Roy's game was last night, and I was really looking forward to it. For one thing, I've been playing lights out lately, but I was coming off back-to-back top 2 finishes there, narrowly missing back-to-back victories when my pocket tens fell to Yush's ace 4 of hearts last week.

Moonie the Gentleman had a birthday this week, so to pay tribute to him, we wore collared shirts with gym shorts. I went all out and wore a button-down shirt and tie, because I'm a classy guy, plus I was trying to channel my inner Devilfish.

Moonie, Pete, and Jon all showed up late (as the latter two did on Tuesday also), so we had 7 people and 10 chip stacks at first. The seating was like this: Yush, Moonie, me, Ryan, Han, Yum, Pete, Jon, Bobby, and Roy.

I had been talking to Pete Tuesday night about how I have a great tournament strategy, but I don't allow myself to build up chips early on, so I'm always a shortstack later in tournaments. We were talking about how if I could just get my hands on some chips early, I could dominate people. So I went into this game determined to stake myself to an early lead and build off of that.

I tried to get involved a lot more early on, so I saw a lot of flops. It didn't hurt that I had some reasonable hands like 78 suited, 9 jack suited, and a lot of similar things. I took a few pots early, but nothing huge. One came when Roy came in raising, and I saw pocket kings. Now usually, I don't screw with Roy, but pocket kings are pocket kings. I also know that he loves to play against hands like that, because people laid them down. I made a bit of an overbet, reraising him 7, because he was shortstacked and I wanted him pot-committed if he was going to play. Otherwise, he could try his sneaky stuff, and I was more than happy just taking a small pot right here. Roy folded, so I did. Still, I was going up, and I was up to about 80 bucks (we start with 50) after I took a nice pot off Bobby who was chasing a straight and a flush all the way to the river. I made the turn expensive for him, but he had so many outs that he was justified in calling anyway. I checked it down on the river and took it, though.

Here comes the monster hand of the night. The blinds were still at .25-.50, and Yush came in raising $5 from early position. This was a huge raise, but Yush is known for betting big when he has a good hand. I looked down and saw pocket aces. This was huge because I could severely damage Yush, my nemesis from the past two weeks. I knew he had to have a very strong hand, so he would probably call a big reraise. I decided to raise it another 14 bucks. Everyone else oohed and aahed and folded, and it got back to Yush. Yush reraised me 14! Wow, I thought, the bastard has pocket kings and I'm going to break him right here. I went into my Academy Award mode here, shaking my head a little bit, saying, "What are the odds," and shaking my head. Haha, I love this stuff. Finally, I said, "Alright, I'm all-in, another $42.50." It got back to Yush, and he thought for a while, then called. He had slightly less than me, $1.25, so if I found a way to lose this hand I was still in but barely. He flipped over pocket tens, surprising me a bit that he saw them through this far. I thought for sure he had kings or queens, but tens of course have to scare me. Especially tonight, because every flop had at least one ten on it. The flop came something like 9 4 2, the turn was a jack, and the river was a 6 or something, so I won the hand and took Yush out.

I now had a giant mountain of chips, over 150 in all. To make things even better, my stiffest competition, Roy, was very shortstacked, and I had just knocked out Yush, another contender. Bobby had a big stack of chips after sticking a straight on Han, who had a set of jacks. Other than that, everyone was down a little, although Yum may have been up slightly.

I few hands after the aces hand, I looked down to see pocket 9s. The blinds were up to .50-1 now, so I raised it to 5 total coming in. Bobby quickly reraised to 20 when it got to him. Everyone else folded back to me. Now, with a big chip stack, you'd normally want to push back with a big hand, but I have such a read on Bobby it's ridiculous. His raise was a bit of an overbet, and I was pretty sure he didn't want to see a flop. I ruled out aces immediately. At first I thought he had pocket kings, but that bet was just too big for kings. I was pretty sure I was beat, and I wasn't getting enough implied odds to stick a set on him, so I folded and said, "Queens are good." Bobby revealed that he did, in fact, have queens, so I think I got in his head a little there even though he took the pot.

Han finally got taken out, after being down to .50 and tripling up twice. He also split a pot in which he was all-in when he, Yum, and Bobby all had ace king. Ryan also got knocked out after he went on his patented psycho tilt spree and called all his chips with ace high after the flop. Roy was then taken out by Moonie when Moonie had pocket aces against Roy's top pair. By this point, Jon was still nowhere to be found, so we were blinding him down at twice the rate of everyone else. I also forgot to mention, but I bought in for four people tonight- myself, Pete, Jon, and, Bobby, because I lost 5 bucks bowling against Pete and Jon the night before, and Bobby had spotted me 5 over the weekend. So 20 of the 50 bucks in the pot was mine.

We moved up to the table when we got down to five. Still remaining were me, Bobby, Yum, Moonie, Pete, and Jon (who didn't really count because he wasn't there.) At the final table, I decided to really dictate the action, and I came in raising on most pots.

Moonie took a huge pot when he knocked out Yum, who went all-in on a total bluff. Bobby had been dwindling a little bit, and I still had a lot of chips, although Moonie was close now. Pete was also wasting away.

