In the first two levels i didn't see much and used my tight image to steal a few pots , one in particular was where i held 46cl and called a raise on the button , flop was 3 8 9 with two hearts , pot was 1100 and the raiser bet 250 , this looked like a weak continuation bet that had missed so i called to bluff on the turn , this was the K of hearts and i stole a nice pot ending the 2nd level up to 12,900 .

I was card dead in the 100 200 level but still icreased mt stack to 15,125 then in the 150 300 level i won a nice pot after calling a raise with KJs , another player made a big all in reraise and the initial raiser flat called , i called as i expected the flop to be checked if neither of us hit , the flop was J high with my flush draw , i bet out and made a flush on the river . In the 200 400 i won a big pot when a FP player moved in for 2600 , with A9s i fancied i was in front and wanted it heads up so reraised , behind me a player called all in so three way our hands were , FP J8o , me A9s and the second all in TT , flop was 3 J Q , turn a T and the river an 8 to make my straight and putting my chip count at 33,975 , for the next 2 hours i used my stack to steal as many blinds as possible and finished Day 1 in the top ten of 59 with 47,000 .

I got home at 5am and was back for Day 2 at 2pm . Blinds were now 500 1000 , we had redrawn and i got an idea of the style of the table off this hand . Flat call , SB makes up BB , raise to 5000 from BB , flat caller reraises to 20,000 , SB passes , BB reraises all in for 60,000 and caller is all in for 47,000 , there hands were AQo for BB and 63s for the caller who hit a 6 and became chip leader , both these players went on to make the final finishing 5th and 3rd !

Having blinded away during the first hour i changed gear at 600 1200 and stole ( i mean had AA every hand ) my way back up to 48,000 then in the 800 1600 i saw my first hand of the day JJ in the BB , i decided to slow play them as there had been one limper who may pay me off , flop was A A 3 with two clubs , i check called a bet of 3000 , turn a 6 , i check called 5000 , river a 5 , i now value bet 3000 sure i was winning , he called with KTcl for a missed flush mmmmm !

Blinds now went to 1000 2000 which although allowed plenty of play was too slow , i continued to build to 67,000 then lost half my stack with TT v KJ when a K flopped , went to dinner with 32,400 , average was 55,000 , 29 left , some work to do .

First hand of 1200 2400 i was BB with ATs , one player in the cutoff went all in for 14,800 , i decided he had a small A and called stating this , he had A4 and i was back in the game , ok , he could have had AK but it scared the table that i predicted his hand .

I built my chips back up to 61,100 then came the turning point , i found AA and raised to 7100 , the SB reraised all in and i called for my 54,000 , he had AKs and missed completely , i ended this level with 126,000.

I now could start bullying and did so with a range of hands , in one pot as were near the money (18) the SB who was short stacked was out of his seat , i raised with 84o in the cut off as i knew i only had the BB to beat , he called oops ! Flop was 8 8 Q , we both checked , turn he check called 10,000 and river 20,000 , i end this level chip leader at 250,000.

Remember the 63s guy , he taught me a lesson ! I raised yet again and he called , flop was 8 5 8 , we both checked , turn a 9 , i trap checked on a draw with TJs as i knew he would call with AK , river was a 6 , he bet 10,000 into 26,000 which looked like a bluff to me so i reraised to 50,000 , he had 35,000 left and called with AJ , wow what a call .

One round later in FP i raised to 12,000 with 77 , the second chip leader on our table raised to 36,000 , all passed to the button who went all in for over a 100k , i passed and the reraiser called with AA , button had AK , flop was 9 4 7 and i was quietly wishing the AK faced with the action before had flat called in position , the next hand the same player got AA again and was reraised by an all in with 88 , after those two pots he was big chip leader .

A few rounds later and the final 9 was set , i was down to 149,000 in 5th place , their were two big chip leaders the AA back to back with 380,000 four to my left and on my right the chip leader with 470,000 , these two had nearly half the chips in play , 9th paid £1500 , 1st £27,000 , blinds were 2500 5000 with a 500 ante costing 12000 a round and i was prepared to gamble !

Within one round i was chip leader , first i raised to 15000 from FP , a short stack moved in for 63000 , i decided i could afford to call as istill would have half the average and he could have 88 or 99 , no he had QQ , but i rivered the A , the next hand the chip leader raised my BB and i called with K8s , flop was K Q 6 , he bet 25,000 , i moved in for 209,000 , he called and turned up K2 , the third hand i limped with AQ in FP , the small blind called and the BB who had been chip leader raised to 20000 , we both called , flop was 9 T Q , BB bet 25000 and i reraised all in , he passed and i now had 500,000.

End of the first level we were down to 7 , one hour late we still had 6 , i had lost one pot to the AA b2b player but won them back with interest when he raised my BB , i called with T6h , flop was A 3 5 all hearts , i check called 16k , turn paired the 5 , we both checked , river was another A , i checked knowing he had to bluff as if he had an A he would have bet the turn putting me on a flush draw on the flop , he obliged with a 40k bet which i quickly called and was back up to 506,000 .

Then it all went wrong , 4000 8000 i didn't see a hand , we lost one player and i ended the level with 423,000.

With blinds now at 5000 10000 and 2000 antes there were few flops and even with my chips 25000 a round hurt , i won one pot where i slow played a turned straight but still finished down at 380,000.

We were down to 4 and blinds were now 6000 12000 2000 ante , the French guy Arnaud Mattern was playing a perfect short handed game and was hitting cards at the right time , i tried to catch him but just cost myself chips , eventually it got to a point where if he passed i moved in to steal the blinds , the other two were getting sick of this so when i did it for the fourth time with A7 for 129,000 the BB called , pot was 272,000 and would put me back into 3rd place , he turned over A6 , after a flop of 3 J T Q it was looking likely to be a split pot but the river was a 6 and i was out , Grant eventually came 3rd while Paul Jackson was 2nd to Arnaud.

I won £7620 and although a win would have been nice i was happy with my play after 2 months off and as a result i am now off to Dublin to play in the EPT , all booked and paid for . Boy would i like to make the final there before moving on to Amsterdam .

All the best