General: King William IV pub /restaurant

Monday lunch was a nice drive out to the surrey hills and a trip to The King William IV pub.

The pub itself you would never find by accident as it’s tucked well out of the way up a steep gravel drive.    I struggled a bit to get up the rickety huge steps, so certainly not a good place to go if you have mobility issues !   Luckily Lynn is not very heavy so managed to get her inside….

The menu is a bit more like “normal” pub food, but with a twist.   Lucky for all involved, Lynn was able to have her chicken dish :-) albeit a Thai Chicken.  I went for the Beefburger which was slightly spiced up as well but both dishes were nice.    The treacle tart was again slightly different to normal, not sure it was my favorite version but certainly was nice for a change

The total bill was pretty reasonable as well, so overall a very nice lunch out

If we were in the area, would certainly not be adverse to going back for another meal, particularly on a warm sunny day when sitting out in the garden would be a good option.   Not special enough to make the trip just to go to the pub though.

General: The Royal Oak (Paley Street) Pub and restaurant

Decided to go out to lunch today and went to The Royal Oak pub at Paley Street chosen at random from the Michelin Guide “Eating out in pubs”, partly due to wanting to go to Ascot on the way there and this seemed closest.

The outside was ordinary looking, but was warmly greeted as soon as we walked in.  The inside was quite small (being an old building I suppose) but nicely laid out. 

The service was excellent and certainly felt welcomed and looked after.   The choice from the daily changing menu was pretty good for me, even with the large choice of fish (which I don’t like much!)  The menu was a bit limited for Lynn, as there wasn’t any chicken on the menu :-)    In the end we decided to go for the beef, but on ordering were told it would take 90 minutes, so we changed our minds !     I ended up going for (in effect) Cod and Chips with Lynn having the Grouse.   Both dishes were excellent (although I was disappointed by the chips) and the two deserts were also very tasty.     I didn’t know the restaurant had a Michelin star, else I probably would have expected the eye watering prices (£30 for a main course and £7.50 for a pud…. plus 12.5% service charge on top!)  

At that price, as you would expect, even the toilets were nice and felt “posh” with the individual towels to wipe your hands…. but not sure it represented value for money compared to other gastro pubs we’ve been to.

In the end, it was a nice meal in pleasant surroundings and we felt well attended to, so have no complaints.  It is the most expensive of all the gastro pubs we’ve been to though, so doubt we will go back as there are other gastro pubs that give the same level of excellence but at a more reasonable cost.

Poker: another go as a sponsored player for $200K

See article at http://www.blackbeltpoker.com/blogs/read/48554/sceaga/Pressures-of-playing-as-a-sponsored-player/

Holiday: Week off in August

You would think that having a week off in August would guarantee you the opportunity to get sunburnt, but in England that is obviously not the case :-)

As it happened we weren't that fussed as we are just doing whatever we fancy from day to day.

The first “official” day of our holiday was the Saturday 7th August, but was a normal day for us in that we had to go to Tesco for our weekly food shop…. but in the afternoon decided to go to the Subaru Dealer and look at some cars (as we need a bigger boot than the Fiesta offers).  We saw a great value Impresa WRX which we would’ve ordered there and then, had it not been for insurance complications….  We then popped into Guildford for a quick walk around, then Lynn’s mums and finally the Audi dealer to quickly look at the A3 Fastback and the A4 Avant.   Needed a rest that evening after all that excitement!

Sunday we went into Camberley for a spot of lunch, but also had a good walk around the shops.  Ended up in Bella Italia to eat, which was nice enough food as normal.

Monday we went to Basingstoke to buy me an office chair, then went to The Pot Kiln pub for lunch, then had a quick walk round Newbury before going on to Corinne & Mia’s for tea.  Another hectic day and were both worn out by the time we got home !

Tuesday was a “rest day” so just went M&S for a walk but otherwise had a lazy day

Wednesday was our 20th Wedding Anniversary and went to Chichester for an afternoon’s shopping and site seeing, then onto The Royal Oak Inn for dinner and stayed in the guest accommodation there.

As we were in the area, on Thursday went to Bognor Regis on a lovely sunny morning.   Of course it soon clouded over but was warm enough.   Had a nice walk about and a Fish & Chip lunch, before heading for home via a stop in Midhurst to get ourselves an Ice Cream !

