I am currently in the midst of an unreal hot streak. This past weekend, my dodgeball team went to Manhattan and went undefeated in the International Dodgeball Tournament of Champions, winning a monstrous trophy and a medal for each of us. We went 10-0, the first team to ever go completely undefeated. I only got knocked out twice all tournament, and I eliminated more than ten other players. On Monday I got my first taste of the big time. I was invited to play in the pro-am round of the American Junior Golf Association Lessing's Classic as a member of the media. I was extremely nervous, but I made an excellent showing for myself, and our group was the low group of the tournament. I got a Waterford crystal as a trophy, and I also won a pretty slick windshirt in the raffle afterwards. That night I played poker with Lauren and Chris. Playing with them is definitely more of a social thing than a competitive thing, but we still buy in for 10 bucks apiece. Mal has been bugging me to teach her how to play, so I invited her, but she's a bum and has no money, so that will have to wait. Anyway, I got down to 10 dollars out of my 150 in chips to start with, then decided that I couldn't lose to them in good conscience, so I rattled off a bunch of nasty hands in a row, and finally beat Lauren heads-up at about 3:30 in the morning to win $20. By the way, she's about ten times better than Chris, which I find genuinely amusing.

Now on to the big one. Wednesday, 5 o'clock, Eric's house. 12 people bought in for $25 apiece. I was telling myself all week that there was no way I could lose with the way I was rolling recently. Eric, Jay, and Josh played from baseball, and I brought Tom (the defending champ), and Matt from work. We began with two tables. I was at Table 2, with Matt at my right, followed by nameless kid, Josh, Tom, and then Jay to my right. I played pretty conservative early, not getting involved in much, going down just a little from losing my blinds. I turned on the gas when I had jack ten on one hand, which I limped in on along with Tom and Josh. The flop came 7 9 3, and I checked. Josh did also, then Tom bet 2 dollars. At this point he had the chip lead, and he hadn't ever had to show a hand down, so I didn't think he had much and was on a steal. I raised him 4 and he called while Josh folded. The turn was an 8, giving me the nut straight. I bet 4 again, and Tom called. The river was a 6. I bet 8 and Tom called without hesitation. He had ace 9 for a pair of nines, and I whacked him with my straight. He was kind of perturbed at my play, but he can't complain because if he would have reraised on the flop I would have had to fold. He let me get my 8, so I'm not sorry. This put me in good position, up to almost 40 dollars and near the chip lead at the table. I didn't play many hands, and I slowly built my stack up over time. At one point, I got dealt aces, and I had 3 limpers. I raised it 4 bucks, and they all called! This could either be a dream or a nightmare. The flop came queen 8 4, pretty unremarkable, so I was pretty confident that I was good. They checked to me, and I bet 4 again. Everyone folded, giving me a decent-sized pot because of the preflop betting. After that I didn't play too much. A couple people got whacked, and they brought Eric over to our table. We combined our tables when we got down to 8, and I think I had the chip lead. Tom was also in good shape, and Matt was pretty solid. The blinds started going up, so I got more aggressive, and I stole a lot of pots. At one point, I raised 3 straight pots preflop, one with ace king, then with pocket tens, and once with ace jack. Only once did I get called, and I took that pot with a bet on the flop. Everyone seemed like they didn't want to mess with me too much because I was on a roll. Then a big hand came. Matt raised it from under the gun to 4 dollars. Everyone folded to me, the dealer, and I looked down and spotted jack king. I figured I was hot, so why not. I called, and everyone else folded. The flop was jack 6 2. Matt bet 8. I had seen him raise preflop with some pretty questionable hands earlier, so I thought I was good here. I called. The next card was a 5. He bet 12. I called. The last card was a king, giving me top two pair. He went all-in for another 12.50 and I called. He just had jack 7 of diamonds, so I didn't even need the king to win it, although it made the decision a lot easier. That felt great because I was telling him all day I was going to be the one to knock him out. I don't understand why he fell in love with that jack 7 though. Some people lose their minds just because cards are suited. I don't get it. Anyway, after that hand I was the clear chip leader. Eric and Josh got whacked shortly after Matt, so we were down to 5. Me, Tom, Alex, and two guys whose names I do not know. I looked down at pocket queens after one kid and Tom limped in, so I raised it 12. The kid was apparently slow-playing and he reraised another 8.50 all-in. Tom got out of the way, and I called. He flipped over ace king of hearts. Grr. I thought I would be a a sizeable favorite, but it was a coin flip. The flop was all low stuff, something like 2 4 7, with two clubs. The turn was a jack, and the river spiked an ace. I clapped my hands and yelled. I couldn't believe he caught the ace to beat me on the river. This was a good-sized pot, too. Then