Thursday night had the usual helping of poker on the floor, Roy with too many chips, and Jonathan's big red feet too close to my chips. We had ten of us to start with, so we had one large table on the floor. I use table loosely here. I was seated on Jonathan's right, with Yush to my right, then Roy and Pete going around. The setup wasn't so bad, as I was finally after Roy, although not right after him.

For the first hour I had nothing to play. I mean nothing even remotely playable. If I would have found a 5 8 suited I would have played it, but it was nothing but 9 4 off and queen 2 off. Roy was dancing around in a lot of pots, making a lot of preflop raises, but it was hurting him early, as he was down to about 9 bucks in chips. The first real notable hand came when Roy came in for a small raise, and he was called by Jonathan and one other guy. The flop was something like 4 5 7, and Roy bet out a dollar or so. Jon called, and the other guy folded. The turn was an ace, and Roy bet out another dollar. Jon then raised him all-in for his last three bucks. At this point, I'm figuring, "Great, Roy is completely pot-commited here(there was about ten bucks in the pot, and only three in front of him), and Jon has to have him to make this move." Wow, was I wrong. Roy called, and showed ace 3, I believe. Jon turned over jack high. Wait a minute. Jon turned over JACK FRICKIN' HIGH! That meant he was drawing dead to Roy's aces, so Roy doubled up on jack high. This drove me absolutely nuts, as Roy has been killing the Thursday game lately, and he was finally down to the point where if no one tried anything stupid, he was almost sure to go out. Guys, if you feel like bluffing, don't do it to a pot-commited shortstack, especially if that pot-commited short stack is Roy.

For some reason, my brain is telling me that this was the very next hand, but maybe it wasn't. Roy got involved in a pot with Ryan in which Roy bet the flop, Ryan raised, Roy reraised, and Ryan went all-in. Roy called it, once again being pot-commited at this point. The flop had been 7 8 9, or something like that. Roy had jack 8, giving him middle pair and a straight draw. Ryan turned over queen jack, declaring, "I have the straight. Oh God, I thought I had the straight." So Roy dodged a queen and a ten to double up yet again, this time when his opponent had queen high. QUEEN HIGH! If I had a gun, I would have shot everyone that paid Roy off, then myself, right there on the spot. But alas, I did not possess such a needed tool.

Speaking of tools, everyone seemed to go off the deep end in response to Roy's tricky and erratic play. I didn't, because I wasn't playing. One hand occurred in which Roy raised preflop and was called by Jon and Ryan. Yes, the same Jon and Ryan that doubled Roy up without so much as ace high. The flop came ace blank blank. Roy bet out, Jon raised, Ryan reraised, and Roy folded. Jon called the reraise, which was a sizeable one, and when the showdown came, both players had ace 2. Do you really want to risk your whole tournament on top pair with no kicker in a three-handed pot? Oh, yes you say? Then be my guest.

I still had not seen anything to play, but I was enjoying watching everything happen, like the hands get played out and the creases in the carpet change direction. Another burst of lunacy occurred right after the ace 2 hand. Pete came in raising, Roy reraised him, Jon reraised Roy, and was then called by Donald. Pete folded and so did Roy, so Jon and Donald took the flop. There was about 30 bucks in there, with Jon and Donald about even with 20 bucks left or so. The flop came queen 9 4, all spades. Donald checked, and Jon went all-in. Donald called immediately and turned over pocket queens. Jon showed pocket jacks, but he had a spade. Donald seemed very happy with himself, but apparently no one told him that flopping top set is the only way to assure yourself of defeat in our games. Sure enough, the turn was a spade, and Donald was close to toast.

We had seen about 6 all-ins happen, with the shortstack winning every one. Some of them were memorable, such as Ryan's jack 4 beating Bobby's ace king, while others left no memory. Suffice it to say, there was money flying around all over, but no one would die. Ryan had gone all-in about 5 times, but was still alive, even though it was painfully obvious that he was trying to give his chips away. In one hand, Roy raised preflop, Yush called, and Jon called, then Ryan went all-in for another 25 bucks or so. This was a big bet, considering the pot had only 8 bucks or so in it. Roy folded, as did Yush, and Big Red sat and thought about it. He finally decided to call it, and he turned over ace ten of diamonds. Personally, I don't know how you make this call for half your chips when there's a good chance that you're dominated. At best, you figure to be a 54-46 favorite, which is what Jon was, but I don't know any experienced tournament player that wants to get his money in on what amounts to a coin flip this early in a tournament. Jon later told me that he likes coinflips- I'm serious, he really did- maybe because he's famous for catching cards on them. This time, though, a king hit the river and doubled Ryan up with his king queen of clubs.