Friday had another “rest day” so had a late breakfast and decided to go out for lunch at the Swan Inn.   We then went into Camberley Vue to see Knight and Day.  I thought the film was really good, with the action keeping you amused and entertained, with plenty of comic moments to remind you it’s not a serious film.  Lynn said she enjoyed it as well, so seems to appear to boys and girls.

Has it been a week already !   With work looming, we’ll have a “normal” weekend so nothing special planned.

General : The Swan Inn pub and restaurant

For our last official day of our holiday, we decided to go to the Swan Inn.   The interior was a little surprising as it’s very modern,clean and stylish.    The seats were a little un-comfy after an hour or so, but not too bad overall.  Service was efficient but a little to quick at times…although this may be due to the pub being pretty quiet whilst we were there.

The menu was a little restricted but was quickly served and very well cooked and presented.   Certainly was very filling as well !    The deserts were definitely a disappointment…. to be honest I nearly didn’t bother, but did end up choosing a desert but in the end wished I’d just had a coffee instead.

Overall, we probably wouldn’t bother to go there specially for a meal again, but would go in again if we was already in the area.

General: The Royal Oak Inn pub, restaurant and hotel

For our wedding anniversary, we decided to push the boat put and stay in a “posh” hotel, but also wanted some decent grub…. so in the end picked The Royal Oak Inn

Whilst not an immediately obvious choice, through their web site found they rented out some cottages right by the pub, as well as having rooms in the pub itself…. so thought having a cottage would suit us better.

As it turned out, the cottage we had was fantastic.  It was a two bet cottage, with fully kitted out kitchen, dining room and lounge… including a wine fridge (although you had to pay for any wine you drank!) Flat screen TV in lounge and bedroom, both with DVD players, also a CD player as well as things like games, magazines and books.    They also provided milk, tea, coffee machine, biscuits and even a chocolate bar for guests to tuck into!    I also hadn’t realized that breakfast was included so that was a bit of a bonus.  The only slight downside for us (which I hadn’t thought to check) was the stairs to the bedrooms were very steep, but as we only went up and down them a few times it wasn’t a bit issue.   Lynn also struggled to get in and out the shower (as it was over the bath) but again managed OK as it was only for one morning.

Having settled into the cottage, we took the short walk to the pub for dinner.  There was a wide selection on the normal menu, plus a couple of extra choices on the specials board.   Lynn went for the corn fed chicken but I went for the Pork on the specials board…. both were superb.   Both of us ended up having three courses which was a bit of a stretch (for our stomach’s :-) ) but thoroughly enjoyed our meals.

The next morning we took the short walk again and had a huge breakfast so was stuffed up for the day !

The meal itself was pretty reasonably priced and although the cottage was pretty expensive, I certainly felt it was a luxurious stay and seemed everything had been provided that you would expect and more.

General: The Pot Kiln pub & restaurant

Finding the Pot Kiln pub is a feat in itself, being out in the middle of nowhere and having to traverse into a maze of single track roads…. but the effort was worth it in the end.

It was beautifully warm and sunny day, so was able to sit outside to enjoy the view of the fields and trees, plus the general ambiance.  Inside was quite small in the bar area and no-one was in the dining area, so being outside was probably the more pleasurable experience anyway.  We were also joined by the owners dog, who sat under our table as good as gold all the time we were eating, but he was disappointed as we didn’t give him any scraps :-)

Although the lunchtime a la carte menu was available, we chose from the normal bar menu, both ending up picking the Ploughmans.  It was huge and each had a lump of cheese that would ordinarily last us a week at home !  There was also Ham and Pate to go with the home made pickle and coleslaw plus a massive Ciabatta bread.    As with most Michelin rates pubs, it was a little pricier than average, but certainly was fantastic food and in this case a huge portion !

Poker: Black Belt Poker – League VI : week 1

At last the Black Belt Poker League has started up again

Being on holiday, was not sure if I would get the opportunity to play or not, but as luck would have it, did manage to fire up and get involved !

Sadly, despite playing solid and boring, my AA got cracked by QQ on a cruel turn and ended up 83rd from a very healthy 95 starters after just 26 minutes of play.

At least I have a few points to kick off my new season’s campaign, although not as many as I would have hoped for.  Will be able to review my miserable haul of points in the Leaderboard

Roll on next week !

Poker: Late Night Poker Freeroll - Round 2

I have been eagerly looking forward to round 2, but realise it is a long shot still.

