Main Event Report

Well I'm out, and in keeping with my fine tradition on this trip, I lost a huge pot early on which effectively killed me. I could have won all 3 pots in all 3 events and things could have been a whole lot different, but there's plenty of tournaments like this in front of me and I had geared myself up for this eventuality.

I finally got to sleep on the night before the main, woke up 4 hours later and after some pancakes and a milkshake (the best thing about my hotel!) I headed over to the convention center. The walk down to the place was chaos, it was literally like a circus. Every kind of merchandise you could think of is being sold over here, and most of the people milling around think a flop is something you keep quiet and put to the back of your mind. I didn't realise how many of the entrants would be Americans who had qualified online, every site seemed to be represented at every table. Mine was no different, and from the discussions I heard in the 10 minutes leading up to the start I gathered that I had been blessed with an easy table. Most were just happy to be there, and their main objective was to last until day 2. I made sure to make friends with everyone on my right before the start, so that they would feel a bit better about giving up their hands when I had nothing.

This was by far the slowest structure I had played, and I had no intentions of going crazy at the start. I only played a few hands of note, these are the ones I remember.

Around 15 minutes in, I limp in mid position with A6s. The button calls, and the small blind raises to 225 (blinds 25/50). I call and the button follows suit. Flop comes A J 6 rainbow. Small blind checks, I check, button bets 300. Small blind calls, I raise to 1100. Button folds, small blind thinks for about 3 seconds and moves in for 10,000. I fold, he shows JJ. Good start :)

What I forgot to mention at this early stage is that when I sat down I noticed what looked like a rubber dealer button under my stack. It turned out this was our "Milwaukee Light All-in button" and we were encouraged to throw it into the pot whenever we went allin. Who said anything about the class being taken out of poker? Obviously the villian in the first hand threw his "Milwaukee Light All-in Button" into the middle with great delight.

A few hands later I limp in early position with QQ. 1 other limper, and the button raises to 175. 4 of us see a J high flop. I check-call the flop and turn before making what I wasn't too sure was a value bet or a stopper bet on the river. I got a call and muck to increase my stack to about 12,000.

I then yo-yoed for a bit between 13,000 and 10,000, before my first decent pot just before the end of the first level. A tight player who had just loosened up in the previous 10 minutes (I was guessing he had seen AA and KK a few times) raises to 175 in late position. I call on the button with QsJs, as does the big blind. Flop comes J 10 9, 2 diamonds. They both check, I bet 450, the preflop raiser calls. Turn is a rag diamond. He checks, I bet 1300, he calls. Turn is a 7. He now bets 1800 into a 3200 pot. I have him on AK with a diamond, or maybe A10 with the A of diamonds at best. I call and he shows AK with the A of diamonds. I don't know why but they love showing their hands rather than simply mucking, they want to show you how lucky you were to outflop them after your initial investment preflop!

This put me on just over 15,000 going into the break and feeling pretty good. Actually, I felt super confident, the table was a walk in the park. I knew in the back of my mind that I was only going to lose a big pot by getting a big hand beat, there would be no donking today.

In the first hour after the break I played pretty tight and got my stack up to 16,500. Then my customary kick in the teeth.

With the blinds at 50/100, an absolute rock who had played roughly 8 hands in the first 3 hours raises to 400 utg. 1 caller in late position, and I look down at 7h8h in the small blind. "Please god, let me crack a big hand" I thought. I call, and a donkey who had just sat down to my left called from the big. Flop comes... wait for it... 9h 10h Jd. I nearly wet myself. Obviously it was feasible one of the other callers could have KQ, but if not I could most likely take a chunk from the rock utg if he had anything from QQ to AA. I check, and the donkey bets 2000 into a 1600 pot. Utg is playing around 15,000, and raises to 6,000. My attentions immediately turn to the donkey, who doesn't look too happy. He is only playing about 9,000, so this raise basically sets him all-in. The button folds, and I continue to try and read the donkey. It becomes apparent I have him beat, he didn't realise I was still in the hand and wasn't about to make an instant move, so I ruled out KQ. I re-raise all-in for a total of 16,500. The donkey ponders for ages before finally folding Q10. Utg calls pretty quickly, and low and behold he has KQo. I miss the flush draw, and am left with 1,500 dead. Given the stack sizes, the fact this guy had hardly played a hand and seemed highly unlikely to be raising utg with KQ, I have no regrets about the hand. Added to that I still have 9 outs, if I hit I am in a massive position early on with the finest commodity at a poker table, chips to play with.

