Random Rambling...

Hey all. This is going to be an eclectic blog of random thoughts, a few poker hands, and generalities of life.

January has been a roller coaster month, however my BR has not been positive since January 1. Jon, on the other hand, won the 50/50 on FTP January 1st, so he started the year with a 10k cash, which is awesome. I started using Jon's spreadsheet for Poker 2010 and its great. I have been going very deep in mtts, but not finishing. Thank goodness for mtt sngs- they have allowed me to keep afloat of my downswing in regular mtts. I also came in 2nd in The Dime last night on UB for $1700 so that made me almost even for the year. It felt good to go so deep, 2 out of 1355.

I am playing more and more on FTP and less on UB. I really prefer FTP's structure, however the players on UB are so much weaker. I am also interested in playing Cake Poker next month and expanding into more non- holdem games.

Next week, we are going to Borgata for their Winter Open. I am excited to play live. I really feel like my game is getting better and better. I am looking forward to bringing my online game to my live play at Borgata. So far, I am playing the Ladies' Event and maybe 3 other events. It depends on how well I feel I am playing, etc.

We closed on the house in Vegas last week, yeaaaa!!! So excited about that. Its amazing that we own a condo in NY and a house in Vegas, it is fantastic!

I satellited into the 1k on FTP last Monday, that was so good. It was my birthday. I had a great day online, I profitted 1200$ for the day plus the satellite entry. There were a few hands from the 1k that I think are worth sharing.

1. 44 in middle position. UTG + 1 raises to 150 (blinds 25-50), I call and two others call. The flop is K 9 4, rainbow. UTG + 1 bets 350 (2/3 of pot). He was a relatively tight player, so his range was pretty narrow- AA, AK, and possibly KQ, maybe a set of 99. I raise right there to 900. It folds back to the original raiser and he three bets 1200 on top. We were pretty deep. He had about 4k behind, after the reraise to 1200, and my all in was another 3k more to him. I four bet all in, because I felt like he wasn't going to fold, and I believed by making this play, he would most likely give me AK if he had AA. He timed out and called with AK. I doubled 8700. Any thoughts, comments?

2. I got ground down to 5k after getting reraised three hands within 20 minutes. Please know that this hand was partly a product of my frustration and secondly, the utg raiser lost 3 big pots in a row. So he raises to 500. I am in middle position. I have JJ w 5200 chips. I had 26 bbs. I normally smooth call here. However, considering my frustration with getting reraised, plus his image, I decided to reraise. In hindsight, because this is a 1k event and the first time I am playing it, I should have smooth called and play post flop. So, UTG shoves, I reluctantly call. He has AK, and flop is A A K and I am drawing dead. I finished 200 something, about 360 started.

That's all for now, I will write more later.. Enjoy your week!!

Good money and peace,
Garnet.