25 January (S&L's house) £0 profit

Guest diary writer: Barry

Game 1 (1st Sharon, 2nd Barry, 8 players)
Apologies from Mark the Grinder (Other side of the world) and JJ (Gastroentiritis). Delayed start due to no one turning up on time. Dave out early - not really any big hands, just a couple of outkickered top pairs. 4 AA appeared in the first game, all but one won (see below). Jude very unlucky to lose all her chips in 2 hands - both to Barry. First was to a straight, second she had AA and called after Barry went all in after the turn card, only to lose to another straight (Barry already had - river card irrelevant). Barry chip leader, everyone else slowly went out. Sharon had a lucky hand against Dan, knocking him out in 3rd place (fluked a straight). She then had an AJ vs Barry's A8 only for the board to show two further 8's and had few chips left. But she fought back and eventually got to heads up with Barry. After Sharon gained some chips and levelled it, Barry went all in with 33, Sharon called with AJ again, but Jack appeared on flop and Sharon took the first game.

Game 2 (1st Dave, 2nd Ilan, 7 players)
Very dull game. Decided to put blinds up quickly (£1 a time), but this had the effect of no one really playing as blinds became big so quickly. Dean fell early to Barry (Top pair, A kicker - Dean claimed to have flush draw but had 3 hearts after the flop !). Vic fell next with 10,10 went all in against Barry's KK and King's held up). Remaining 5 took long time to whittle down and eventually Dave knocked Barry out in 3rd with a lucky straight, and immediately, in the first hand of heads up, beat Ilan with another lucky straight.

Conversation topics
Big Brother was on in the background and general consensus was that George Galloway is a ****. Luckily, and quite correctly, he was booed out of the BB house after being evicted. Dennis Rodman soon followed as well. Dave spent £49 (inc £10 tip) on a haircut - wouldn't normally spend that much, but was desperate and had to go to the nearest place to work. Looked nice anyway! Jude was a little confused with the situation when the board consisted of a straight (6, 7, 8, 9, 10), and Barry bet a large amount. It was explained to her that if she thought Barry had the J or JQ, she should fold, but if she thought I was bluffing, then she should bet in order to split the pot. She folded , as it would have left her very short stacked, and wasn't prepared to gamble/risk it. Bit of a discussion about Barry's career options, and the potential to get a job in Borehamwood. Dave's work had completed on 2 properties in Woodford Green (??) and finally Dean gave us the latest on his tenants from hell (he has sent them an email, telling them that they WILL let him in with prospective new tenants or he will take out the cost of taxis/trains from Leicester to London from their deposit). Shockingly, and to Dean's horror, Pesach in Israel price has gone up for the 2nd week running to £949.