I did not win tonight (finally). Terrence got his long-due victory ...

In general, I was a bit too timid and loose. Aggressive is a great style, but there's a fine line between being aggressive and being loose, and I crossed that line a few times. A few good cards managed to change that around for me and save my ass, but overall I played real crap today. I didn't deserve to finish or place.

But I am quite impressed at the level that people are now playing at. Godwin, Moonie and Yush all made great strong plays tonight. Amazing play all around; winning on Thursdays is going to be real tough now.

Today was a good day. I felt good about my chances to win ... but there was that lingering fear that I would come up short. That lingering fear would mark the end of my nasty streak of tourney wins in my room (5 of 7 prior to this week, now I'm only a measly 5/8).

The game started amusingly enough ... Terrence and I decided to play a little prank on the guys to get them hyped up. What the hell's the point of making people trek over here just to make them lose $5? Might as well give them some entertainment!

A few weeks ago, I was chatting with Terrence late at night on getting Bobby and Pete in a prank. To those of you not in the know, I OWN Pete when it comes to heads-up poker. We both know it. I simply have him read like an open book, so I outplay him in every pot. I think I've also knocked him out in very very memorable hands these past few weeks ... he always bitches about me "outdrawing" him or something, so Terrence and I decided to try to build his confidence.

Terrence and I stacked the deck (we had 11 at one table) so Bobby would get AA, I would get 25ss, and Pete would get KQss. We flopped A34 (all spades). This gave Bobby top set, me the straight flush, and Pete the nut flush (not straight flush, obviously). Bobby raised off the flop, I re-raised $20 (which elicited some oohs, as I had told people I was playing this hand blind), then Pete goes all-in behind me all-in. At this point, people are calling me OUT ... being like "ooh Roy got his hand caught in the cookie jar." The volume of the room goes up when Bobby announces he is all-in.

I pretend like I've commited an error and take a peak at my cards. I then say "I call!" Pete flops over the nut flush and everybody goes nuts. Bobby flops over his aces and goes "GIVE ME ANOTHER ACE." All eyes are on me.

I flip over the straight flush. The look in Pete's eyes ... it was so great. Imagine having the biggest rush in your life, then having it swept out from under you when you realize the hole you're in. He goes insane and wanders dangerously close to the window, where he jokes that he's going to throw himself out the window. Everyone in the room is on their feet and are just yelling and whooping (I'm sure our neighbors thought we were weird). Terrence turns a jack of spades on the turn. Now everyone's calling for a royal flush (ten of spades). Pete starts feeling alive again.

River comes a ten of spades. The room goes NUTS. To those of them that didn't know what we were doing, they just witnessed history in the making. Pete just caught runner-runner to catch his royal flush ... thus beating my straight flush and Bobby's set of aces.

Of course, we have to reveal to everybody it's a good joke, but everyone's in a great mood at this point. It felt good to do that ...

Well, anyways, onto the game. I fold the first few hands as I'm out of position and don't really want to play with absolute crap. I told myself before the game that I was going to continue to play aggressive and dance around in a lot of pots (we also expanded our chips to $40 from $25, so this helped a lot). So, the first big hand comes when everyone has called the BB. Big Red decides (he's in the small blind) that this just won't do, so he tries to clean up the pot by making a $5 raise (which is actually not so big; I think he made a pot-sized bet). I look down and see Q9hh. I figure that if a favorable flop hits, I can take this pot down, as I have position on Big Red. I call, and everyone folds.

The flop comes KK7 (two hearts). I've picked up a flush draw. Big Red checks it to me. Now, I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a king; by the way he checked that, he either had Ax or mid-range pockets (KK7 is a great flop for higher pockets, but not so great for mid-range pockets). Now, with a flush draw, I figure I might be able to pick up the pot with a good bet. But I know that John knows I dance around in a lot of pots, and he probably doesn't think I have a king. So if I make a bet here, he might reraise me and I might lose the pot. I decide to take the safe route here and take the free card. The turn comes a T (no heart). I've now picked up an inside straight draw (J) and I still have my flush draw. Big Red quickly checks it to me. I decide that I can represent the tens, and I make a sizable bet. Big Red thinks a while and then folds. We rabbit-holed the J, thus giving me the straight. Nice $15 pot to start the game.