Our first casualty was Pete, who had been playing well all night while slowly building his stack, but there was the not-so-small matter of Roy, Owner of Pete's Soul, sitting on his left. Roy was calling every single raise Pete made, and repeatedly took the pot off him later in the hand. Despite this, Pete was in good shape, but he needs to realize, DON'T SCREW WITH ROY, BECAUSE HE KILLS YOU. Roy ended up taking Pete out after Pete made a gross overbet into a flop of queen queen 4, with the turn being a 9. Roy called and flipped over pocket 9s for a boat, and Pete was drawing dead with his pocket 8s. Pete, please stop messing around with Roy. It's bad for your wallet, man.

After Pete went out, everyone apparently had a hot date, and 4 more guys went out in the next 10 minutes. Up until this point, I had only two playable hands, and they were both pocket jacks. Once, I found them after Godwin raised 4 dollars into blinds of .25-.50. This huge bet caused me to fold it, as Godwin is a tight, solid player who doesn't make big overbets with marginal hands. The worst thing I figured him for was ace king, and there was a good chance I was a 4-1 dog to aces, kings, or queens, so I folded. He did have ace king, suited, so I'm happy with the laydown, especially considering Jon and Donald both called the big raise behind me. The other time I got pocket jacks I was staring at this situation. Blinds of 1-2. Ryan raises big, Bobby goes all-in, Roy goes all-in on top of him (at this point, Roy was the chip leader and had everyone covered). The action came to me, and I cursed and stomped my feet and threw down my pocket jacks yet again. It turned out I was up against two ace kings, one of them suited, and pocket 9s, so again, a good laydown.

My one other playable hand was ace king, which I reraised Roy preflop with. He called, and the flop was 10 10 4. Roy went all-in immediately. This was early in the tournament, and Roy was shortstacked, so I could call and knock him out, but it would have cost me more than half my stack, and I'm not a big fan of calling half my stack with ace high. I knew if Roy had a pair, I was a 3-1 underdog to win, and if he didn't have a pair, I was a 3-1 favorite. If he had a ten, I was done. I had figured him for mid-pockets with his preflop actions, and his post-flop play reinforced that read in my head. I laid down the hand, and he showed pocket 7s, so that was a good read. Someone decided to rabbit-hunt, though, and an ace would have hit the turn. Grrrr... Still, it was the right play.

My reads are getting pretty nasty lately, I must say. All the time I was folding, I got to sit back and observe how everyone was playing. I got a really nice read on Jonathan, and I even called him out on a hand at one point. He had reraised the pot to 5 bucks preflop, which was big at the early juncture of the tournament at which he did it. Roy and Bobby called it. The flop was ace 4 6, and Bobby and Roy both checked. Jon bet out another 5 bucks, and they both folded. Roy did so after pondering for quite a while. I immediately said, "Pocket kings are good," because I just knew that's what Big Red had. I had been hoping Roy would come over the top, because Jon would have had to lay it down with the ace on board, or maybe he wouldn't have, who knows. After I made my comment, Jon flipped over pocket kings for all to see.

We were down to 5 people, and I was somehow still alive despite not yet winning a pot or seeing more than one flop. My first pot was won with ace high, but it didn't get me much. Did I say my first pot? It was also my last pot, as I got knocked out in fifth. I had king jack in first position, which was close to being the best thing I had seen all night. The blinds were 1-2, and I had 10 bucks in my stack. I went all-in, not wanting a caller, because I would probably be behind anything that would call me, but I also needed to double up bad, because I couldn't blind my way into the money, and anyway, I was here to win, not get third. Bobby immediately called right behind me, and the other two folded. He flipped over the hand of the night for me- pocket jacks- so I was in some trouble, but it wasn't impossible. After it was all said and done, the board was high card 8, so Bobby took it and I was out. How ironic is it that I got knocked out by pocket jacks after having to lay them down twice in one night. Just about every hand that meant anything to me involved pocket jacks. Poker gods, you are a cruel bunch. I would just like to offer you peace, and my assurances that I won't badmouth you in the future. Just please be merciful with me, as you have a habit of beating me over the head.

Roy ended up cruising to another victory, and I'm in a ridiculous hole in the yellow chip count. Hopefully next week, people don't give away their money to him- *cough cough Jon, Ryan cough cough*- and I get some cards to play with. I actually felt like I played well tonight, despite not really playing, because I made correct laydowns all the time. Some may fault me for not mixing it up and trying to steal some pots, but believe me, there were not any pots to steal, as there were people calling huge raises all over the place time and time again.

Quote of the week: "He called with a jack high!"- Ellix Powers

Terrence's bankroll: $235-$5=$230