First up was todays €800 No Limit .

On my table i had Rob Hollink who has for me been the player of the year so far after winning the Monte Carlo €10,000 EPT , then finishing 5th in the $25,000 WPT at Bellagio the following month , with further wins in Barcelona and Vienna , definitely a man in form , at least i had position on him as he was sat to my right , on my left was Martin Pollack again as he was in Baden and two to his left was the super aggressive Frenchman Anthony Lellouche .

We started with 3000 chips , blinds of 25 25 and during 2 levels you are allowed one rebuy or top up .

I won two small pots with AQ and TT then lost in an unraised pot when i limped with QQ only for a K to flop , after a top up i started the third level 50 100 with 5500 , in the meantime as expected Anthony gave me plenty to write about !

He clashed two pots in a row with Martin and knocked him out , i do not recommend this style of play , Martin raised with TT , Anthony called in the SB with 72 , flop was 2 4 5 and Anthony first to act moved in , Martin delightedly called with his overpair , and was even happier to see Anthonys hand until another 2 hit the turn , the next hand Martin raised again , Anthony called on the button , this time he had position ! Flop was 4 5 Q , Martin moved in having flopped a set of 4's , Anthony called and flipped up 23o making his straight on the turn and with no pair up Martin was out !

I must admit to admiring Anthonys fearless plays as he demonstrated in this hand , there was a raise to 200 , after 2 callers Anthony also called , the SB passed but the BB moved in for 3200 , all passed including the initial raiser , however Anthony probably assuming the BB was making a move or as i did putting him on a big A committed all his chips with 22 , his read was right the BB had AK and Anthony won the pot .

Now i actually did get some chips in the third level doubling up against a player who had just doubled up through Rob in an amazing hand . There was no raise but 4 limpers , flop was 4 5 5 , the first player overbet 1100 into a 600 pot , Rob hesitated as if to raise then flat called , turn was the 6 of hearts to go with the 4 and 5 of hearts , check and Rob bet 1000 and was called , river was a Q , first player bet 2000 , Rob who held 45s and had flopped the full house now moved in hoping his opponent had made a flush on the turn , his opponent quickly called and turned over 78 of hearts for the straight flush !

A couple of hands later the same player now playing with a big stack raised my BB , naturally following Anthonys lead i called with my 79o , i like to protect my BB with live cards ! Anyway the flop was A 7 9 , boy did i hope he had AK , i check called 400 , the turn was a 9 to give me a full house , sometimes i would check again here but i thought a bet would not give away the strength of my hand and he may think i am just representing a 9 , i bet 600 and he called , river was a 2 , this time i bet 1200 and he reraised to 3200 , i went all in for 4675 and he called , he had raised preflop with Q9 so had represented the A on the flop and turned a set and thought he was trapping me by flat calling .

I ended the level in great shape with 10,450 thinking that as last year i might go deep in this event , ( i went out last year with KK v QQ and 99 who both flopped a set in a huge pot ! )

The first hand of level 4 was the start of my demise , Anthony raised in FP to 400 with blinds 75 150 , Rob still talking to himself from the straight flush loss moved all in for 2075 , i found JJ in the SB and also moved in , Anthony passed , Rob turned over 88 , memories of Ram and his 77 v my KK at the EPT in London flashed briefly through my mind , flop was K T 8 and Rob was staging a comeback.

A few hands later i called a raise with AQs as did Anthony in the BB , flop was A 2 2 , checked to me i bet 2000 , Anthony called which set off alarm bells , could he have another 72 or 23 ? The preflop raiser went all in for less and i had a side pot with Anthony of 650 , this was all i could hope for really seeing as the all in had flopped Aces full ! I assume Anthony had a smaller kicker with his A as he passed on the river when i showed what i hoped was the winning hand .

Now the player who raised my BB earlier with Q9 raised again , i liked the look of my KJs and took him on in position , flop was J 8 2 but all spades , i check called 1100 certain i was winning as long as a spade didn't come , turn was the 5 of spades , i checked he bet 2000 , i passed , he showed the 9 of spades , don't know whether the accompanying card was an 8/9/T/J/Q/K or A.

My chips were dwindling so an A7s looked good enough on the button to steal the blinds , i raised and the BB called , flop was A 8 4 , he check called my 600 tester and i was done with the hand and happy to check it down to see him show AT .

It was starting to look like any two face cards would do so when i picked up KJs i limped for 300 as did one other , my Q9 friend moved in , i turned to Rob and said " i hope he has AQ " ( at least then my cards were both live ) and called all in , luckily i was spot on and even luckier the flop came K J 8 4 K to double me up , however by the end of the level no rush had occurred and i was trailing as short stack with only 1800 , blinds went up to 150 300 with a 25 ante .

I moved in once and picked up the 675 but when back down to 1450 and looking down to find AKs i knew this would be it , now of course AKs is a great starting hand but not when FP has bet 2000 and the next player raises to 7000 , i called all in hoping he had QQ or less , the original bettor passed and i flipped up my AK feeling that i probably had to hit an A , wrong , i needed to flop a straight or three kings as he had AA , flop was 7 high and stayed that way .

Well , what can i say , i was happy with my game and everything was going to plan until the JJ v 88 hand , after which i could do nothing right , tomorrow is the €500 Pot Limit Omaha , as defending champion i intend to play my A game and hope to get lucky when required , last year it was sold out at 220 , this year they are already up to 216 so it could be a sell out at 270 , lets hope i can at least make the second day !