With over 800 players we were split into two day ones , i played on the first and after having the previous day off and getting a good nights sleep i was in great shape .

I liked my table , the only pro i recognised on the table was in seat 10 , Louis Asmo , i have played with him for 8 years so know how tight he is , an image he uses to his advantage in the later stages .

Once it was established there were no loose players i was able to take a few flops cheaply but nothing panned out .The first hand i really got involved with i held AQ , flop was A K 4 , i check called a bet , turn was another 4 and we both checked , river brought a J , i checked and called a 1000 bet sure he didn't have QT for the straight , in fact he had KK for a full house !

It wasn't that i didn't get hands , i held KK but had to slow down on a Q Q 4 flop , then with TT and three callers the flop came A K 3 , i ended the first 90 minute level going in the wrong direction , down from 10,000 to 7,600 .

I have been in this situation hundreds of times and have the patience and discipline not to chase , the blinds are small relative to your stack so there is plenty of time . However this was such a tight table , even though i was the second shortest stack no one wanted to call my raises , i had KK , QQ but no calls . Finally i picked up AJs and when their was a raise to 300 i flat called on the button , the SB passed but the BB who had just misplayed AA to an obvious flopped set and was shortstack with 2800 raised to 1500 , the original raiser passed , i put him on a medium pair and decided to call in position , if a J or diamonds don't come i'm finished with the hand , the flop was Q J 4 rainbow , as i expected the BB pushed in for his last 1300 , i was sure he hadn't raised with AQ , if he had AK he needed a T or a K but i still had him on a pair and decided to call , the flop had brought the case J , he held the other two !

I was blinding away then picked up 88 and raised , this time i got two callers , flop was T 5 4 with two clubs , Louis bet out and was called , i passed , the flush was made on the turn and they both checked , the river was an 8 , Louis bet and his opponent passed , i guarantee my made set would have been a loser . I ended the level with only 2500 .

Blinds were now 75 150 , again even though i was shortest stack they wouldn't take me on , i had a sequence of uncalled hands , AK , TT , AK and AKs in the BB when all had passed ! Finally Louis limped for 150 , there was a raise to 300 and my patience paid off as i looked down at AA , i reraised 1800 all in and just Louis called , he had TT , flop was A 4 7 , turn was a 7 and i had doubled up . I now stole two pots in a row representing a non existent rush , both times with J2s , i ended the level back up to 5625.

The chip leader on our table hadn't shown down one bluff , all his hands were premium , on this hand he had limped in FP , all passed to me and with KJs on the button i called , flop looked good J 8 6 with two diamonds , BB checked and the FP bet 600 , having been trapped once by an earlier set i decided just to call just in case , turn was a 9 , he bet another 600 , i was sure he wasn't slow playing a set i put him on a diamond flush draw probably TJs or QJs , i decided to again just call and let him bluff the river if he missed , river was an A and he bet 600 again but this time i had the feeling he had made his hand , now i had to assume he had been betting on the flush draw but A high , i reluctantly paid him off , he had AQo and had been betting throughout with no hand , i had misread the hand totally and should have raised on the turn.

I was short stack again a round later and he limped again from FP , this time there was a raise to 625 from another short stack , he had done this twice before with small aces , this time i had KQo , i considered moving in as i thought he would pass but the FP had 20,000 chips and i din't think my raise would get rid of him , i called hoping he would add value by flat calling , he did , flop was J 8 2 all hearts and they both checked to me , i moved in with the bare K , now the chip leader called my 2200 and the preflop raiser passed , the FP had TT with the ten of hearts , turn was a J but river the 5 of hearts to give me the bigger flush . I was back up to 6700.

A new player joined our table two to my right , i wanted to find out how he plays so when i pick up A8s i make a standard raise to 600 , both the player next to me and the new player called , flop was 7 3 2 , i bet 1000 representing an overpair , the first player passed but the new player moved in for 3800 , it seemed like a flopped set rather than a bluff even though there were two clubs so i did consider he had two overs with a flush draw but i was sure if i hit one of my overcards it would be no good , i passed , he showed 23o and said he only called preflop as he felt lucky !

I blinded back down then on the button raised to 600 with JQs , the 23o player called in the BB , flop was 5 7 T with two of my suit , he bet 800 and i moved in , he called with QTs , turn was the 9 of clubs making my flush and i was back up to 5350 .

One round later again i was on the button , one off the button went to raise but hesitated as he put in 600 , i had 99 , i was sure it was good and didn't want to let the BB in cheap as he was clearly full of gamble so i reraised to 2600 , the SB passed and the BB immediately reraised all in , the original raiser passed . It just so happened one of the Card Player guys was taking chip counts and he noted what i said , i looked across at the BB who was sitting staring at the pot , i was certain i was winning , there was 5900 , he had about 3000 more all in to my 2450 so if i called i was getting 8350 to 2450 or well over 3 to 1 for what i was sure was even money , i declared " I am certain you would make that same play with AKs , i call " I turned up my 99 and he flipped over AKs , ok so my read was spot on as was my call but what would the flop bring ?

The flop was , and you'll love this , 9 of diamonds Q of diamonds and 5 of hearts , now i know what you're thinking he had AK of diamonds right ? Wrong he had AK of hearts , turn was the 6 of hearts , river the 4 of hearts , having been a 95.65% favourite on the flop i was now out of The Legends of Poker .

Had i won this pot i would have had 10,800 chips and with the last two levels of the day 100 200 with a 25 ante and 150 300 with a 50 ante i am certain i would have been in good shape to build up my stack for day 2 , instead i went back to the hotel and changed my flight from Thursday to Sunday .

The eventual winner was a player called Alex Kahaner who beat Kenna James heads up , one of the key hands that astounded Kenna was when he held the chip lead 4,600,000 to 3,600,000 . Kenna raised to 600,000 , Alex reraised to 1,500,000 and Kenna moved in , Alex called for his last 2,100,000 with TJo , Kenna with an A4o was shocked as they were playing for over $1,000,000 but Alex said he was prepared to gamble and it paid off as he made a straight , a few hands later it was all over , Kenna all in with 66 v KJ of Alex , a K fell on the river to crown a new WPT champion .

I have decided to take a few days off and completely relax away from poker , i am in Paris and will be refreshed and ready for the next challenge which is the new EPT circuit , this starts in Barcelona then continues to London , Vienna and Dublin , i then return to Amsterdam where last year i won the Omaha event , i hope before then i will have written a diary with a decent win already in the bag !