I tried to console myself with my 15 big blinds and stuck it out. A few laps later there are a few limpers on my blind and I check A7 to see a flop of A 9 7. It is checked round, and the button bets 250. I call, everyone else folds. The turn is a 3, I bet 500, button calls. River is a K, I move in for my remaining 600. He thinks for ages before calling with the bare 7. "I thought you might have 108" he says. Yes, apparently I must look that bad at a poker table because of course I would play 108 like that!

That puts me up to 3000 and lifted my spirits greatly. 30 big blinds is plenty here so long as you can shrug off the fact everyone else has much more. I get up to 3500, before calling a raise to 325 on the button with KJo. The preflop raiser is the guy who had AK against me earlier, and despite being a nice guy was pretty much dead money. 4 of us see a J 4 4 flop, 2 clubs. He bets 1200, I jam for 3200. He calls and shows QJ. I have an amazing ability in these things of knowing when it is my time to go. In Dublin when I hit the runner runnner at the final table I stayed seated the whole time, don't ask me how but I knew I would hit. Despite only having to avoid 3 outs this time I knew I was gone. Sick but true. Before I had fully got out of my seat the dealer flipped over a Q.

If I hold up there I think I go to day 2 with a decent stack, but that's the way it goes, unfortunately far too often for my liking. I swapped a few percentages so still have an interest, and will obviously be cheering on everyone that I know out here. Met a guy who plays as Protege on Betfair who I tipped to Dubai to do well, and he has 30k overnight, so I might see if I can get a bet on tomorrow! There is a 10k event at the Bellagio in a few days which looks tempting, but I don't know if I can stomach any more tournament poker just yet. One good thing is that I have come out of this with improved confidence, I accumulated chips in each event and went out pretty harshly in all 3 for huge pots. Give me a month off and I'll be ready for the EPT's again with renewed enthusiasm :)

The night before Christmas

Or at least that's what it feels like! It's 3am in Vegas at the moment and after promising myself an early night I can't sleep. I've felt really run down the last few days, once you wake up in a hotel in Vegas you have no chance of getting back to sleep thanks to the ridiculously powerful air-con, and the staff seem to enjoy waking me up early every day with trivial questions. The last 2 days I have managed to get to sleep at 11am and 9am, not because of all night drinking sessions, but thanks to a sudden bout of insomnia. Haven't got a clue what time I will finally get to sleep tonight, but I have been drawn to play day 1 of the Main Event (which starts in 9 hours time) so I'm hoping it's gonna be soon! This is actually going to be a pretty pointless entry, but it's my form of a pep talk for myself.

I'm always reviewing things I have done in my own head and if I get 30 minutes on my own I normally end up going over something that happened months ago. All week I have been going over the tournaments I have played since Dublin, and thinking what could have been done differently. I've come round to the idea now that all-night drinking sessions the night before an event maybe aren't the best strategy! That has been knocked on the head for the time being, but with regards to my own play in these tournaments there isn't a lot I would have done differently. For a poker professional this next 2 weeks is what it's all supposed to come down to every year, so it makes sense to start analysing. Admittedly I have only played something like 7 tournaments since Dublin (events at the Vic and Gutshot I do not count as I am normally drunk and have no plans on coming back for the 2nd day!), but failing to cash or go deep in any of them has knocked my confidence at times. I had a conversation with Dubai today about how everyone in poker thinks they are a great player. It's so true, I used to think I was a great player, or at least had the potential to be, but for a while have kind of just sunk into a comfort zone. Confidence is a massive thing in poker and I think I am one of the worst for fluctuation confidence levels. I have come back to the line of thinking now that I definately have what it takes to be a great player, that was the aim in the first place when I got into poker and it has somehow been forgotten along the way. The money is a side to that, it's only really a measure of how good you are and isn't the be all and end all with me. I want to DO something, so the mentality I have going into tomorrow is "no more fucking around, do yourself justice for a change!".

Regardless of what happens in this main event, I also want to press on and do well in the next EPT season. I feel like I'm due to run well in the odd tournament or two, and once I amass a few chips in one of these things again I know I can go very deep. There is such a large contingent of people I know at this WSOP that there is bound to be at least a few people I know who go far. I'll see what the signs are like tomorrow as to whether or not I will be one of them.

