Having not improved from my level one finish of 14,975 but hovered around 13,000 all day , i knew that the last 3 levels when there were plenty of blinds and antes to steal regardless of waiting for hands would probably get me to my target , that was until TV intervened .

Before i go on , you may remember i predicted 500 players would go out in the first two levels of day 2 , had i been right i may not have been as bothered , however it was carnage on day 2 , nearly 700 players were out in 2 levels , that's around 220 an hour , the organisers planned to play down to 800 but in fact finished only 9 from the money with 569 , i suddenly realised that my table moving to the ESPN feature table the day before probably cost me not only surviving to day 2 , but also a shot at another money finish which when planning before i hadn't expected to occur until late in day 3 .

As they played hand for hand till the money on day 3 it actually took over an hour to lose the 9 players required , the field then continued to drop rapidly ending the day at 185 with a surprise chip leader , the reigning champion Greig Raymer !

So , here's what happened to me .

I awoke on day one feeling a little rough and decided that as the blinds were so low , i would do a Helmuth and arrive late , i didn't see the point in sitting there trying to learn the table then potentially making a mistake , instead i wrote an article for Sporting Life then showered and prepared , i eventually arrived 1 hour 20 minutes into the first level .

When i sat down the player in seat 10 asked how much i had lost in blinds , it was only 325 , i still had 9675 , my first hand was on the button , there was a raise to 300 from FP , seat 10 flat called as did i with AKo , flop was 4 T J , FP bet a weak 500 and seat 10 again flat called , i decided to take a card , turn was a Q making a spade flush and also giving me the nut straight , FP again bet 1000 , i was sure he had nothing , seat 10 flat called and i put him on the bare A , i raised to 2500 , FP quickly passed and seat 10 thought for a while before calling , river was a blank and he checked , as this was my first hand i decided that in case he had a small flush i would check too , i showed my straight , can you guess what he had ?

He had slow played AA all the way to the river , and yes he did have the A of spades , so i was up to 14,975 after one pot , what a start , i would be happy to have those chips after 3 levels , maybe my current form is about to continue when it matters .

The second level i learnt the table and had plenty of time as i was card dead , the only player i knew was on my left , Luca Pagano , he constantly stole the blinds through my button and eventually i took a stand calling his 175 with Q8s , however i misplayed the hand , flop was 6 7 2 with two of my suit , Luca bet and i just called , turn was a T , he now checked and i should have bet as i now had a gutshot straight draw to go with my flush draw and his check showed weakness , river was an 8 , Luca bet and i raised , he reraised and i passed , he showed a 9 for the straight , not much damage done , i still had a comfortable 12,300 .

Level 3 had a bit more action , a new player joined the table in seat 2 with over 20,000 chips , Luca was in 3 and i was in 4 , he raised a couple of pots unchalleneged then the third time i called with AKo and position , flop was Q 7 3 with two clubs , i had the K , he checked and assuming he had a worse A or an under pair to the Q , i bet out 1200 to pick up the pot , he called , turn was the 8 of clubs , i checked after him in case he had the A of clubs and would get stubborn if i bet , i fully expected him to bluff the river and i would then raise , river was a T , he now bet 1000 and i raised to 2800 , he asked for my chip count and then reraised me all in , i knew he didn't have a flush or a straight so in passing i showed the K saying " i only have the K " he showed his hand TT no clubs , he had made a correct call on the flop , but when it is very possible i was checking a flush on the turn that i represented on the river he was willing to risk doubling me up , i felt sure it would only be a matter of time before i found the right situation .

This left me with 7000 but in 2 pots i got them all back , first i called a small raise from the earlier AA player , flop was J high three clubs , he bet a very weak 400 into 1600 , i decided my flush draw was good and called , turn was the 2 of hearts , he now bet 800 and i raised to 5000 sure if he had a J he would call for his last 3600 , he did and now the dealer had to call over the ESPN camera team , once in place we had to turn over our hands , i showed my set with a flush draw , he showed KJo no clubs and was drawing dead .

The TT player then made a small raise and Luca who had the same idea as me decided to slow play AA , i called behind them with 9Ts , flop came K 6 7 all spades matching my 9T , checked to Luca who bet 800 , i raised to 2500 , the TT player passed and Luca started to study me saying " AK no good " , i didn't reply , the more he thought i wondered if he had 67s for two pair or even a set , eventually he passed saying he had AA obviously without the A of spades , i showed the flush as i wanted the other player to think i was prepared to call his raises with weak hands .

That level ended and i was back up to 13,225 , the 4th level i lost a big pot with TT , i raised and the player next to me who had never shown less than a pair called , flop was 7 high with two hearts , i bet 1500 and he called , turn was a J , we both checked , river was an A , by now i assumed he had 88 or 99 as he hesitated thinking about raising on the flop , i thought he may pay me off for 2000 on the river , he did , he won the pot with his A9s of course in hearts , i'm glad he didn't raise me on the flop !

