In my first two events i finished top 30% then top 22% , today it was top 15% , at this rate i should make the final table of the Championship event lol.

Again i got through 6 levels without really getting chips and this was good practice for the $5000 Short Handed on the 20th which is my second event for Purple-Lounge .

There were 740 players and i finished a respectable 108 , 70 made the money .

Blinds started at 25 25 with 2500 chips , 60 minute levels , i played 2 hands in the first level , A9s and AQs ended with 2700 and was moved to a new table , two to my right was Harry Demetriou who came 2nd in this a couple of years ago .

In the 25 50 level Harry and i saw a flop of 3 6 6 and checked , turn was a T , i bet and he called , river a Q , both checked , my 9Ts was outkicked by Harrys AT .

I got one caller when i raised with AA but no action after i bet the 4 8 8 flop .

I then misplayed ATs against Harry , i floppped a T and checked (i must stop relying on aggressive players to bet for me !) , when a Q fell on the turn i passed to Harrys bet , at this stage Harry already had 12,000 to my 2,000 . On my left was Tony Hachem , the current World Champions brother , we clashed twice in this level .

First i flopped a set of 5's and check called his bet , on the turn we both checked and he passed to my bet on the river , then came a pot i was really happy with my instincts . Harry raised , i flat called with AQ as did Tony , flop was A 7 2 , i bet 225 and tony raised to 700 , Harry passed and i called , turn was a 9 , i checked and Tony bet 700 again , often when i do commentary i explain a player will bet the set he has made , eg if he flops a set of 6's he will bet 600 , in this case i had to decide if the 700 bet represented a set or did he just have an A with a lower kicker than mine but thought he was winning , my gut feeling was my AQ was losing to a set or two pair , i passed face up and Tony showed his A7s , i still had 2475 .

A new player joined us on my right , blinds were now 50 100 and Charles McGowan raised on the button to 300 , i reraised to 1350 in the SB with ATs , Charles asked me if i had a pair and i said no , he said i think you think i'm stealing and reraised me all in , i was pot committed and called , he had A9s and i doubled up to 4800 .

After only 3 levels half the field were gone and i had just below average chips , Harry was up to 16,000 , clear chip leader on our table and playing well helped with AA a couple of times .

Charles had left and was replaced by Ryan with just 2400 chips , his first hand he had AA and doubled up , his second was AJ and on a flop of A J T he doubled up again as his opponnent had JT , he then lost half of it back with QQ , he raised and again was called by the same player who won the first Limit event , flop was K T 7 with two clubs , he bet and was called , turn was the 9 of clubs and both checked , river the Q of clubs , he called a 1000 bet with his set but was against AJo with the J of clubs for a straight flush !

I mistimed a bluff , missed a flop with KQs then reraised a bet all in with 77 and was called by 44 and doubled up , however i lost 1025 of it on a big draw , the short stack went all in and in the BB with JQs i called , he had 55 , flop was 8 8 T , any 9 J or Q would do but no , back down to 1650 . I moved all in twice to end the level with 1950.

Level 5 and the field was down to 188 , first hand i had AQ , a short stack went all in and the second chip leader reraised for heads up , i assumed i was up against at least the same hand as mine and a pair so passed , the all in had AJ , the reraiser 22 , flop was Q 7 4 A Q lol.

The very next hand the 22 player raised , Harry reraised to 3100 , i went all in for 1725 of it with AKs , the other player called for a side pot and they checked it down , flop was 4 8 A J A , they had 66 and 99 and i tripled up , one round later and i find KK in FP and raise to 675 , both Harry and Ryan call in the blinds flop was A J 4 , Harry checks , Ryan bets 1500 , i pass and Harry reraises Ryan all in , he passes AT and Harry shows AQ , marvellous ! They both have Aces and still an A flops , of course had Harry reraised here preflop i would have been all in and would have needed to spike a K to survive .

Harry was playing well but his timing was good as well , he raised on the button , Ryan flat called , i passed , flop was J J J , check check , turn A , check check , river 6 , now Ryan bets 700 , he has 2900 left to Harrys 20,000 , Harry reraises him all in , would you pass an A here ? Ryan couldn't and neither would i , Harry had KJs for flopped quads !

Just before the end of the level Harry raised and i went all in for 2250 more with 99 , he passed ,i was still in with 4250 .

In the last level before the dinner break i played only 2 hands , i was raised 1100 and reraised all in with QQ , no call , then on the second to last hand i had 66 in the small blind , there was no way i was going out before the dinner break again so when all passed to me and Tony i flat called , flop was 9 3 3 J Q , i intended to bet the turn but didn't like the J , the river gave Tony a straight with his KT . I had 6000 approx half the average .

7th level and it was time to change gear , blinds were 200 400 with a 50 ante so there was 900 in the pot , on the third hand Harry who now had over 25,000 chips raised to 1400 making the pot 2300 , i had AQs , if i called i would have 4500 left but i decided a reraise all in should get Harry off most hands , he quickly called , after the flop of 9 2 2 2 Q i was a loser to only one of four hands 99 , QQ , KK and AA , Harry had AA and i was 108th of 740 . ( i'm not allowing for a 2 as Harry wasn't likely to call a reraise with one )

So in three events i have lost to set over set with 3's verses K's in the PLO , 88 to KK in the Pot Limit Hold-em and now AQs to AA today , i am however getting closer to the money in each event and with at least 4 that i still intend to play , the $3000 Hi Lo Omaha , $1500 Pot Limit Omaha , $5000 Short Handed and the $10,000 Championship event i am confident i am playing well enough to get a result .

All the best