Belated Vegas Blog

I wanted to try and keep a regular diary of Vegas, but to be honest I have been pretty disappointed with the whole trip so far and have little motivation to write any of it down! Considering how excited I was about coming out here again, it's been a massive comedown since arriving. I've never felt really homesick when I've been away before, but for some reason it's hit me quite hard this time. I think I've only been here for 2 weeks, and at the moment the days are just flying past.

I've only played 2 WSOP events so far, the $2.5k short handed and the $5k short handed. I haven't been impressed with much of my own play in the tournaments I have played so far this year, but I actually thought I played really well in these two. Built decent stacks in both only to lose to a 2 outer and then a 9 outer in the respective tournaments for pots which would have put me in the top 5 chip leaders early on. The standard has been pretty bad, as I think most people who are here would agree with. Even with the big name players, it's only when you sit with them or watch their table that you realise how massively over-rated they are. Dubai has gone deep in both short handed events so far, and in the $5k he was fortunate enough to be sat on Phil Helmuth's table for around 5 hours. The fact this guy has 10 WSOP bracelets is an embarassment. He got up to 26k in the $5k event, and then literally bled down to 9k without seeing a flop for 3 hours. In his Cardplayer interview afterwards he was quoted as saying "I had to make great laydowns all day just to survive". Well he didn't see a flop all day so I would love to know what great laydowns he was having to make preflop when he had a stack! I would also love to run well for a change, I'm not playing another event til the main now so hopefully that will be the time for my luck to change.

Aside from poker, it has been the usual story with Vegas. No-one ever knows what time it is, let alone what day it is, and most of the day is normally spent in our respective pits, and then the evening spent getting drunk at a club! It is fun for a while, but the longer you are here the more Vegas starts to grate on you. EVERYONE here is bitter, I actually feel bad telling taxi drivers I am playing the main event as I know they would do anything to get there hands on $10,000. I think the following story sums up Vegas pretty well and is probably the main reason I feel like I am done with this place!

The rest of the English contingent arrived in Vegas today and about 12 of us went out drinking this evening. At around 2.30am we ended up at Caesers Palace to go to a club called Pure. When we got to the door someone was wearing boots and was told that he could only get in if he was wearing shoes. He had no shoes in his room, and all the shops were closed so we were pretty stuck. Our only chance of getting in was to convince someone to sell us his shoes. The bouncer was offering us his shoes for $800 which we thought was slightly extortionate. We walked over to the tables to try and find someone willing to sell. We approached a scruffy looking guy wearing a free Palms Casino t-shirt who looked like he could be persuaded. The conversation went something like this:

Us: Hey how you doing, this might sound weird but is there any chance you would be willing to sell your shoes

Scruffy Guy: Are you kidding?

Us: No 100% serious, we need some shoes or our friend can't get into the club. What's your price?

Scruffy Guy: You can have them for $30!

Us: Are you serious?

Scruffy Guy: Yeah definately, do you want them?

We bought them, but there is no way I am making someone suffer the indignity of walking round in socks for $30, so we gave him $140. I told him not to do it on the casino games, and he told us there was a hooker he had on the go who he would spend the money on instead. Lovely. It's like the Bumfights videos that were going round the internet a few years ago, it sounds funny but when you witness it it's actually one of the saddest sights in the world. The guy was willing to spend the rest of the night in socks for $30?! There are some great things about Vegas, but this is definately not one of them. There are tons of people like that, and you have to walk past them everyday wherever you go.

Despite all this, I am still pretty happy on the whole and there is the possibilty a few of us might go to San Diego after the WSOP is finished. I had recently thought about moving to the USA, possibly even Vegas, but that idea is dead and buried now! The UK is much better in my eyes, people here can be so rude and bitter, England isn't great but it is definately a happier place than this. San Diego is apparently one of the most chilled out places in the world so I don't mind giving that a go, but I will be glad once this circus is over and done with! It's only saving grace could be that I have heard a rumour there is a tournament starting in a few days where donkeys are literally queuing up to give away $10,000...

Dilemma

Well it's not really a dilemma, or at least it wouldn't be if I weren't so lazy. I'm due to move out of my flat on the 5th August, but as I'm going to be in Vegas at that time I'm going to have to move out before I go to. After speaking to Dubai on the phone and reading Rob Sherwood's Vegas diary, I am literally itching to get out there. As it stands I have a flight booked on the 17th July, but it is flexible and I can change it with a few days notice.

