Up, up, up, down, up

No posts for a while - have been pouting for a bit over England's continued pisspoor performances and Kaplan's blatant disregard for the rules, tempered only by a Rooney brace and Solano goal to consolidate my fantasy league lead. Still, yesterday was a bit of a rollercoaster - quickly up a fiver on the quiz machines, then my day was kind of thrown out a bit by a very (read - 40 minutes) early end to the afternoon property double header (cheers Pete!). This left me with far too much time on my hands, meaning that I got down to the Cat rather early for the UKSPC qualifier shootout. Some quick chips and laughing at Rich's Su Doku inadequacies later (the bastards have put up the prices of the burgers again... 5.75 is a bit too pricey) and we kick off. I'm on the same table as Kev, Dan, Charlotte and some other woman who I don't recognise (apparently only played twice in her life - no disrespect but it showed). Got a little shortstacked but we were down to three due to Dan's dubious stack management. Win a checked down pot off Kev with kings (ace on the flop, another on the turn - I think we both thought we had a third) and he folds to a couple of all-ins as well to put me on a precisely average stack. Kev then knocks Charlie out and has a precise 2:1 chip advantage heads up. This doesn't last long - we get all-in preflop, his A-6 suited against my Q-10 suited (both the same suit, funnily enough). A rivered queen reverses the stacks and I get J-9 in the SB. Limp, check, flop is J-J-9. Check, check, turn is a queen, Kev stacks, I beat him to the pot, his Q-6 doesn't improve. Final table!

This wasn't as good. Leda busts out early and another player drops out, leaving four left - effectively three for two tickets as John was ineligible. After playing one pot with Q-Q in the first level and folding on the turn to a scary board (after a 2x the pot bet which would set me all-in), I nick the blinds with A-3 (all-in uncalled), and with about 1000 and 100-200 blinds, I pick up A-10 UTG and move in, called quickly by A-K and I get no help. Bubbled, fuck.

Still, I picked up a cookbook for it, and my mood is slightly improved by the fact that Real Groovy's replacement Back Of The Y DVD has arrived! The first one went AWOL, but I'll give them credit for sending out a replacement and it coming quickly. Excellent.

Played one turbo heads-up today and get A-A first hand in the BB. SB goes all-in before I can act! His 9-8 stood no chance, quickest win ever :-)