I don't want to temp fate but things seem to be looking up at last! Mind you let's be honest they couldn't have got much worse!

After making the final in the $125 No Limit at the Golden Nugget and getting my Kings cracked by Tens I flew home from Vegas to the UK determined to take whatever positives I could out of the trip and rethink my game ready for the remainder of my UKBetting schedule.

I have played three satellites on UKBetting this week trying to win an $8,500 package in St Marteen in December which is sponsored by the software providers Cryptologic. These have proved to be tremendous value. There are two every other day one costing £38 at 9pm GMT and the second $55 at 9pm ET. The three I played in had between 59 and 67 players and the overlay was up to $5,550!

Anyway, I haven't won yet but have made all three finals finishing 3rd, 7th and 8th. In the first two I held the best hand but it was virtually 50/50. In the last I decided to gamble with TJs and raised a first position limper all in for a total of 5,500. Even though he only had 800 in the pot he decided to call with KQo. I hit my J and he rivered a K.

Nevertheless, I was pleased just to be making the finals. I then heard there was a freeroll competition on the site to win a V.I.P trip to the World Snooker Championships next year with the nine runners up winning signed cues by the current world snooker champion Ronnie O'Sullivan. Hmmm…I thought I would give it a go.

I used to enjoy watching snooker and have always fancied going to Sheffield to see the final. Thus, I sat down last night amongst a maximum field of 2000 including Ronnie, who finished a very respectable 20th .

We were allowed $5 re-buys during the first hour and a $5 add on. I had one re-buy and as you can imagine there was a lot of gambling going on but I managed to dodge the beats, found some good hands that stood up and finally went out when I re-raised all in against a limper of 60,000 for a total of approx 480,000. He called with 88 against my AQ and I finished a very respectable 8th.

Ok, you might think, ACES won a signed cue. The point is of course to make it through a field of 2000 even in a freeroll like this does wonders for your confidence and I hope to carry that forward to Vienna next week and see if I can finally get some good results.

Whatever happens, my belief in my own ability, which was starting to wane, has reemerged. I’m looking forward to playing wherever and whoever I am playing against.

ACES