18 January (S&L’s house) £20 loss

Game 1 (1st Lewis, 2nd Dave, 10 players)
It was a night for AA (6+ occasions plus all the ones Mark never shows), but sadly not for me. Got into a good position winning a sizeable amount of chips from Vic (again) only to run into a monster hand from Dave – raised an original sounding bet of £12.75 when I hit the gut-shot straight on the turn only for the Diamond to give Dave the nut flush. Won’t be trying that move again in a hurry. Barry kept up his record of losing to trips 3 games in a row. 666 on the flop versus QQ. Evil Scott hit a lucky Q on the river. Heads up Dave lost a shed-load of chips to Lewis’s top pair of Kings and then in a wonderful finale we had 62 (Lewis) v’s 34 (Dave). Lewis hit the 6 – recording the first win for one-armed bandits.

Game 2 (1st Evil Scott, 2nd Dave, 10 players)
Got into an even better chip position through some unusually tight play only to be screwed by Dave (and an emotional Mark). AK (JJ), KQ (Dave) and 77 (Mark). Mark tripled up to keep the dream alive and Dave hit a lucky Q in the side-pot. Left in about 6th place at 2am. Makes it all seem worthwhile. Heads-up evil Scott triumphed at the unearthly hour of 2.25am – at which point Dean no doubt started work.

Conversation topics
With the group feeling lost without LOST and with emotions running high due to Mark’s last game, the conversation was a little subdued. Pre-game email banter focused on our complicated and changeable entry rules. It was to be a night where the irregular players came good – maybe we should have banned them after all. The Jayson au pair’s smoking lies were exposed to all – but is it really lying to deny smoking when you stink like an ashtray. Scott’s job, indeed all people in recruitment were agreed to be irrelevant. Dean/Lee discussed an exciting tenancy agreement and another high-quality presentation was created by Dean at the table. The ins and outs (bum bum) of a trade association for prostitutes were raised by Ilan – how exactly does it work? Finally, in an incredible twist, market forces have actually increased the cost of Pesach in Tel Aviv to £909. Will the next move be up or down? The world waits.

BJ rating
2