on the other hand, shipped the whole tournament! The results are available at http://blog.ptseats.com/. Awesome job Matt, and I hope you have many more wins this year!

On a final note, now that I am comfortable with being staked, I am thinking of selling shares of myself for $3500 at Borgata, like $500 for 10%, and sell like 4 shares and put the rest up myself. What do you guys think? I am not big on asking people for money/staking, but a bunch of my friends are constantly sending emails/texts regarding staking. I guess I just have to look at it as purely a business deal.

Ok, I am going to finish my wine and go to bed since I have to be up early for court in Manhattan tomorrow...

Good money and peace,
Garnet.

Contemplations...

On a completely non poker note, and I may have said this in the past, Devil Dogs are by far the bestest, greatest junk food in the world. I have been on a strict diet for the last two weeks, and in my spare time, i have given this a lot of thought. Once a month I will indulge in one super sweet thing, and it will be devil dogs =) Whats hilarious is that a few of my friends who live in the South have never heard of Devil Dogs, they thought I made up the name. Too funny. Devil dogs are my ultimate weakness in the junk food of life.

As many of you guys know from reading this blog, I am constantly balancing my emotions in poker versus objective, rational decision making. This has continuously been my greatest obstacle. Emotions serve to cloud judgments, change reads, and cause just downright bad play. Being a chic, it is harder for me to separate my poker self from my emotional self. In every tournament over the past ten days, with the exception of the 2k at foxwoods (which I will blog about separately), I have built a huge stack, just to get some sick fkin cooler, which prevents me from an inevitable final table. Cursing immediately follows my bust out. But then I remind myself that its my job to get my opponent to play poorly and trick him into getting his stack in bad. Whatever happens after that point, it is ultimately out of my control.

That being said, I have tried many new things to improve my game the last two weeks. I played a bunch of points tournaments and lower limit tournies to practice being more aggressive later in tournaments. LOL. I know some of you think i am super aggro as it is. However, what I need to add to my game is more three and four betting without being all in. In other words, three betting and four betting when my stack is really deep. It has worked out well, and I am much more comfortable now than I was last month. I feel an immediate improvement and I am excited to play every day.

As far as results go, I have three final tables in the last two weeks, two in the 130$ nightly on UB and a smaller tournament. I have a step 10 for Aruba (but I might save it and use for another trip), and a bunch of step 7-9s to play. I have really mastered my sng-satellite game and I think it shows in my success in steps.

I played the $55 nightly on Stars and Full tilt 4x in the last week, I went deep three times. Top 40. Last night was the worst, I got it in 4th in chips w AA against AK diam and was practically drawing dead when he flopped nuts. Sigh. If I win that hand, I guarantee a top 3 finish instead of 30th place. Another tourney another day.

I have a bunch of hands from live play to blog about, and I will post them soon. I played a small satellite at Borgata on Sat and bubbled that too, its all about the bubbles these days. =)

I am excited for my Sunday tournies, I will post tonight or tomorrow, along with the hands and let you know how it went. Last Sun was torture, I wish my laptop caught on fire so the torture wouldve at least been stopped, lmao. Ok. More later,

Good money and peace,

Garnet.