Cars: Brooklands Mini Day and Mercedes World

Despite loosing an hours sleep (clock changed :-) ) we managed to get out of bed and go to Brooklands for the Mini day. It was a lovely bright day, albeit a bit chilly in the wind.

We hadn't been to Brooklands for some time so it was interesting to see the new layout and entrance. You now loop round Mercedes World to get to the new Brooklands entrance, which is all now very smart looking. They haven't solved the car parking problems though, as the car park was very nearly full when we got there !

Going through to Brooklands itself we immediately came across loads of Mini's. There were old ones, new ones, modified ones, vans ,travellers, shortened ones.... seemed like there was the entire Mini population of Southern England there !

Soon after we arrived we could hear the sound of revving tuned engines, it was time for the hill climb.... so we went to see them roar up the hill (although some cars seemed to only just be able to make the climb !) We wandered up the hill and stood on the bridge to see the cars coming back down the other side and saw the old car parks full to the brim with even more Mini's... certainly was a popular day for enthusiasts

Eventually we had walked around all the Mini's and seen them climb the hill, so decided to go to Mercedes World to see what was going on there. http://www2.mercedes-benz.co.uk/content/unitedkingdom/mpc/mpc_unitedkingdom_website/en/home_mpc/MB_World_Brooklands.html It is a short distance from Brooklands itself, so made the short walk around and you can also see additional parts of the old race circuit as you walk around which was quite interesting.

Mercedes World is open 7 days a week from 10am- 6pm and looked very smart. The first car I saw as we approached the entrance was a Mercedes McLaren, which looks really smart close up (better than the pictures) Walking in you are greeted by hostesses who are happy to chat about the facilities and we were recommended to start at the top and work our way down, which we did.

The view of the track outside from the top was spectacular, especially as there are AMG Mercedes roaring around and also other cars skating around the wet ring, so was fascinating to stand and look out. The entire place was a huge showroom, with dozens of new Mercedes of all types, shapes and colours available to look at and sit in. Only the Mercedes McLaren and Maybachs are out of bounds (you can look but not touch!) All other vehicles including £100 k S classes and AMG SLKs are available for you to hop into and mess round with.

If you enjoy looking round new car showrooms then you will definitely enjoy Mercedes World, especially as you don't get hassled by any sales staff (they are there if you really want to talk to them) In addition to the new cars, there are some classic and race cars to see, although you can't sit in those.

I did briefly think about having 15 mins on track in a AMG SLK for £25, but decided not too this time, but looked (and sounded) great fun, so maybe something for another day.

All things considering (especially the free admission!) it was well worth visiting and very interesting. I guess we spent around an hour wandering round, but would probably equally enjoy another visit in future

Poker: Annual Satellite : Heat 3

Heat 3 was a riotous affair, starting with Mick's Daughter who was very pleased to see everyone and wouldn't settle to go to sleep (she is only 7 months old!) Eventually she retired home to bed and the real riot started....

Unfortunately Mick departed soon after his daughter, although loosing a few pots to an aggressive Bill, it was acually Lynn who finally took him out

It was all fairly even after that for some time until Derek put in a large bet into a raggidy looking flop. Roger said he had two pair but was convinced Derek had hit his straight.... but still called the sizeable bet. Dereks even larger bet took the pot uncontested and he showed his pocket 3's, pretty much a stone cold bluff ! This gave Derek a fair lead in chips, but was still anyones game.

Lynn found herself up against her husband again (oooerrr missus) but this time Bill had been agressive once too often as Lynn's ATs had already hit an A on the flop so she took Bill out of the running

It was Lynn all the way again, this time with Andy, who had not seen a hand all night, but Lynns AQ had hit two pair to take Andy's one pair with Straight draw out

At this stage Lynn was chip leader, Derek was second and Roger had around 1000 chips left.

Being short staked with large blinds, Roger was soon all in against Derek but Dereks dodgy hand was better than Rogers, and we were heads up already

The heads up match didn't last long, in the end Lynns cautious play drained her chips quite quickly, in the end Lynns pocket tens got taken by Dereks A3 when an A fell on the board.

Very entertaining game to watch with lots of action going on, and the participants seemed to enjoy themselves also....

One more heat to go then we get to the really exciting stuff !

Poker: Home Tourney : March 2007

This month is the first time playing the new rules No Limit, No Rebuy so have been looking forward to this for a long time.

Arrived at the club in plenty of time, luckily as it turned out because as I turned on the lights in the room, they all went out !! They couldn't work out which fuse had tripped, so offered us the committee room instead (upstairs) which provided a good environment to play in, albeit a long way from the bar and toilet. We were also short of the White clan... so was a bit puzzled by their no show and had to keep running downstairs to check they hadn't turned up and not seen the note I left on the door. This wasn't the nice relaxing, focused start I had hoped for.....

When we did start I really had a fantastic few hands.... got dealt KK first hand and two people called my raise. The flop wasn't scarey so bet out and got one caller.... the turn wasn't an A so bet out again and took the pot. Next hand was A9 so saw the flop, although it was no good for me so folded, then the next hand got AA. Luckily Derek went with me to the river so I got paid off and was around 8000 chips (from the 4000 starting point) Settled down after that as the cards dried up. By now Martin had dropped to 2000 chips and was calling Dereks bets to the river. Derek put Martin all-in who called showing a pair, but Derek had trips so took Martin out after less than 20 mins play!

Unbelieveably I got dealt pocket A again soon after and bet sizeable chunk each round. Derek called all the way so thought he must have a pocket pair also. Unfortunately for me, his pocket Q hit a Q on the river and busted my A's putting me back down to around 4000 chips.

Bill looked to be in trouble when he went all-in to Darren. I had already folded my flush draw by then (which hit on the river) but Bill's full house got turned over by Darren's quad 4's ! Bill was left with around 500 chips, but after a couple of double ups (once against me!) he was right back in it.

After that I got some good draws which didn't hit and a couple of moves which didn't go anywhere and found myself struggling. Managed to double up once but by then it was too little too late, and was next out when my A-9 all-in raise got called by Derek and Bill with Derek's pair 4's ending up the winner.

Sean was busted out on the other table straight after me so we were already down to the last 8 players. As this allowed us to open up a cash game I didn't see much more of the main table action, but seemed like there was lots of action going on..

For me a bit disappointing result, but still thoroughly enjoyable.... roll on next month