I've been thinking that if I get there on the 17th July, the only events I will really be able to play are the $5,000 short handed NL Hold'em on the 20th, and the Main Event at the end of the month. I've never been to the WSOP before, and I want to give myself as much of a chance as possible to make my first time a memorable one (ie big cash or if I'm a really lucky boy, a bracelet). Of course there's every chance I come home without even a cash, but getting there on the 17th and only playing 2 events doesn't exactly give me much chance. If I go earlier, at least I can play 4 events (most likely the $2500 short handed NL and the $2000 NL) and give myself a much more realistic shot at a decent cash. Besides that, it's Vegas, and who wouldn't want to be there as long as possible!?

The new date I have eyed for leaving is this Wednesday (12th July). If I am to do that it means I literally have Monday and Tuesday to move out of my flat. This shouldn't be a problem, but I am so lazy and not sure if I will manage to take everything apart in my flat and transport it to my new abode in 2 days. God that sounds terrible! I also have a tooth I wanted to have taken out before I went as it always gives me problems when I go away and I didn't want to be stuck in Vegas with a toothache for 3 weeks, but I guess that is not going to happen now.

At the start of the week I gave myself a target of £10k to win before I would let myself go to Vegas, and I have already made that so there is no need to play poker for the next few days. Yet another reason why I should get on the next available flight, and the more I think about it the more realistic I think it is that I will go on the 12th. I haven't been playing many heads up games recently, my confidence has at last come back and I'm actually playing better than I ever have in the past. Playing heads up games for over a month solid has definately improved my overall game, as has an extended break from cash games. Infact, comparing how I'm playing now to when I was at what I would consider my peak before, and there is no comparison. Hopefully this bodes well for the future, I have had a great week and have only played £10/£20 once on Virgin, so maybe this also means the sick swings don't also have to come back. One thing I'm definately going to do is make sure I am still playing online while in Vegas, I'm taking £10,000 for entry fees and spending money, but hope to make back everything I spend out there online. Ah, now I'm thinking about Vegas again!

I remember how depressed I was coming home from there in December, to me it's without doubt the best place I've ever been. There are plenty of European events coming up in August and September, but if I had no commitments here I think I could see myself living in Vegas, or at least somewhere only a few hours away. That will probably never happen though, so I should make the most of the next month.

Vegas, 2 weeks and counting...

Only 2 weeks til I finally get to Vegas and at the moment it's all I can think about. Dubai went out last week with Rob Sherwood and Martin Green, and if I thought Vegas was amazing in December it sounds even better in the summer. 45 degress is maybe a bit hot, but with less onus on partying this time I might actually have a chance to see what else Vegas has to offer. I almost went early as a few days ago it looked like Dubai would make his first final table at the 3rd time of trying.

After playing 2 of the first events, he entered the $2500 short handed event. I got a text message when I woke up on Sunday to tell me that he was 18th in chips with around 50 runners left. Followed the updates on Cardplayer throughout the second day and it was supremely confident he would make the final table. Unfortunately he doesn't get much luck in these things. With 19 (I think) left, he re-raises out of the blind with AA, and gets a call from Daniel Negreanu, who he had been runing over for much of the day. Dubai instantly moves all-in on a J 8 7 flop and eventually gets a call from Negreanu who is holding KJ. 5 outs shouldn't be that hard to dodge, but the J on the river sends Dubai packing. That pot was for the chip lead and I know 100% if Dubai wins that pot he goes onto the final table with ease. We were obviously gutted for him, but I know if he doesn't let it affect him and continues playing the rest of the events like that, he will better that result before he gets home.

I'm still only likely to play 2 or 3 events while I'm there but also feel really confident at the moment. I have forever bemoaned the ridiculous amount of runners at WSOP events and always wrote it off as a bit of a lottery. However, having never played a World Series event that was maybe a bit harsh. From what I am told, so long as you can get chips early in the smaller buy-in evets, the structure means that you have a great chance of going deep. There has been a good proportion of decent players at the latter stages of the events so far this year, so that is promising. The general standard of play also sounds dire over there, and I can only imagine how bad some of the play in the main event will be.