Again i needed to fight back but as i continued to pick up rags towards the end of the level i decided to see an unraised flop with K3 of hearts , the flop came 7 8 9 two hearts , we all checked and i was thinking the A of hearts would be nice , turn was a black 4 , checked to Luca , he bet 800 , he had about 3200 left and as i couldn't see how the 4 had helped his hand in this board i decided to pick up the pot with a reraise with outs if called , i made it 3500 ,the others passed but Luca called all in , another wait for the cameras , Luca had hit a set on the turn , i needed a non pairing heart , the A i wished for on the turn appeared on the river giving me the nuts , back up to 13,635 .

In level 5 i still couldn't find a hand to accumulate chips , mixed it up a bit but kept missing flops , i had a mini rush at the end though when i called a raise with AJ and flopped trip A's , then on a flop of A J J i put the bettor on a flush draw so called with my 77 , turn was a 7 which helped when he made his flush on the river and i ended the level with 13,300 . Apart from two AK , a pair of TT and 77 the only other hand i had seen was JJ which played out like this , raise to 400 from FP , call from the player i wanted to take on to my left , i find the JJ on the button but want to make sure the FP hasn't got a big pair so i raised to 1500 ,blinds passed but the FP moved in for 12,000 , i had my answer and immediately flipped up my JJ saying pass , he asked if i called and the dealer said no , he showed his AA !

Earlier in the day i had seen Marcel and Noah Boaken start the day on the ESPN feature table , this was on a stage and had peep cameras for hole cards as well as overhead cameras and 3 floor cameras , We had just started level 6 , 50 antes , 200 400 blinds when a floor manager came over and said our table was being moved to the feature table . I thought it was xmas , apart from one Brit the other players didn't know who i was , i knew that from playing many multi way pots and calling raises with small pairs and suited connectors these guys would now lock up as their cards would be seen on camera and this would allow me to steal the blinds and antes which were now with our 9 handed table costing 1050 a hand , imagine my surprise when we got to the table with our chips to see Marcel still sitting there in seat 6 , they arranged out table around him so now he had position on me and i knew my intended stealing of the blinds was going to be a lot harder .

Marcel quickly took over that table , every time i passed he would raise making little jokes and as i had predicted they all folded , in the first two rounds we only saw one flop , when Marcel raised yet again into my SB i decided to make a stand to slow him up , i had 99 and reraised him , he passed and we started to talk , the other players realised we knew each other and the guy to my left asked if i had been on TV before , i said once or twice .

I picked up one other hand during this level JJ on the button and won the blinds of Marcel , this was incredibly frustrating , i knew exactly where i was with these players and all the moves i had planned were now useless with Marcel stuck in the middle , couple this with the fact i still wasn't getting any hands , i decided to use my character to try to take the table back from Marcel and as i could see the ESPN team constantly had a camera on me , at least if i wasn't to get chips , i was determined to get some air time from this opportunity , apart from Marcel who was wearing a Full Tilt shirt i was the only player with a logo so i hope that UK Betting will benefit when the shows start to air in the US . Marcel and i interact well together and i guess this is what the ESPN team had been planning all along but it didn't help my chip stack !

At the start of the next level i made a joke about only raising with AA KK or AKs , all passed to me and of course i found AA raised and all passed , i swear i hadn't looked .

Finally as i found myself close to 10,000 and on the button with ATo i decided to take a chance against the short stack on the table , having just survived an all in uncalled , he raised in early position to 2000 , he had 3200 left , i called , really i hoped he had a medium pair or that i could spike an A and knowing he would move in on the flop i might be able to get some chips , the flop was A J 5 , he moved in as i exspected and i called , he had AKs , ok i need to have made the wrong play at the right time and get lucky , the turn was a sweet T and i was one card from having 18,000 chips , river was his only out , a middle pin Q for top straight and he sat back down again .

This left me in bad shape and with the new level of 250 500 with a 50 ante i was down to 3000 , of course the most likeley player to knock me out had to be Marcel and it was , when he raised to 2500 in early position and all passed to me in the BB my 77 looked huge , i threw in my last 2800 and Marcel called the 300 and turned up 99 , marvellous , still i could always hit a 7 , flop was A 9 5 and the two sevens required seemed unlikely , i was out , i shook everyones hand then went to be interviewed by ESPN .

The anchor started with something like " it has been a pleasure to have you on the table , we always though Marcel was the biggest character to come out of Europe but now it seems he has a rival " My only thoughts at the time were for my sponsors and i hope that if at least 10 minutes of the 3 hours i was on the table end up on screen it will have been worth it . On reflection i am sure without Marcel there i would have made the second day but who really knows , maybe it wasn't my day .

My next diary will update you on how the Brits who did survive have done .