someone said, "Wait, he has a flush." I looked down and saw that there were four clubs on the board, and one of my queens was a club, so I won it! Wow. That felt like free money, because I had already kissed that cash goodbye. Now we were down to 4. What made it interesting was that these three guys all finished in the money last week, so I knew I was in for a fight. I stayed ultra-aggressive, stealing a lot of the blinds, which was huge, because they were 3-6 at this point. I got king 7 of clubs under the gun at one point, and I raised it 12, which was pretty standard, and the nameless one went all in, and Tom called! I was in some trouble, but the pot odds were too enticing to ignore. I had to call about another 20 in a pot that already had about 80 in it. The flop came ace 6 5, with two clubs. Tom went all-in, and I was getting about 9-1 on my flush draw, making my call a no-brainer. He turned over king queen, and to be honest, I have no idea why he went all-in here. He had nothing, and he couldn't bluff because the main pot involved the nameless kid, meaning Tom was gonna have to show down to win. The last cards came, and I didn't get my flush, which would have whacked both of them. Instead, the nameless kid had a nice stack, and Tom took the side pot. I went from chip leader to right back in the pack after that hand. That didn't stop me from being aggressive, though, and I stole a whole bunch of blinds to get back near where I was. Soon after I got 9 10, and I called the blind. Alex called, and Tom was in the big blind, so we were set. The flop was 8 2 queen, giving me an inside straight draw. I took a stab at the pot for 8 bucks, and Alex called. Tom got out of harm's way. The next card was a 7, making my straight open-ended. I bet 8 again, and got quickly called. The river was a 6. Sweet, beautiful 6, giving me the nut straight. I bet 25, and Alex raised me 30! I started salivating, because this was as good as it gets. I figured he had two pair or had maybe flopped a set and slow-played it. I re-raised all-in for another 30, and he called. I showed the nut straight, and he showed... 9 10! We both had the nuts! I couldn't believe it. I was certain that he was going to be crippled and I was going to have a whole mountain of chips to sit on. What an amazing hand. Tom got whacked about twenty minutes later, finishing one out of the money. After about 15 minutes of nonstop stealing going on, I looked down at ace king. I raised it 20 bucks, as the blinds were now 5-10. The nameless kid was in the big blind, and he went all-in for another 12. I quickly called, and he turned over pocket 5's, so we had ourselves a good old-fashioned coin flip. The flop gave me my ace, and we were down to 2. Me and Alex were about dead even, and we proceeded to keep raising out of the small blind, trading potshots back and forth. I got tired of all his raising after a while, so I decided I would outplay him on the flop. He raised it only ten, and I called with a jack 5. An ugly hand, sure, but I had no intention of catching anything. I was just going to make a play at him later. The flop came 4 5 6, which looked great to me, because I figured him for high cards. He bet 20, and I called before he could get his money in. The next card was another 5, and he bet 20 again. I called like lightning a second time. The river was a 10. He bet 20 once again, and I called again. He just had king high, and I had scored a huge blow. At this point I was up to about 210 to 90 in chips, a little better than 2-1. After a few short hands, I saw pocket 4s. I raised it 20, and he re-raised me another 30. He had done this three other times, and I had laid down my hand each time. I got the feeling that he was just bullying me, knowing he could make me lay my hand down on a re-raise, and I re-raised him another 30, putting him all-in. He called, which he pretty much had to do because he was so pot-committed. I was almost 100% sure that he didn't have a pocket pair, which would mean we had a race on our hands. I was right, and he turned over big slick. Pretty nasty, but I was still a slight favorite. Usually, I don't like getting all my chips in in a race heads-up, but I had earned the chips I had, and even if I lost this hand, he would have a 2-1 chip lead. I wouldn't be out. So I was happy to see he didn't have a wired pair. The flop was 5 7 9, which made me an even bigger favorite, about 85% at this point. The turn was a 7, pairing the board. This gave Alex a ton of outs, meaning he could catch a 9 or a 5 to counterfeit my 4s, or his ace or king to take it, as well. 12 outs on the river still left me as about a 75% favorite, but this was making me sweat. The river was a harmless jack, and I had finally gotten off the schneid. $200 for first place. Man, I felt so good. The only mistake I made all night was with that king 7, and there wasn't much I could even do about that. Come to think of it, I never went all-in once all night. That's a pretty solid night. I felt like tonight was the best I had played in a while, and I really put to use some of the concepts I had picked up from Sklansky's Tournament Poker book. (Thanks Crystal!) So, to recap... All is right with the world, and I am on a tremendous rush in everything.

Quote of the day: "Give me all the money, please!"-Marcel Luske

Terrence's bankroll: -$25+$20+$175= $170.