At this point, we had been playing for about three hours, and guess who shows up? Big Red, and he still had a little bit of chips. I picked up pocket 9s after he had been there for about ten minutes, and I cam in raising 8. Jon flat-called it on the big blind, leaving him with ten bucks more. I know he hadn't been playing all night, but I don't know what you can be smoking to make this play. If he had a hand, he knew I had to call if he raised all-in, and if he didn't, why was he calling anyway? The flop came 8 5 4, and I went all-in. He thought about it, then called with ace 7. My 9s held up, and Jon was dead, deservedly so. He's really been playing strangely lately, but this hand has to take the cake. Just a fundamentally awful play. But I was fine with it, because there was one less player and an extra chunk of chips in my stack.

We were now down to four, and I really turned on the jets. I was raising almost every pot, and the only one doing battle with me was Moonie. He was calling almost every raise I made, but I usually took the pot post-flop. Bobby, who plays very tight shorthanded, was folding everything, and Pete, who was shortstacked, was biding his time to find a hand to go in with. That left me to steal all the money.

Then this hand came up. I consider this hand to be even bigger than the one with Yush earlier. I got pocket aces again, and I came in raising, like I had been all night. Moonie called, as he had been doing. The flop came king jack 7, and Moonie bet out 20, a pretty big bet. I was a little worried that he may have hit top two pair, and I thought if I raised he was gonna stay with me, so I decided to just call. The turn was a jack, and Moonie bet 20 again. "Crap," I thought, "I let him catch trips with his second pair." I thought that there was still a chance he was just betting on the king, though, and I called. The river was a king, so the board was king king jack jack 7. Now I knew I was screwed. Whatever he had, it was now a boat. I know Moonie wouldn't be betting out each time with nothing. When the king hit, though, Moonie got a disgusted look on his face, and he checked. The pot was sick at this point, and the winner of it had a great chance to take the whole thing. "I need to get this pot," I thought. I also figured that Moonie could easily figure me for a king, as I had raised preflop and had been calling the whole way. I said out loud, "I think you got the jack," then bet out 60, which was about 3/4 of Moonie's total chips. It was also more than half of what I had left. Moonie thought for a little bit, and then tossed it in. He told me after the hand that he did have the jack.

Now I was in complete control, because Moonie was crippled. Bobby wasn't opposing me at all, and Pete had no money. Pete got whacked a little while later to finish 4th, one out of the money. When we got to the three of us, we raised blinds, which had been too low for too long. I got even more aggressive, raising and stealing everything, although I was getting nice cards. In a six hand stretch, I had two nut flushes, one of which I flopped, two nut straights, one full house, and one trips. I got paid off on about half of them. On one hand I had ace 5 and came in raising. Both players called and the flop was ace 5 10. I checked it, hoping to trap them. The turn was a 5, and I checked again with my boat. The river was an 8, and I bet out 24. Moonie called it, saying, "What you got." I told him, "Aces over fives," and took the pot. I think Moonie just had a pair of tens. "Wow," he said, "you should just have all my chips for that."

I knocked Moonie out a little bit later, and I was heads-up with Bobby. It's kinda funny because we were talking about how we never got heads-up against each other just this weekend, and here we were heads-up. I had the chip lead on him, although it wasn't a ridiculous lead, something about 310-190. At this point I felt supremely confident, because we had played a small practice heads-up match this weekend, and I had put on a clinic and beaten him. I know he plays far too tight when it gets shorthanded, so I resolved to just push, push, push. And that's what I did. The blinds were 4-8. I stole a ton of blinds, and when we got to the flop I was betting out and taking it. If he did happen to call on the flop, I was almost always able to bet him out by increasing my bet along the way, and he was consistently folding top pair to me, even when I had nothing. I had him so intimidated that he wasn't ever betting or raising. I mean ever! He would hit top pair and check it, then call when I bet. I would keep betting and he'd toss it. One time there was a flop of 7 4 2. He bet out and I called, knowing there was no way he could hang on to this hand when a high card hit. The turn was a queen, and he checked. I bet out, and he folded, saying, "Damn queen." He never knew when I had it and when I didn't, and he even told me, "I have no read at all on you." That's always nice to hear. I had whittled him down to about 70 bucks when this beautiful hand came up. I had pocket deuces, and I decided to just limp in, hoping I could hit a set and get him to give me some chips, otherwise I could steal it later. The flop came king jack 2, and he bet out. I knew he must have had a king with a strong kicker to be betting out, if not two pair, so this was perfect. I called, which already scared the heck out of him. The turn was a blank, and he checked it. I knew he wasn't ona draw, so I figured I'd let him try to hit something else, or at least feign weakness so he would pay me off on the hopes that I was bluffing at the end. The river was an ace, and he checked. I made a reasonably large bet, and he called me, saying he had kings. I showed him my set, and he just laughed, almost conceding the match. I had him down to about 30 at this point, and I thought it was over. But then I got no cards, and you can't really steal from an extreme shortstack, because you can double him up easily. He actually got a little bit aggressive, and he battled all the way back to about 150 in chips. I got my head screwed back on though, and I whittled him back down to about 25. I had ace 5, so I raised him all-in, and he called, flipping over ace ten. Grrr. For some reason, I can't remember how, but my hand caught, I think with a straight, and he was done. I got my 8th yellow chip, which now has the all-time lead, besting Roy and Jon by one apiece. There's a lot of poker to be played, though.

Quote of the day: "That is one ugly bike."- spoken by me at Cosmic Cantina after the game. I went with Yush, Pete, and Bobby, and while we were waiting on line, I commented how ugly this bike was that I saw. It turns out that the guy in front of me owned the bike, and he got out of line and left on it when I said that. Oops.

Terrence's bankroll: $290+$20=$310