So in any case, the second big hand comes with everyone calling a small raise in the BB. Ryan then makes a huge raise of $8 into the pot. Big Red, seated to my right, calls the $8. I go into the tank. I have 45dd. I spend a few minutes wavering between calling and folding. $8 is a lot of cash, but the pot is already close to $20 . I'm getting a good 2.5:1 on my money, and I really don't think anyone has an overpair (which is good. I can deal with overcards, not overpairs). Ryan is also the aggressive type and will bet strongly with top pair, so I think that I will know immediately if I'm beat so I can easily muck the hand if the flop is not favorable. So I call. The flop comes Q95. Yuck. I've paired my 5s, but it's not looking too strong. I check immediately, and Ryan checks behind me. Phew, one obstacle gone. I'm almost 90% sure he doesn't have overpairs now (he could be slowplaying trip queens, but the turn will tell here). Big Red makes a positional bet of $5. I figure with $8 invested, another $5 to see the turn won't hurt. If the turn is not a paint card, I know I'll be in great shape. I call, and Ryan thinks about it for a second and calls. When he simply cold-calls, I realize he cannot have a set yet (or KK or AA for that matter). He's experienced enough to know when to take a pot down.

The turn comes a 4. Bingo. Two pair for me. I feel I'm far ahead of Ryan at this point, and I'm still a bit unsure on Big Red. He has a tendency to bet at almost any type of hand (nasty straights being one of them). He again bets, and I call. Ryan wisely folds. The river comes a ten. Immediately realizing that this could complete a nasty straight, I decide to check. I honestly wasn't too sure what Big Red had, but I would put him on top pair at least. He bets again ($10-ish) and I reluctantly call. He sheepishly turns over a ten (a pair on the river?) and I win with my two pair. The room gets abuzz (how the hell could someone play 45dd preflop????), and I hear Pete explaining my reasoning to Yush. Good stuff. That was a good sized pot ($50+?) so I'm sitting with a LOT of chips and feeling very confident. This confidence would soon be shattered by who I thought was my close ally (ooh, do you like this foreshadowing?!).

A few hands later, I found 34hh UTG. Now, normally this can be a suicidal play, but this can also work in your favor... so I raise with 34hh UTG with 9 people to follow. A lot of players expect people in early position raisers to have high cards (normally mediocre hands like AT, AJ get thrown away in early position). Godwin, Moonie and Nasty Nate call. Flop comes QJ5 (two hearts). I check my flush, and Godwin makes a sizable bet. I have him pegged for top or second pair. Moonie and Nasty Nate call, and I call as well. Turn comes a 5. I think for a second; I don't think for a SECOND Godwin could have a 5, so I'm deciding whether I should take the initiative to bluff the pot here and represent the 5. But Moonie borders on being a call station, so I decide that it's not worth it yet. I check, and Godwin makes a huge bet (maybe he's picked up that we're all drawing or something), and Moonie calls. Nasty Nate folds, and I call. At this point, I'm incredibly pot commited. I'm getting great odds on calling this pot, so I decide to play it through. At this time, I'm trying to place people on hands. I'm guessing that if the river comes a heart, I will have Godwin beat, but I won't have Moonie beat. I'm partially worried that Moonie may be drawing on hearts as well and may outkick me if a heart falls. This worries me greatly.

The river comes a ten of heart. Bingo! I check it again, and Godwin makes another huge sizable bet (mistake, although I can later reason from his POV why this is a good bet) ... and Moonie simply cold-calls. This is where I made the first mistake of the night.

If I'm playing this pot-commited in a pot like this, I should be looking to break someone. The mistake here was that I got scared of the pair on the board and the possible higher flush draw, so I simply called. BAD BAD ROY. If I'm going to risk all my chips on a flush draw, I need to break someone!!! I call, and Godwin proudly flips over the 56dd (trip 5s). I'm pretty amazed at his play here; he almost never plays crap like that. Moonie mucks, and then... I reluctantly show my 34hh. Godwin is obviously not very happy with this turn of events ("You raised with a 34hh? What the f'?").

A few hands later, I'm pretty psyched about my hands. A great hand involving Moonie the gentleman shakes my confidence. I pick up AJ and make a sizable raise. Moonie calls. The flop comes K4x. I raise, not thinking he has the k. He calls. I decide he's drawing on the clubs. Turn comes a blank, I bet again. He calls. The river misses ... and although I don't have a pair, I'm pretty sure my ace high is good and a sizable bet on the river will make him fold. I make a pretty big river bet, and expect him 100% to fold. But he calls. And I know I'm beat. I muck my hand, and he shows me 84o. 84O!!!!!!!!! I was so proud of Moonie for calling that hand down to the river; he had me read like a book! Moonie had told me a few days ago that he was going to "start playing like me." So I was pretty stoked ... he's becoming a fine poker player.

Moonie would later bust my AA with his J9dd when he called my all-in on the flop on a straight draw and catch. I wasn't too happy about that, but hey ... AA are only a 85% favorite.