It kicks off at 8:35pm with 315 runners
1-12th get through
13-16th get Points as consolation prize

Fairly steady in the first 20 minutes so at the break am doing OKish…

Break 1: 1900/2413   152 /261

First hand after the break I get AT and manage to find myself allin on the K77 flop against AA !   Kindof lost the plot there I think, and am down to around 140 chips !

Next hand see TT so get allin but against AKo and QQ !! but hit T on river and triple up to 565 chips

Still not playing well and make a stab at an unraised pot when I hit 2nd pair but get found out by to pair…. so finished 225th at around 9:15 pm

I really didn’t play well at all, which is disappointing.   Really I should have not played, as it wasn’t really very convenient, so had to play in front of the TV and was also feeling tired.   As it was a free-roll and wanted time to take another pop at qualifying before the 15th August final I went ahead anyway… but wish I hadn’t now….

Will have to go back to the grinding through round 1 again now.

Poker: Home Tournament – August 2010

It seemed we would only have one table of 8 players… right up until Lee, Mick and Roger turned up , so not a bad turn out in the end !

I was on the table of 6 players, being  Jock, Roger, Darren, Daniel, Simon and myself.    To start with it seemed Daniel was getting all the cards as he seemed to be winning every hand and building up his stack.   I have a bit of a go at his BB with rubbish hand but he hit the flop and called my bet, so I slowed down and didn’t improve so he took a reasonable size pot.    He did get stung a bit later when heads up with Roger he folded A-x with A7744 board… Roger showed a small pocket pair and this threw Daniel off his stride for ages after, as he kept thinking about his fold !   Even getting quad 4’s didn’t help his mood as he only took a small pot.

A few hands later I was on BB with rubbish, but picked up a straight draw on the flop.  Roger bet small and Daniel called, so gave me the odds to go for it.  In the end I hit my straight on the river, but Roger led out with a sizeable bet, Daniel called and I raised all-in.  Despite correctly deducing I must have a straight, Roger decided to call and so did Daniel, which tripled me up and gave me the chips to sit back and relax.

I was able to pick my spots and play mostly good cards…. sometimes taking advantage if it folded to me on the blinds, but in the main keeping it solid.     

Darren couldn’t get to see a flop as every time he raised, even min-raised, everyone folded :-)    On the one occasion (before the break) I remember he limped to see a flop, he min-bet and everyone folded.   His reputation for being tight seemed the opposite to my loose aggressive reputation !

At the break I was up to around 6500 chips and one of the chip leaders.      On the other table, Andy had just fleeced Karen the hand before the break leaving her without chips, so she was starting with 3000 chips at this point, but this wasn’t much below the average as there had been few buy-in’s all night. 

Despite his earlier good fortune, Andy was the first out and immediately bolted for the door – heading for his fishing

There was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, but we then hit a run of knock-outs.   Daniel got busted by me whilst Jock was being busted by Mick on the other table so all of a sudden we are down to the final table.

The first hand on the final table seem myself in SB and Roger to my left in the BB.   I think Mick called but everyone else folded, so I had something like 4-4 so put in a raise.  Roger called but Mick folded.  Roger had a 50-50 with his Kh-9h but failed to hit so I took him out in 8th

Soon after Darren managed to get some action and also managed to knock out Simon !

After a lull in the action and with the blinds increasing, I somehow managed to knock out Mick and Sean in the same hand…which really set me up as big chip lead so just had to keep focused to take another win as we’re down to 4 players

I got a bit over anxious in the BB when Karen limped and Lee called in the SB.  With 1800 now in the pot, Lee had about 1200 and Karen around 1600 left behind.  Although my Jc-7c wasn’t a great hand, decided that if I wanted to see the flop, might as well get all the chips in anyway :-)   Both Karen and Lee called, Karen showing Ac-Tc and can’t remember Lee’s hand now…   an a came on the flop, but Lee hit 2 pair on the turn and took the main pot.  Karen was left with the consolation of 400 chips and the BB fast approaching…..

With Karen all-in on the BB I decided to call with Td-7d and Darren didn’t take the option to raise from SB.  The flop was all low, then hit T on the turn, so bet out and Darren folded.   Karen has 7-3 but had nothing, the 7 on the river no consolation and is out on the money bubble, but put up a good fight from low chips at the break

Lee doubled up against Darren which helped me out a bit, especially when I managed to get all-in against Darren with Q-Q to his A-T (I think)  The flop and turn were blank and didn't need the Q on the river to take out Darren in 3rd

Heads up I folded the first hand, the second hand I don't remember, but the third hand Lee flat called the SB, I raised all-in and Lee called with 3s-2s.. ! but I had As-Js and it was all over as I hit my J on the flop and that was it… another victory to me !!!