Aside from dreaming of Vegas, the last week or so has been pretty boring. Everything is going in the right direction, losing days have become very rare at the moment and I can't even remember the last time I had a losing week. I have at last also reverted back to mainly playing cash games, but thankfully I'm not sitting there for 10 hours anymore sweating my nuts off. I made a deposit on Betfair at the start of the World Cup purely for betting purposes, but it proved impossible to stay away from cash games with money in my account. It's gone well, and I haven't even sat at a £10/£20 game... yet. The games on Virgin are definately easier, and I don't mind playing £10/£20 on there as it is just really hard to lose, but the games on Betfair are still not great. Sometimes there will be a good £5/£10 game going, but a lot of the value has definately disappeared from that site and I often see a table full of professionals with no dead money to fight over. I'm also still playing heads up games on Virgin, but am only using them to supplement my winnings now as opposed to relying solely on them. They had actually become quite stressful, if you get a good run going you can win a lot playing them, but having to sit there playing 50 heads up games some days got a bit tiresome!

I forgot to mention on here a few months ago that my EPT final table in Dublin was finally shown on tv. I didn't actually enjoy watching it back as much as I thought I would, a lot of key hands were cut, not just involving me but also the rest of the table. The commentary is also a bit annoying some times, there is no mention of chip stacks or what the genral feel of the table is, simply the cards and abc decisions. They also cut most of my interview (the bit they did show made me sound like a complete geek!) and also my exit interview which I thought was a bit harsh! I think the best thing about it being shown on tv was when I was on holiday in Marbella in May, we were in a bar that was showing Eurosport on tv at about 11pm and the Dublin EPT came on. That was a bit surreal but very nice!

Here is a clip that managed to find it's way onto YouTube (I didn't put it there I promise!).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtMhPnNbCI8&search=english%20tea

It's the hand where I called all-in with A high and hit a runner runner straight against Joe Rafferty. Pretty sick and I don't even know how to defend it looking back on it, I think I just had a feeling or something lol. Also , and probably more importantly, I was getting great odds to call and didn't want to be left with no chips. He didn't have to have set!

If anyone is still out there...

Where to start? Seems weird writing a blog now after so long without an update, especially when not much has actually happened recently! I'm not even entirely sure why I stopped updating for a while, obviously getting abusive comments on here didn't help my motivation, but also I've found that in terms of entertainment, cash games are far better to write about than heads up games.

Well first things first, poker has been going well and has also become completely non-stressful for a change. 90% of my games are still heads up sit and go's, and I'm struggling to find reasons to revert back to cash. I had a look at Betfair and Ladbrokes this morning and thought about depositing a bankroll and starting on one of those 2 again, but I just don't think I need to. I was watching a cash game on Betfair for a while, and while it still looked really easy, I just didn't fancy the boredom of sitting in a game having to wait for hands for a few hours. Heads up games have their downsides, but on the whole are a huge blessing. I've already mentioned the positives on here before, but the change in my stress levels knowing that I won't be having huge swings is priceless to me. The standard is also still very bad in general, and cash games just seem like a grind compared to this. I'm winning less than I'd expect to win if I were playing £10/£20 cash, but how much money does someone need to earn to really be comfortable? Certainly not £10,000 a week!

I think over the course of the last year I completely lost sight of the value of money, and came to the conclusion a few months ago that I didn't need to be trying to earn obscene amounts of money to be happy. Even when I was earning over £10,000 some weeks, the stress I had to go through to get it was so great that I didn't even appreciate it. As I'm sure is the case with all poker players, I still have the desire to be aknowledged as being one of the best at what I do, but there comes a point where you just want a normal life again. The money that has been floating around in poker for the last few years has got out of proportion, to the point where it is making the winners become slightly full of themselves (myself included up until recently!). Some of the biggest online winners can come across as complete tools, and that is mainly because they have completely lost sight of their place in the world and have began to get a bit carried away with their own success. I was going down that road myself, and looking back I can admit that I had been a complete idiot towards people that knew me as I got more and more wrapped up in poker.

Over the past month, in keeping with getting my life back to normal, I have spent less time playing and more time doing what I want again. I keep telling myself that somewhere down the line I will start playing cash games again, but I have the nagging feeling that once I do it will just end up taking over my life again. A lot of my recent posts have focused on this aspect of my life and how much of a release not playing cash has given me, but I really can't emphasise enough just how much better I feel for it. If you have read this blog over the last year then you will know that at times I have been so stressed with it all, even when winning I think I was completely stressed out! I have seen loads of people go full-time play cash games over the last 6 months, and see in them exactly what I was going through at times. It is SO not worth it let me tell you!

