There is no doubt form is so important in this event , if you get off to a good start early on it makes so much difference , the first 4 levels you are comfortable maintaining your 10,000 starting stack but at 700 then 1100 a round in levels 5 and 6 you need to be up with the average to take advantage of the ineveitable short stacks .

When i got to 14,200 average was 14,600 , when i was knocked out i had 3400 left , the pot was 7900 and average was 21,000 .

The levels were 2 hours long and so i spent the first level learning my table .It was clear there were 4 weak players on the table , with blinds of 25 50 they were raising preflop anything from 300 to 500 .

I played two hands and lost both . First in the SB after the cutoff raised to 150 i reraised to 375 with TT and he called , flop was 9 J Q , now the cutoff checked out of turn , the dealer said it was me to act , i bet 600 and he now reraised me ! I passed and he showed a J .

Next , again in the SB i had 88 , after 3 limpers i wanted to thin the field , so raised to 300 , they all called , flop was J 8 5 , i led out for 900 and seat one and two called , with a straight and a flush draw there i checked in the dark , turn was a 7 , seat 1 checked but seat 2 bet 2000 , pot was now 5900 and as seat one was already picking up 2000 to call i knew i was getting 4-1 to hit my full house , i called , river was a K , i decided to lead out for 1100 rather than check call seat two who if he was betting the turn with the blockers , ie 99 or TT to represent the straight he may bet more on the river than i want to call , also if seat one calls my bet and he now moves in he must have the straight , 9T of diamonds would have been a great hand for the flop . My bet was called by seat one and then seat two raised all in for 6500 , i had to assume he had the straight and passed as did seat one , i ended the level 6525 .

Level 2 was 50 100 , i played a KJs and called a bet on a K high flop , checked the turn hoping the player would bluff the river , but when an A came , i also checked and he won with AQ ! I then won two pots with AA , first there was a raise to 400 and i reraised to 1400 hoping it would lokk like a weak A and the raiser would call or reraise , he showed AJ and passed , if i had just raised double i would have got two or three callers and AA dont work well against 4 players . The second time Marco Traniello who was on my right limped for 100 , i was on the button and made it 600 , the BB called but Marco passed , flop was A T 4 with two hearts , BB checked and i bet 700 , approx half the pot , unfortunately the BB passed , i wondered later if a check here would have been better but the BB was one of the tightest players on the table and would only bet if he had me beat , with a few blind steals and bluffs i was back up to 9725.

On the second break i spoke to Joe Beevers , like me he had flopped middle set on a flop with a flush draw , the difference was the board paired and his opponent had the nut flush so Joe got paid , he later flopped quads and made a royal flush , however after peaking at 30,000 he too failed to make the second day .

Level 3 i won one pot checked to the river , i held AJ and the flop came 9 T 4 8 7 to give me a straight , i had increased again to 10,775.

Level 4 blinds were now 100 200 with an ante of 25 so 550 a round , there was a raise to 700 and two callers , i had AKs in the BB and reraised to 3500 mostly because it meant the raiser and one of the callers had a decision for there whole stack , they all passed . I then limped with A9s , flop was A 9 Q , i bet out 1100 and was reraised to 3200 by a player with 2400 left , i knew that he was pot committed and at best we had the same hand , he could easily have 99 or AQ , i passed and he showed me A9 .

A new player came to the table , Billy from Australia , he had a lot of chips and began raising several pots 900 , he showed KK and AK , then in FP he raised again , a short stack reraised to 3200 all in , i had JJ and wanted to call the all in but Billy looked to relaxed and my gut feeling was if i called he would reraise , i passed , he called and flipped up AA , the all in had AQ and hit a Q so either way i would have lost.

After the all in left his place was taken by a young Scandinavian , he had over 25,000 chips and raised 3 out of 4 pots 825 picking up 550 each time , on the 4th raise Marco called him , flop was Q 7 5 , the raiser checked as did Marco trapping with his Q , turn was a K making two flush draws , raiser check called 1200 , river was a 7 , now the Scandinavian bet 2000 , Marco called and was disgusted when his opponent turned over 79s for trips !