I really am running hot at the moment and am enjoying every minute of it whilst it lasts !   Great game obviously, winning always make’s it sweeter but always enjoy the game itself of course…  I did make a couple of mistakes, but overall felt I played pretty well.

I’m pleased to be back at the top of the league, but it’s still pretty tight at the top so all to play for !

See you next time….

Poker: July summary

Compared to an exciting June, July was a quiet month for me

On Black Belt Poker (BBP) only playing for 16 hours, being 22 Hold’em STT and 1 MTT, but still somehow also managed 1 Omaha HL MTT !   

The results are accordingly dull, being a total month profit of £42, not that I am complaining… any profit is a profit and much better than a loss !! 

Interestingly my 12x 6 seater STT netted me a loss of £7 (2 wins and 1 second) and my 10x 10 seater STT had a profit of £57 (2 wins and 5 third places!)  which is the opposite to my June results… still I suppose the sample is very small.    I also had one sponsored MTT but didn’t do well, and the Omaha HL was a £7 loss.

Did also play for 7 hours on Pokerstars, 1x HORSE and 10x 8 Game STT netting me a loss of $12 (about £8)

Looking forward, I have a week off in August and other things probably kicking off which will likely also restrict my Poker hours, but am still Green Belt on BBP for August and have enough points to play two more sponsored tournaments.   

Am also trying to get onto Late Night Poker via Full Tilt which looks like it will eat a load of my playing time in August as well, but sometimes you just got to put in the hours….  :-)

Poker: Late Night Poker – off the ground, just two more huge mountains to climb

Seems I'm on fire at the moment !   After my cash in last nights tournament I was feeling a bit tired, but decided to register for the two Round 1 freerolls for Late Night Poker, continuing my quest to get on the show again !

I played the 7:15pm game and had a slow plodding session… I don’t have any recollections of any huge good or bad fortune swings and just made steady progress through the 750 odd players and kept it steady.   

By the time the second qualifier started at 9:15pm I was about 20th out of 40 remaining players and still feeling in control, so with A-9s UTG decided to just stick all my chips in (on the second game) so I could just focus on the first game…. but got a caller and won the hand, doubling up.  

Over the next half hour I played both games and was staying slow but steady on the first game, but was being wild and stupid on the second game (wanting to bust out really…) but ended up chip leader in the second game !   I had to then sit out the second game as the first game was at that crucial stage….

After all the wild swings and excitement of the second game, I really had to calm and focus on the first….. I was now around 12th out of 35 left (27 go through)   Kept it nice and steady, don’t get involved, be passive, concentrate on survival…. but as we got to 30 players left, although I was still around 12/13th it was very slow going.   With about 6 players less than 10 BB stacks, seemed I would cruise through if only I can restrain myself… so went back to the second game :-)

Although I could use two tickets to the 2nd round,  I was really starting to feel tired by around 10pm and didn’t want to play another couple of hours, so was incredibly loose and aggressive but was around 3rd place from 600 odd remaining (900 odd started)  It was so much fun to play with idiotic abandon, going in with any two after a raise and re-raise, to see them fold :-)   Then get called when I got a decent hand and take out another player.  In the end, probability was always going to catch up with my stupid play and lost a couple of big pots, then doubled up with rubbish, but then the table chip lead ended up taking me out (he would probably be able to cruise through, so hope he appreciated my generosity ;-) )

This had been a welcome diversion from the slow, tense pace of the first game so was a relief when at 10:30pm, after 3.25 hours the final 27 were rewarded with their tickets to Saturdays Round 2… and I was one of the lucky few :-)

Of course there will likely be around 3oo-400 players in the next round with only about 10 tickets to the final round so will be tricky to get through.   Even then, the final round will only have one seat in the LNP televised finals…. It really is a slog, but I’m going to give it my best and see where I end up.   

Poker: Black Belt Poker – First cash as sponsored player

Weeeee, made it in one… . read all about it at http://www.blackbeltpoker.com/blogs/read/31208/sceaga/Another-go-at-a-sponsored-tournament----300-20-with--200k-Guarantee/