The next few months for me are pretty much geared towards the WSOP and the nest season of the EPT. I want to try and get to a few more WPT events aswell and hopefully if I'm playing with a level head again I can get a few more results. I don't think I'm going to Vegas until the 18th July, and will most probably only play the $5000 short handed NL event on the 20th and the main event. I know a few people who are going over a month earlier, but with fields expected to be ridiculously huge this year I can't see it being worthwhile playing every event. I'm sure I will be proved wrong when they are all picking up bracelets and I'm sat here kicking myself! I'm still writing a strategy column every month for Poker Player magazine which takes up enough of my time to make me lazy enough to not want to post here aswell, but I'm also going to try and get this blog back on track, although will probably focus more on hand analysis rather than how much I am earning each week...

There should also be a new banner at the top of this blog which will enable you to an automatic 25% rakeback on Virgin so long as you rake over $1000 a month. I had been getting loads of emails enquiring about rakeback so rather than deal with them individually it seems easier to direct people through here.

Sorry it's been a while...

And sorry to report my lack of updates isn't from losing money for a change! I've actually been so laid back recently I haven't had the energy to write a blog. I've been playing loads of games on Virgin in spurts, and my first week (last week) didn't go as well as expected. Despite having a supposedly sane mind, I still refused to stop playing cash. Managed to win $12,000 playing heads up games but lost almost $10,000 playing cash, despite winning at both on the first day of the week. I know I'm not playing cash how I should be playing it at the moment, but I seem to have a mental block every time I sit down. It also doesn't help that I CANNOT win a big pot, whether I have the best of it or am drawing. So without trying to sound like a broken record, I am definately giving up cash for the time being. I know... YAWN. But it's true I really am!

This week went better, played (and of course lost) cash on Monday and Tuesday, but still managed to end the week $8,000 up. The figures have all been changed to dollars on this blog now purely because that is the currency Virgin deals in, and it is a bit easier on my brain. I have found the difference between cash games and heads up tournaments to be enormous. I can be having a really bad day heads up and still only be $1000 down, and it only takes a maximum of 15-20 minutes to play each game so the turnover is ridiculous. You can lose a big pot early and still expect to win the game purely because you know how to play the later levels much better than your opponent. It's also nice when you go 4 from 4 at the start for the day and get to take a break after an hour! I think what it has done though is make me even looser, having to think whether or not to value bet K high probably does that to you. You also can't really fold most hands preflop, so when it comes to playing a 10 seater game again I imagine I will viewed as a lunatic. I'll be happy if the next few months can continue like this, the stress that I have left behind with cash games is unreal. I would like to come back to them after the summer, but I have a bit of a catch 22 situation. I don't play cash games that well when I have a particuarly large bankroll, I just lose motivation. On the other hand, when the bankroll starts to dwindle I find the pressure too much. There is a perfect spot somewhere in between, but I have found that I don't stay there for very long. Aside from the day to day games, there has been quite a lot going on.

I have been confirmed to write a column in Poker Player magazine every month, starting I think in 2 months time. There is an interview with me in this month's Poker Player which I conducted while under the influence, so it's not exactly your ABC poker interview! I've just realised while writing this that I have also been featured in a strategy column in The Sportsman newspaper today and last Sunday, but have forgotten to buy both copies.

I missed the Irish Open last weekend to go to a wedding in Birmingham which was certainly an eye opener. The girls up there certainly love their pints! I think my body is aging prematurely as I've never felt the effects of a hangover more than I did last Saturday. I've been getting moaned at to get back in shape which I think is definately an aim for the summer, I nearly passed out when running 50 yards to the shop the other day (to buy cigarettes) so the signs aren't good. I think it was also the first time this year that I have gone 3 days without poker, how sad. As I'm writing Roland De Wolfe is in the final 7 of the $25k WPT at The Bellagio and looks like he will be going to the final table. I said to him yesterday that if he made the final table me and Dubai would fly over to offer some support, but I'm worried that if I go over there again I might not come back. Everything I am making at the moment is basically going to be my expenses budget for the WSOP so I don't really want to dip into it yet!

I will definately try to write a more detailed update this week, I need to finish watching series 5 of The Sopranos before going to sleep so this is the Carlton Palmer of poker signing off... and yes I can spell busto but not on this blog baby ;)