I’ve missed a few games that have happened in the past week, but the semester’s winding down, so too bad. We slapped a game together on Tuesday because the Tournament of Champions got pushed back, so there were six of us playing. I was the second one out when Albert, psycho kid who lost all his money bluffing a week ago, kept going all-in over the top of me. Finally I called him with pocket jacks, but his king 8 caught a king on the flop and another one on the river for good measure, so I was done. Donald went on to win, busting up Pete, who got second.

In the previous game at Roy’s on Thursday, I got first when I took a few big pots early, including busting Yush when I had pocket aces against his pocket tens. All the money got in preflop, and we were 1-2 in chips, so I had a huge stack. I busted Roy when I flopped a boat to his top pair when he was shortstacked, and I got heads up with Jeff, a tight player who has been at Roy’s a couple times before. I had the chip lead, and I just stayed aggressive and stole a lot of pots. The blinds were 4-8 when he came in raising the minimum. I looked down to see 2 7 offsuit, and I reraised 20, thinking I could steal it again. He called me, and the flop came 2 3 7. I bet out 25, he went all-in for another 80 or so, and I called. He just had ace 5 for an inside straight draw, and even though he hit an ace on the turn, he couldn’t get any help on the river, so I won and got 30 bucks and another yellow chip.

I came home for Thanksgiving break, and after attending my first beer pong tournament with Tom, Timmy, and Mike, we went back to Tom’s to play some cards. Charlie came also, so we had five of us buying in for ten bucks apiece- winner take all. I was playing pretty tight early, but I was going up slowly. Tom got knocked out when he called Timmy’s all-in. Tom thought Tim was bluffing, but Tim had trips with an ace kicker, so Tom was dead. Mike went out a little bit later when the devil hand didn’t work for him. Down to three, Timmy had the chip lead, and me and Charlie were about even. I lost a huge hand when I raised it big preflop with ace king after Charlie and Timmy limped. They both called, and the flop came 3 5 9, all clubs. I had the king of clubs, and after Timmy checked, I did too, figuring I could get either a free card, or I was going to check-raise if Charlie bet. He bet 30, and Tim raised him another 60. I went all-in on top of that for about 140 more, and Charlie called. Tim folded, and Charlie flipped over jack 4 of clubs for a flush. Needless to say, I wasn’t too happy about it, because he’s calling huge raises with jack 4, and he later said, “I didn’t think you had nothing” (preflop). I tried to explain that it didn’t matter, because what does jack 4 beat anyway? If you think I had nothing, then reraise and I have to fold. So I was really angry at that, and partly because Charlie was seeing every single flop, no matter how much it cost him. Then Timmy started getting stupid and going all-in every hand, and when he limped into my big blind, I went all-in with ace 8. He said, “I know I shouldn’t call this, but I’m going to anyway,” and he called with king 6. Of course a king hit to reward idiocy, and I got knocked out. I was really pissed after this, and went home a little after that.

Now for the real game. On Saturday, Erik had a tournament at his house- 12 people, $25 buy-in. The payouts were $250 for first, and $50 for second. These guys love making it top-heavy. We had two tables of six, and I found myself with basically all the best players. From my left, there was Erik, Foti, Tom, Dan, and Josh. The other table was a bunch of scrubs and Jay, which is redundant. I was glad to be at Erik’s table, because he’s been talking a lot of trash about how he’s going to take my money when I come back, even though I beat him every time we played this summer. I made it a point to stick it to him when I could. We had $10,000 in chips, and the blinds started at 25-50, which is a beautiful thing, as I had plenty of wiggle room. About five hands in, I was on the small blind and saw pocket jacks. Three guys had limped in, so I wanted to thin the field some. I raise it another 400, and only Tom called. The flop came queen 8 5 with two clubs, and I bet out 600. Tom raised it another 1200, and I called. I was pretty sure I had him at this point, because Tom knew I would lead out on the flop no matter what came out, so I had a feeling he would come over the top. The turn was a rag, but no club, and I checked to Tom, who quickly bet 2,000. I thought for a minute, and then called again, still convinced that I had him. I was also pretty sure he was going to make another big bet on the river, regardless of what came out. The river was another rag, so there were no straights or flushes possible. I checked again, and Tom went all-in. I had only about 400 more than him, so this was basically for my tournament life. I went into the tank for probably over three minutes, trying to analyze what he could have. I ruled out queens or a set, as he wouldn’t bet them that big the whole way through. The way his betting escalated the whole way, I really got the feeling he was bluffing. I thought he may have had a busted club draw, or something like ace 8 or ace 5, meaning he paired the flop with an overcard, but he knew he was beat, so he tried to bluff. Tom also knew that I could fold most things, no matter how good they look, if I think I’m beat- plus I had played the hand very weak throughout, checking to him after the flop. Everything I saw led me to believe he was bluffing, but still, this was a huge pot, and all I had was a pair of jacks! Finally, I said “I call,” and pushed my chips in the pot. Tom said, “You got it,” and I flipped over my jacks. The whole table started buzzing, and I got a lot of compliments from the other guys at the table for my call. Even Tom acknowledged it. This was probably one of my best calls this year, if not the best.

