I got a taste of what i could expect when i check raised with AK and was called for 900 more , flop was 7 high , i moved in for my last 400 and my opponent who had called for 1200 preflop called with QTo , turn was a Q , first of 2 rebuys .

I had Pascal Perrault , Rory Liffey and Roy Brindley on the table , Rory was playing fast , he raised to 400 with AQ , Pascal reraised to 1200 with KK , Rory went all in for 4500 , Pascal called , flop was K high but Rory rivered a gutshot straight.

Rory was now armed with chips and when i limped with 66 and two others called for 200 Rory raised to 1200 , all passed to me , i fancied i was in front and called , one other player called and we saw the flop which came 6 8 9 rainbow , i moved in for 2600 , the next player called and Rory reraised all in and he passed , i happily flipped up my set sure i was in front only to find Rory had raised preflop with 7To and flopped the nuts , luckily the river paired and i was in business .

A few hands later Rory raised again , one player called and with 58o on the button and plenty of chips i took a flop in position , this came 9 8 5 , Rory bet 2000 and i raised him all in , he called with K9o , i filled up on the turn and with no 9 i went to the dinner break with 18,000 chips well over average with 88 players left .

After dinner i got moved twice in 5 minutes , i had Willie Tann and Dave Binstock on my right and sat through a few rounds through which i could learn the table and wait for good hands , Willie raised on the button 1700 , the BB had 4000 left , i had AA and wanted to play it heads up , i raised to 6000 , BB passed but Willie moved in for 16000 with AQ , i won and now was one of the chip leaders with 52 left.

Two players now joined our table and amazingly both found AA on their first hand ! One was Jac Arama who likes to play virtually every pot , he was on my right and had me outchipped and we clashed 3 times .

One time he raised , i flat called with TT then bet out on the 5 5 4 flop , the next he limped in the SB and i checked in the BB , flop was J 9 5 3 4 with four hearts , on the river Jac bet 3000 , i had Q3 of spades , i knew Jac would have bet the turn if he had a flush draw so at best he had a 4 so i raised 3000 and he passed . He got all these chips back though , with the blinds 800 1600 , like me he spotted the BB only had a total of 3100 , he raised to 3500 , i flat called with A9 and even though he was getting over 5-1 the BB passed , flop was 3 6 9 with two clubs , Jac bet 5000 , usually i would raise but if he has two overs and a flush draw he won't pass , i called , turn was a T , checked , river a 6 , Jac bet 5000 and i called , he held AT !

Poor Dave Binstock who hadn't played a hand now moved in with AK and was called by the raiser for value with Q9 , he rivered a gutshot , on the very next hand he raised and Dave called all in , first card was an A , then turn and river brought two spades for a possible flush , his opponent had done it again with KJ of spades , Daves all in hand was of course AA !

Again i got moved as they broke our table , there were 36 left , i was down to 23,000 but still ok , during the next hour i picked up AA twice made small raises but no calls and maintained my stack , eventually with 20 left and 18 getting paid i was down to 15000 , average was 37,000 , the FP moved in for 6000 , i called with 22 , a big stack raised to 12000 , i had to call , flop was J 4 8 8 7 , the raiser had AQ and i won the side pot but the all in had AJ .

One hand later 2 players were out in the same hand and we were down to 18 which paid €950 , 10th paid €1250 , i was not going to sit there it was time to change gear , each round i found a hand to commit , twice all passed then once when i moved in with KJo the short stack called me and i flopped trips , i was back up to 19000 but still lowest stack , i survived down to 12 then with the blinds two minutes from going to 3000 6000 i was in FP with J8s , i moved in and all passed to the BB who had to call 12100 more with 4000 invested , eventually he called , he had J5o , i was big favourite to win a 35000 pot , flop was K Q 7 7 for a split pot !

As he had taken so long to call i was now BB for 6000 with 8000 left , a round would cost 12000 , when it was raised and up to me i had to call and hope i had live cards , i held T3 , he had A7 , flop was 8 9 J , i needed a 3 7 or Q but none came and i was out in 12th of 114 .

The key hand was the J8s V J5 , i would have had enough for 3 rounds and with a bit of luck could have made the final , on a positive note that is my second cash here in 4 events so things are looking up .

Tonight is a €540 Pot Limit Freezeout , would be nice to make it 3 out of 5 .