militants were cordoned off and observed for their own safety. this demonstrated that

Been some articles in the news lately about animal rights campaigners - or rather, the protests and demonstration marches against them, held at Oxford University. A few weeks earlier I wrote down my thoughts on this topic exactly - spooky or what? (see my article here)

prog rock lyrics were found to be suitable appellation for the most intelligent journal ever

For those of you who wonder why my Blog has the name it does - wonder no more. Click me :)

Gutshot omaha champion

What a week it’s turned out to be! Arsenal beat Real at fortress Bernabeu, and two days later, I’ve won my 1st live poker tournament!

By the time I got to Gutshot there was already a freezeout (no rebuy) tourney in progress, so not many players would be entering the happy hour Omaha game. It started with only 18 people; usually 30 or more would play. After max rebuying to £15 I had 1700 chips, so up a measly 200. In one round a guy had a flush draw, but drew a blank and I managed to beat him with a pair of Jacks, winning 700 in the process.

After an hour of play I was on the final table of 10. Blinds were 175/350 and I had 2200 chips. One by one, players went out. The biggest round was when I took out 2 players with a pair of aces, and I became chip leader with 7000. Eventually I went heads up, leading my opponent by 20:1, a massive chip lead. He would have to double up 3 or 4 times just to be level with me. In the end, I beat him with a higher 2 pair.

I won 105 pounds, woohoo! I don’t know why I fare so much better at Omaha than Holdem. Omaha record: played 3, reached final table everytime. 1st, joint 1st and 6th. Holdem on the other hand: played 4, never reached final table. Highest finish was 11th.

1-0 TO THE ARSENAL!!

It’s one of the biggest and most important results in Wenger’s reign and football history. No other English club had won at the Bernabeau. And we did it! I was a little annoyed that I missed the 1st half even though we didn’t score. What was really frustrating was that I didn’t see the crucial 47th minute. I came home, correctly predicting a goalless 1st half but wrongly assuming the 2nd half would start late.

I remember rushing downstairs and just before I got into the room, I heard Clive Tyldesley shout “HENRY!!” and the next second I saw the celebrations. Don’t think mum has seen me so happy, I couldn’t stop jumping up and down! So I saw the last 40 minutes and all the players played well. But I would say Lehmann (again), Flamini and especially Fabregas were brilliant. The kid is still only 18 years old, but he made Zidane and Beckham look like muppets.

It’s a shame that Walcott didn’t come on for the last few minutes, I was looking forward to see him play alongside Henry. Another reason is that he would have been our only English player on the pitch; at one point Real had 2 Englishmen, Beckham and Woodgate. How ironic it is that we became the first English side to win at the Bernabeau without any English players.

noticed an increase in retail and consumer sales around this period, possibly explained by

Who loves you? Hallmark and Clinton Cards do, silly.
I hate today with a passion. (Perhaps that's ironic?)
Although I suppose if I was with a great girl then I would presumably be a part of the smug couple brigade.

Gutshot, straight, out.

Think this is the 1^st time I’ve posted here two days in a row lol. So I did improve my holdem record. I bought £10-1000 chips. I went up to 5000, after a big win with pocket kings. Then I tried a bluff but that went pear shaped and I went down to 3000. I went all in with a pair of tens. The guy next to me called with K/J before the flop, and he flopped his pair of kings. That left me with 250 chips and by this time the blinds were 500/1000. Aaaaargh!!!

I waited for a good hand to come around but it never came. I was forced to put my stack for the big blind, and when I got my cards I didn’t even look at them. In the end, I went out with 7/2. That really took the piss. Although I did make 2 pair, another guy got his straight on the flop. Eliminated by another fucking straight. My final position was 11^th, one away from the final table. It turned out that the top 9 players got paid instead of the top 5. So I was only 2 places from getting some money back.

house finished

Woohoo! Can finally move back into our refurbished house. Not that I hated living next door. The builders took fucking aaaaaaages to do the job. I've started moving some of my stuff back, probably finish it this weekend.

So Arsenal have won away after what seems like a lifetime. The fact that our defence was like, 8 years old, and a few players were out of position made the Brum victory very impressive. And all hail King Henry again for another record, the 1st to score 200 goals for the Gunners. Our new midfielder Diaby is proving to be another great signing by Wenger, and for such a young player he's taken very little time in adapting to the Premiership. Him and Lehmann were our best players.

On the music front, I've started recording flute for Nirojan's album. He's a talented musician, on a gap year at the moment, and he's planning to release the album in a couple of weeks. So far I've recorded 2 pieces, though I don't know how many songs I'm going to feature in.

Right, off to Gutshot. Haven't played there in a while, hopefully my holdem record will get better.......