But it was not meant to be. Moonie later ran into my 55 (which I showed Godwin while in play) ... flop comes 643. I feel like I'm far ahead, so I make a $10 bet. Moonie calls. I'm figuring he's trying to pull a 84o crap on me again so I decided to teach him a lesson. The turn comes a 7, and I bet $20. Moonie calls. The river comes a K, and I take him all-in. He calls with two pair and loses to my straight. Godwin remarks how painful it was to watch me demolish another player. It's like you see all the warnings ... but you just can't avoid them.

Overall, Moonie showed flashes of great play ... his overall play is a bit weak (too complacent), but I like his progress.

A few hands later, I picked up QQ. Yush made a huge bet, and I had called. Flop comes JTx. He bets big, I immediately call. Turn comes blank. He bets big, I call. I'm not really THINKING at this point, and it's going to shaft me. I'm thinking he's got AJ or AQ or AK and simply trying to push me out of the pot (I'm not sure how, but he had amassed a huge stack of chips). The river comes a K, and Yush bets out $40. This makes me think. The $40 seems like an overbet, and with the K completing a flush, maybe Yush wants me to think that he hit the flush. I really don't think that king helped him at all, so I call. He had trip kings. AGHHHHHHHH. I'm down a lot in chips (seriously, I was rollercoasting on chips, from chip leader down to almost last, to back up... the joys of playing aggressive poker).

Of course, as ritual forces me to, I busted out Pete. The hand immediately after Moonie busted my AA, I pretended to be on tilt. Pete made a big raise, and I saw KK. Perfect position. I love pretending to be on tilt after losing a big hand. Honestly it doesn't bother me too much, but some people think that people on tilt play more looser. Whatever. I managed to make Terrence think a few weeks ago I was on tilt when I beat his AJ with my AK and doubled up HUGE. It works like a charm when I reraise Pete and then he remarks, "He couldn't have KK or AA again" and goes all-in. I flip over my KK against his AK and my hands holds up (I spike a set on the turn). He goes out pissed, but what else is new?

An aside, but Terrence and I were discussing other people who should write stories about Thursday night ... and we decided that Pete's would be so boring. Actually, I can write his story right here:

Man, I booked my butt after work to Roy's dorm. The stupid dorm is always locked though so I have to wait. I had been letting Roy get into my head too often, so I decided today that I would NOT PLAY ANY POT WITH ROY. Terrence has been telling me this for weeks, and I've decided to finally heed his advice. Anyways, things were pretty normal... I got there and we were all milling around. For some odd reason, Terrence and Roy were missing from the room for a while. Ok, snip out the whole 'faked hand thing' and go straight to his play...

I folded the first few hands. QJ? T9? Come on... give me some real hands like AA or AK. I hate this crap. I folded everything. I think about the 84th hand in, I picked up A6hh in early position. Excellent! A perfect time to make a blind steal early in position! Roy won't call; he's not playing aggressive tonight! YEAH! I raised it $3 and patiently awaited everyone to fold the hand and give me the pot. But that bastard Donald wouldn't have it. He reraised my hand and I had to fold it. Sigh ... why can't' I get good cards?

Well anyways I folded about the next 231 hands ... and then finally I got AK of spades!! BINGO!!! I raised it, and then Roy looked at his hand and thought for a moment. I knew that he would call or reraise me (he always does this crap), BUT I HAD BIG SLICK NOW!!! OH HO HO HO. HE ISN'T GETTING ME.

Roy reraised me $15. I could sense he was on tilt because he just lost with AA on the previous hand. He was obviously bluffing (and this isn't the time last week when I thought he was bluffing and it turned out with a higher pocket pair... this time I KNEW he was bluffing!). How could someone get AA and then AA or KK? In the worst case scenario, I was a coinflip. But I think he was just being foolish. So I reraised him all-in and he called.

He flipped over KK. HOW DOES HE DO THIS? HOW DOES HE ALWAYS GET THESE MONSTER HANDS WHEN I HAVE GOOD HANDS?

He got ANOTHER king on the turn (geez, two isn't enough????) and I was eliminated. I was pretty pissed. I mean, how does he keep getting these hands? How does he keep owning me?!?!?!?!?

Haha, I kid. Pete is a very solid player, but he just runs into unforunate luck.

Um yeah, so anyways, back to the game. For some reason, Yush and I are always tangling in pots. I've already mentioned the previous hand where he beat me with a set of kings ... but yeah. I'm not feeling too good. I feel like he has my number tonight.