Right off the bat I was up to $20,000, and I had control of the table. About ten minutes later, I came in raising on the button with jack ten of spades. Foti called from the big blind, and we saw a flop of 2 4 10, giving me top pair. Foti checked it to me, and I did something I wouldn’t normally do, but I know Foti will bet out if he senses weakness. I checked it, even though my hand was extremely vulnerable, hoping he would throw a bet out if a rag came. The turn was a 7, and he bet 1500. I called. The river was another rag, a 9, I think, and he bet out four thousand. Again I went into the tank, but I was pretty sure I was good. I was just worried that he was looking to check-raise me with something like king ten or ace ten on the flop, but in the end I decided that my initial read was right, and I called him. He didn’t even have a pair, so I took half his stack, and got myself to about $25,000.

From there, I just played smart, not getting involved in ugly hands just because I had the chips to do it, and I kept steadily going up. Erik had been staying pretty quiet, and he was down a little, but not in bad shape, at around $8000. With the blinds at 150-300, I raised it to 900 on the button with ace 8. Erik reraised on the small blind, another 1500. I called him, loving the fact that I had position and the chip advantage over him. The flop came king jack 3, and he checked it. I didn’t see it as a trap, though, so I bet out 1200. He called. The turn was a 7, and he checked again, with a big doofy smile on his face. I don’t know what the hell that means, but it didn’t worry me. I bet 1200 again, prepared to throw out a huge bet on the river if he called again. He reraised me 2400, though. I asked him how much he had left, and he counted and said that it was 4100. I thought for a minute as I got my chips ready on what he could possibly have. I thought pocket queens or tens were a possibility, although he should have made a move on the flop to see where he was at. Ace queen also flashed through my head for a second, but I dismissed it, as I didn’t think he would try to put a move on me with nothing after the turn. I finally decided he had either queens or tens, and that he wouldn’t call if I put him all-in. If he really liked his hand, a) he wouldn’t have a big dumb smile on his face, b) he would have raised more, effectively pot-committing himself and communicating that message to me, and c) he easily could have waited until the river to stick me, because I had been betting out the whole way. He still had fold equity by raising a moderate amount, so I saw his raise as an information bet. I took the stack, and said, “4100 more.” He studied me a little bit, thought for a bit, and then folded. I took the big pot, which included half of Erik’s chips. “What did you have?” he said. I responded with my customary, “Get lost, I ain’t telling.” I did promise that I would tell him later, plus he knows he can read about it, anyway. The hand was really eating him up, though, as every couple hands he would squirm in his seat, breathe irregularly, and say, “What did you haaaaaave?” I just laughed, and told him not to mess with me. I love teaching people lessons for talking trash. He later told me that he had ace queen suited, which means he was putting a move on me, although he had the best hand.

We had eight people at the final table- five from our table and three from the other table. It was pretty amazing that we still had five left after the poker genocide I inflicted upon them, but here we were. From my left was Josh, some kid who had to be 12 years old, Dan, another young kid, Jay, Erik, and Foti. Foti had been going all-in over and over again, even though he wasn’t ridiculously shortstacked. I guess that’s what happens when you go from winning over a grand in AC to playing $25 buy-in tournaments with 12 guys. One of the young kids had most of the chips from the other table, and Jay had a decent stack, too. I had the chip lead overall from those big pots that I had taken earlier, but there was still a lot of work to be done.

I sat back a little bit early on, just trying to see what these new kids had up their sleeves. One kid agonized every time someone bet into him- I can’t believe he always had something playable. He was quickly whacked, though, when his pocket queens ran into two guys with trip tens. Those two guys were Jay and the other kid, but Jay had a queen kicker; the other kid had a jack. Jay doubled up and knocked out the one kid, and a while later he took out the same kid on the exact same hand. Trip tens, queen kicker for Jay, jack kicker for the other kid. Kind of a rough way to go, especially because the kid wasn’t bad. I took a good pot off him when I picked up ace king, he raised 1200 coming in, and I went over the top for another 3500. He called, and the flop came 10 10 5(10s were everywhere). I bet out 4500, and he folded it, so I took a healthy pot.

