OK, so I realized (with the help of some people) that I have completely neglected writing in this thing. Anyway, I've realized that all I end up writing about is poker, so this is officially my poker diary now. I've played way too much poker in the past two months to get into here, so I'll start with the last one. Yesterday I played in a 17 person tournament in Hicksville with, Eric, my friend from baseball on Sundays. I found out that he played hold 'em and it just happened he was having a big tournament so me and Tom got in on it. Anyway, there were 17 people at $25 apiece, making for over $400. The top 4 got paid, with the winner getting 225. Not bad. We started out with two tables, one with 8, one with 9. I was at the 8 person one, sitting at Tom's right. I was patient early on, trying to feel out everyone, because I hadn't played with them before. My first big hand was actually a total bluff. I had 10 6 on the button, and everyone folded to me, so I figured I'd try to steal the blinds. So I raised it 3 bucks (you start with 25), and both Tom and this other kid call me. Uh oh. So the flop comes jack 8 3. They both check and I figure let me take a shot at it, so I bet 4. Tom folds with an angry look on his face, but the other kid calls. The turn was a 9, giving me an open-ended straight draw. He checked, so I bet 4 again, and he called. The last card was a blank, and he checked again. Now obviously if I checked, he was taking it, so I bet 7. He thought about it for a while then folded. He told me later he had two pair! Haha, the power of the bluff. A few hands later I got pocket queens. Josh came in raising two bucks, and everyone else had folded. I re-raised 5 bucks and he ended up folding it, showing me pocket 8s. Pretty impressive, as I didn't think these guys would give hands like that up, but I won't complain. About an hour later I get pocket aces, and I raise it 4 bucks preflop, and get two callers. Flop is king queen 4. They both check, I bet 4 and they both call. The turn is a queen, something I definitely didn't want to see. One of them went all in, and I had to toss away my aces. God, I hate doing that, but it turned out to be right, because the other guy called and they both a had a queen! So I saved myself a lot of money by laying down the rockets. After about 3 hours of playing, I was the chip leader at my table, but nobody was dying, except for one idiot who would keep betting then fold at the river before anyone even bet. The other table was already down to 4, so they decided to move one of us down there. My name got picked out of a hat, so I had to go. Here's where I got stupid. Instead of waiting these guys out to see how they played, I got aggressive. These guys would not fold anything, and before I knew it 3/4 of my stack was gone, mostly on bluffs. I survived to make the final table, which was 8 people. I was down to 12 dollars, which was the equivalent of betting with IOU's. I had to wait for a hand to go all-in on, but I couldn't even get a face card. After about 7 hands, I was on the big blind with a king 3. Everyone folded except one kid who went all in for about 30. I only had 5 left in front of me, so I had to call him and hope to draw out. He flipped over pocket queens. I flopped an inside straight draw, but couldn't pull a 5 or a king to take it, so I went out in 7th. The good news is, Tom ended up winning the whole thing, the bastard. He didn't get into the tournament until the night before when I told him about it and Eric said he could fit him in. From what I hear, though, he played extremely well. He's really on a roll right now. Anyway, I think I've written enough, so I'll leave it at that. I'll try to get back here after any tournament I'm in to sum it up.


Quote of the day: "I don't play pocket aces unless they're suited."- Tom

Terrence's bankroll: -$25