First Win of 2006

I played in E's Monday afternoon 1/2 NL game the other day and I had a great time. I bought in for $200 and had a nice run of cards from the start, turning the $200 into $400, then $600 and then up to $800. Once I got up to $800, I realized of my many wins at E's house I have never cashed for over $1,000, so I set a goal to break the 1k mark. 8hrs into the game I began to tire and I decided to play one more orbit and then cash out when UTG for my $800 or so. Well all the sudden I am dealt KK in MP and my 1k mark is offered to me on a silver platter. Here was the hand:

UTG Big John playfully raises to $4, one call, I re-raise to $16, button calls, SB calls, Big John re-raises to $50 as he had done earlier in the game to put pressure on another player, I think for a few seconds am positive he doesn't have rockets and re-raise to $200 (roughly the size of his stack). Fold, Fold, Big John thinks about it and says "Alright I'm all-in" and throws it in, total pot around $480ish. I flip over KK vs his AKos. I win this I break my 1k mark. Flops garbage, turns an Ace. Roughly 69% to win the hand but that's poker. I cash out after the next hand for $600, a nice $400 profit to start the new year.

Other key hands in the game. I have JJ and talk Tammy into folding her QQ when I bet $60 on the flop, she raises it to $160 and I go all-in $300+. I quickly realize she has QQ so I had to talk her out of it and after five minutes of deliberation she folds and I wipe my brow. Good game, I feel I played well and was only one-bad-beat away from 1k which would have been nice.

Here's to a year of playing good poker and winning thousands. Best of luck to all.