I was now up to 11,850 and new blinds were 150 300 with a 25 ante , 700 a round . Now comes an example of form/luck . Seat 4 had been blinding away , when seat 3 raised to 1600 he went all in for 3200 and was called , the all in had AK , seat 3 had 88 , flop was A A x , he now had 6900 , the very next hand he raised to 1200 , Marco reraised to 3200 and the whole 6900 went in , Marco quickly called and showed QQ , the all in had JJ , flop was A J 4 A 8 and Marco was down to 1600 , seat 4 had gone from 3200 to over 14,000 .

During this 5th level i was virtually card dead but David Barrie in seat two who had earlier won the big pot when i floped a set won two big pots , one an absolute gift . Billy who had approx 17,000 raised in the SB to 1200 , Dave in the BB called , flop was T 8 7 , Billy led out for 2000 , Dave reraised to 6000 and Billy called , turn was a 3 , Billy undeterred by the flop reraise from a player that had him covered led out for 5,000 , Dave reraises all in and Billy called , he had AT , Dave had TT , i had Dave on two pair minimum and i think Billy had a rush of blood to the head . Later i had limped with one other , i had KJs the best hand in an hour , flop was 7 7 5 , Dave checked in the BB , the first limper bet 1500 , i passed and Dave called , turn was a 6 , Dave check raised 2000 to 4000 and was called , river was a Q and Dave bet out enough to put his opponent all in but he passed , Dave showed 77 for flopped quads ! He went on to finish day one with 65,000 .

A new player replaced Billy and started with a raise of 900 , i called in the BB with AJ , flop was 9 J Q , i led out for 1000 rather than have to reraise a continuation bet from a player whose game i didn't know , unfortunately he reraised me to 4000 , now he could have AK so two overs and a gutshot straight draw but i passed . I was down to 6600 and hoping for a double up , the Scandinavian raised to 1100 , i had AQs on the button , if i reraised i would be pot committed so i decided to call in position and hope both blinds passed , the SB did but the BB reraised to 5000 , both of us passed .

We were seeing fewer flops and at 700 a round with 1 minute to go i was down to 2575 in FP , i finally got a pair 99 and moved in , all passed and left for the break but the BB called saying it's probably a 50/50 , i was a big favourite , he had 55 , flop was 9 J Q 4 4 and i was back up to 5550 .

Level 6 was 200 400 , antes of 50 so 1100 a round , average was around 21,000 as we had lost 1100 players , i dropped to 3400 when while in BB FP limped for 400 , the next player raised to 1600 , all passed to me , i found AK and reraised all in to get it heads up , if i called the FP would likely call which i didn't want and i would only have 1800 left which would have to go in before my next BB , the FP passed and with a hand and an elementary call for pot odds i was called by the raiser making a pot of 7900 , with one hour to go if i won this i had a good chance of another double through and make it to day two , i just didn't want to see AA or KK , he turned up TT and so all i had to do was win a race , my key hand in the $5000 Short Handed had been when i held AK v QQ , i lost that one this would make up for it , flop was 3 6 7 6 7 and i was out 980 of 2160 .

On reflection the only hand i could have played differently was the AA where i over raised to 1400 but i was playing the player , if he had a pair he would have called to see the flop and he only had 4000 so he may even have moved in . With the cards i was dealt i did the best i could , occasionally my bluffs were called , but more won than lost as did my blind steals .

I had today off and tomorrow i will play the $1000 No Limit here at the Bellagio followed by the $1000 No Limit on Thursday at the WSOP for those of the 5400 of us knocked out on day one . Although i am yet to cash , of 8 events i have made the dinner break 5 times and played 11 to 14 hours three times finishing 30 to 40 places from the money , naturally i am disappointed to be out of the main event but there is still time to go home with a win .

All the best