Poker: Black Belt Poker grading update – week 3

See week three update article at http://www.blackbeltpoker.com/Community/Blogs/blogPost.aspx?id=22228

Poker: Black Belt Poker grading update – week 2

Written up on the Black Belt Poker blog – see http://www.blackbeltpoker.com/Community/Blogs/blogPost.aspx?id=21931

General: The Highwayman Pub/Restaurant

Lynn has been fancying a curry for some reason the last couple of weeks and I had read about the Highwayman Pub in Yateley a while back… so when we got a flyer through the door advertising a Curry night every Wednesday at The Highwayman, it seemed like a sign for us to go have a curry !

The pub is in Monteagle Lane in Yateley and was formerly called The Monteagle

We turned up early (at 6pm) which was when they started serving food from the Evening menu so was empty, but found the staff friendly, efficient and courteous and the service was excellent.  It’s been about 20 years since we were in the pub, so don’t remember the original decor and ambience, but today it is clean and pleasant.  There is still some character retained and seems a nice place to spend some time eating and drinking.

The menu was varied and there were also specials available.  We had gone for the “Curry Night” and although it transpired this basically meant you got 10% discount off the Curry’s on the standard menu, this was sufficient for what we wanted.    

The food was plentiful and very tasty… and the puddings were nice as well :-)

The only slight negative is the prices are more akin to a restaurant rather than a pub.   With the discount we got, our food did represent reasonable value for money but just have a nagging doubt it is a bit overpriced.  

Overall we both enjoyed our meal out and are planning to go back to give it another chance to impress us some more, probably on a Saturday night next time

Well worth a visit, but don’t expect a cheap night out.

Poker: Black Belt Poker grading update

I am updating the Black Belt Poker Blog with my grading exploits, so you can read about my first week on this page

Am anticipating updating BBP blog weekly, so will put brief entry here to point you to it as and when….

Poker: Home Tournament – February 2010

It seems the new format is much more exciting and encourages people to play better Poker, as all 15 players this month seemed really up for it and lots of good play.

Having said that, my first hand was AQ from the SB for which I made a significant raise…. but no-one believed me and 4 saw the all low flop.   I checked and Derek made a big bet and got called.   Derek had flopped a str8 with his 8-7o and Lee has flopped two pair with his 9-6 so the money goes in but neither improve and Derek has a great start to the night !   He goes on to get another two occasions where he flopped a str8 and gets a load of chips… so obviously pays to take a punt sometimes

There is soon another huge hand, when after four limpers, I decide to go all in with my 3-3 (expecting most to fold) but everyone calls!     Jock ended up winning most of the pot with his Ax and Janice took the rest with K-K leaving three of us doing a double buy-in !

Things did settle down once there was a fair number of chips in play, and managed to see the break with around 5000 chips (slightly over average)

After the break the blinds start to bite and soon start seeing people taking risks to build up their stacks.   Lee and Steve W see a flop on their own on the blinds, there is not much action until the A falls on the river, which gave Lee top pair with his A-T but made Steve W his flush so Steve takes out Lee and gets a point :-)

It is not long before we are on the final table and I still have around 5000 chips and only Darren and Janice have less chips than me out of the 7 players

As the large blinds start going round the chips soon change hands and to my surprise suddenly find myself in the top 4 with about average chips (around 20’000) but Bill has huge chip lead.  

As we move into the final blind level, I suddenly find some cards and manage to bust out Derek then Bill in quick succession.   This gives me a huge chip lead and only one hand to play so take the victory from Steve W, who had played solidly all night and got a well deserved first cash for 2nd place

Well done to all, seemed a great game to me :-)