I picked up pocket kings when Foti came in raising on my big blind once, and I went all-in but he showed ace 9 and tossed it. Erik had been raising my big blind the whole time during the final table, and finally I picked up pocket 9s when he came in raising two grand. He had 7 grand left, and I raised it that much. After thinking for a bit, he called and showed ace jack, so we had a coin flip. All low garbage came, so my 9s held up. Erik had finally won a coin flip earlier, though, when his ace king caught a queen on the river for a straight to beat Foti’s pocket 5s. Foti ended up getting whacked when he had pocket 4s against the kid’s pocket 9s, and the 9s held up. Erik played well overall, but he needs to learn not to mess with me, because I’m a bad man.

Josh had been hanging around at about 7 grand for the entire final table, not getting too involved, and he was part of the final three with me and Jay. I had the chip lead, Jay had a big stack, and Josh was kind of shortstacked. I went into hyper-aggressive mode, raising almost every pot (the blinds were at 500-1000 to start), and I was building my stack pretty steadily. Jay was playing really tightly, just trying to make the money, I think. Josh started calling all my raises from the small blind, and I never seemed to be able to hit a flop. He would call me when I stabbed at the pot, and he usually had something like middle pair, so he kept taking pots off of me. This didn’t stop me from raising, though, and I kept taking small pots to stay in a decent chip position. I took a pot from the big blind once when both guys limped, I saw 2 7 off, and I figured if they had anything they would have raised, so I made it another 4 grand to go, and they folded. Tom was behind me during the final table, so he saw what I had, and he said, “Nice bet,” when I took the pot. That’s no limit, baby.

Josh was also taking pots off Jay, who was wasting away. He was down to about 8 grand in chips, which wasn’t much considering there was 120 grand in play, when he came in raising on the button, 3000 over the big blind, which was now 1000-2000. I looked down to see ace 9, and I was torn. On the one hand, ace 9 is really nice three-handed. On the other, Jay hadn’t been raising any pots, and I had to figure he had something fairly decent to be raising. I tried to figure out what he could be raising with, and I figured something like jack queen or jack ten were well within the scope of possible hands he had. I raised him another 4500 all-in, and he called and flipped over 8 10 off. Kind of a strange call, considering he wasn’t pot-committed. My ace high held up, and we were down to two.

Josh had the chip lead, probably around 70-30 from all the times he caught me stealing, plus the money he got from Jay, but I knew I was still alright. I hung around, then picked up king queen, and came in raising four grand over the blinds, which were now at 1500-3000. He called, and the flop was king 10 6. He bet out 4 grand, and I called him, planning to raise later. The turn was a 2, and he bet out six grand. I went all-in for another 14 grand on top of that, and he started thinking. All day, he had been talking to me after I made a big bet at him, and I hadn’t said a word. I also never told him what I had afterwards. I decided I needed to get in his head a little bit, as maybe he would stop calling so many raises, plus I could confuse him a little, so I started talking. He told me that he had top pair, and I said, “Wow, top pair, you should call then.” He gave me a funny look, as I hadn’t said anything up until this point. I knew my hand was good, and that he had a worse kicker, so I wanted a call. Fourteen grand more would have been really nice. He ended up laying it down, though. After begging me to tell him what I had, I showed him the queen of clubs (thanks John Juanda), and he responded, "That's not cool."

We played about thirty hands heads-up, and I had nearly gotten it back to even, when we decided to make a deal. As it was, first was getting $250 and second $50, so there was a steep dropoff. Even though he had a slight edge, he agreed to chop it down the middle, partly because I was starting to bust him up, I think. I usually don't like making deals, but there was a cash game going on after we left with me, Tom, Charlie, Foti, and Laureen, Charlie's girlfriend, so I wanted to get in on that, too. Josh wanted to play it out, just to see who would have won. I did, too, but Tom and them were looking to go, so we decided to hold off until another day. In the end, I was up $125, and perhaps more importantly, I whacked Tom and Erik, got into Erik's head in a serious way, and took most of Foti's money in the process of manhandling my first table, which was comprised of the six best players.

P.S. In the cash game, we played all sorts of crazy nonsense like follow the queen, chicago, shipwreck, guts, and acey deucey. I ended up down two bucks for the whole night, which lasted until four in the morning. I was down over 100 at one point, but somehow won a bunch back playing acey deucey, the most evil game this side of Russian roulette.

Quote of the day: "But that hand against Terrence is never going to leave my head."- taken from Erik's poker diary, in response to the hand that I held ace 8 on.

Terrence's bankroll: $380+$25-$5-$10+$125-$2=$513