In any case, we move to the table soon afterwards. (Ryan goes out first with AT vs. Moonie's 55, Donald gets knocked out on a straight draw against my top pair, Bobby gets knocked out when his AQ run up against Godwin's AK.) Yush and I have a HUGE chip lead on everybody, and if I don't do anything stupid (which of course, I inevitably do) I can make it to the final table. In retrospect, perhaps I should of just folded every hand until I got down to the final 3 or something. Whatever.

Oh yeah, I should note that a few hands earlier, I picked up an open-ended straight draw with Terrence and Big Red in the pot. I was getting GREAT pot odds to call, and had it been anyone BUT Terrence, I would of called. But part of me wanted to see him at the final table so maybe we could play heads up, so I folded it. If I had called, I would of hit and I could made a huge dent in his stack... oh well... I thought I was being nice, but THINGS DIDN'T TURN OUT SO ROSY IN THE END.

For some reason, I just get completely complacent at the table. I'm just making a ton of loose calls; I think my concentration was just shot, or I was just getting timid. Yush was honestly running me over and I just felt defeated anytime I got into a pot with him. ARGH. Damn that SARs for messing with my head.

One hand that really cripples me is when Yush and I get tangled. For some reason, I have 36o NOT in the blinds (I don't know what happened here) and Yush is BB. The flop comes KT6. Bottom pair. Whooppee. I bet $10, and Yush calls. Turn comes a J. I bet $30, and he calls. On the river, another blank ... and then Yush goes all-in.

I go deep into the tank. Yush ONLY makes this move when he's bluffing; I've very rarely seen him make all-in moves when he's got the nuts, BUT ... the betting is also erratic. He callled and called ... and then went all-in. Did he catch some nasty straight? Did he not put me on top pair and had a good read on me?

I knew in my heart that he was bluffing. I knew my 36 was good ... but I couldn't call. Godwin, Big Red, and Terrence are all severely short-stacked; I have them covered by over $80+ (with blinds at $2/$4 this is huge) ... should I risk it all with simply low pair? What if my read is wrong? Yush made a great move as the chip leader ... he knew that I wouldn't risk all my chips even if I was the favorite with three guys short-stacked. I reluctantly release the 36o (god, what a mistake!!!!!!!!!!) and he later tells me he had NOTHING.

What a great move. For a while, I thought this was a mistake, but now that I think about it again, it was the right move. If my read is wrong, then I'm screwed. But I can survive and pick a better spot ...

A few hands later, Godwin goes all-in against Yush. Godwin flips over A5 and Yush flips over AA. I ran these two hands through a calculator, and AA is a 91% favorite. But somehow Godwin suckers out the 4 to a straight and survives.

Not to knock on Godwin's play, but he had AA three times and busted AA with a 8% favorite once. No offense, but given his tight playing style, this should of gotten him further than a mediocre third. Really. If I am given AA three times, I guarantee I will bust someone with them once and will severely hurt people two other times. I just get a bit peeved when people get such high favorite hands and can't convert on them.

I think one of the advantages to playing loose and aggressive is you're guaranteed action on big hands. If I had been playing tight all game and acted at Pete the way i did, I think he might of folded that hand. But since I had been playing loose and wild, there's no way to know whether I'm simply bluffing or if I have a good hand ... so more mistakes are made.

It also helps when one of your marginal hands converts for you and you take down a huge pot against an opponent who never expected to see your weird cards.

A few hands later, I make a huge crucial mistake in putting Godwin all-in with a straight draw against his AA... this severely cripples me. I eventually go out ...

I did not pick up a single playable hand at the final table. No Ax, no pockets ... nothing. It was really unglorious when I finally got K2 (A FACE CARD!) in the SB and went all-in and lost to QK (my deuces ended up losing to queens).

Overall I played pretty poorly. I think until we got down to the last four, I was doing quite well. But Yush making those plays at me really took some steam out of my sails and made me more cautious. When I got to the final four, I should of either switched gears and played supertight and outwait the short stacks ... or I should of gone after Yush super-aggressively. I didn't do either, and that was my mistake.

In any case, another huge lesson learned for me. I rarely make the same mistakes twice, and I can guarantee you that I won't be making these mistakes again next week. So next week, I will be winning that yellow chip again.

Oh yeah, remember how I was really nice to Terrence that one hand by laying down the open-ended straight? Well as it turns out, he made a pact with Pete and Yush that "Roy would not win tonight." So I think a lot of people were actively going after me, trying to deny me of my win. I am flattered that people go out of their ways to try to take me out ...

I'm really impressed with how everyone is playing; everyone is getting better! I can't wait to bust Yush next week in a bloodmatch ... I was happy to see Ryan go out since he had busted me out twice on Tuesdays.