After the first two EPT events where the players were unhappy with the organisation finally here in Baden with only 180 runners we had a well run event to a good clock and excellent structure , 2 levels were added 75 150 and 150 300 this made a big difference .

After losing my key pot in London with KK v 77 i was ready and focused so as before i'll take you through what happened today .

On my first table i had Julian Thew and on my immediate right Greig Raymer the 2004 WSOP Champion , he really is one of the nicest guys i've met in poker and a great ambassador for the sport .

I got off to a slow start only playing 3 hands in the first level , AJ twice and 22 but in the second level i took a nice pot off Greig , he had been making lots of small raises and i called with 88 as did two behind me , flop was 8 6 2 , Greig bet 800 , i flat called and the others passed , turn was a 4 , Greig bet 2000 and i now raised 5000 more , in retrospect a 3000 raise may have been better here but i wanted it to look like i didnt want a call and hope he may pay me off with a big overpair but he passed saying he had JJ , i ended the level with 14,425 .

During level 3 i was card dead and lost one pot to Julian , in FP i limped with TT , flop was an ugly Q J 4 , all checked , turn was a K , Julian bet , i called as there were now two flush draws and if i missed the straight i intended to bluff if a flush came , the river made one of the flushes , when Julian checked i overbet 1100 and after some thought he made a good call with just a Q , a smaller bet would have probably worked Julian remarked .

By level 4 i had dropped back to 11,000 and again only had one decent hand QQ that i picked the blinds up with , our table now broke and i found myself sitting with Marcel Luske , Josef Klinger 2 times EWSOP Champion and Paul Testud .

Level 5 and the blinds were still only 150 300 , this is more like it , plenty of time for play , i flat called a raise with AQs but Paul reraised to 4300 , all passed . Then came some unusual play by Josef , after one limper i called in the SB with ATs , Josef raised to 1600 , the limper called , i felt sure Josef was making a play here and decided to see the flop which came Q 7 4 with two clubs , i checked , Josef moved in and was called by the other player who held AJ of clubs , Josef had 42o and lost 8000 when a club came on the turn , he was left with 420 and was soon out.

I finally picked up two pairs , JJ which i over raised into the blinds from the button but neither took me on , then 99 that i flat called a raise with and then moved in on an 8 high flop , i ended the level with exactly 10,000 my original starting stack .

Obviously i dont explain all the hands i play , i took some flops with suited connectors or sometimes nothing but position , but today was again turning into a survival exercise waiting for a rush .

In level 6 200 400 i was all in for the second time , Thomas Buzzer Bihl raised to 1000 from FP , with AQo i called from the BB , flop was all spades , i check raised his 1600 bet holding two overs and the bare A and he flashed AJ no spades and passed .

With blinds 300 600 it was time to change gear so when a short stack moved in from FP i took him on with A6s , he had KQo and an A flopped to give me a 4000 pot , with 96 left of the original my table was broke again , i had 11,300 way below average but still a playable stack with blinds at 400 800 .

On my left was a great Austrian player Martin Pollack , he demonstrated tremendous discipline , when down to just 1875 in FP he waited for his BB , when raised he called all in with Q4 of clubs and was in good shape against 89 of clubs and doubled through , he then doubled again with AJ v 88 and then got lucky all in with 88 v QQ , from 1875 he now had over 30,000 !

At the start of level 8 i still had 9,400 but with blinds of 400 800 and by far the shortest stack i had to make some moves , each round i picked my spot and moved all in to pick up the 2000 and maintain my stack , i finally was called by a BB with a huge stack who held Q5s to my K9o , he flopped a 5 but i caught a 9 on the turn to survive , with 67 left the average was 26,875 and i had 11,400 .

Now though it was going to cost 2600 a round , i needed to double up soon and the opportunity came , the guy who earlier raised Martin when he was in the BB and shortest stack with 89s now picked on me , he raised half my stack 3600 , with TT i decided it was better to call as he had over 50,000 and was going to put me all in on the flop whatever came , if an A or a picture flopped i still had enough to take the SB and one more round .

Apart from flopping a set i couldn't have had a better flop , it came 7 8 9 so with my straight draw and overpair i now moved in , he called , the pot was 16,600 , should i win i would have the most chips i had seen all day , i turned up my TT and he showed KQo , turn was another 8 and the river , well i dont need to tell you really you've already guessed , yes it was a K !

So yet again i was out after playing a good disciplined and focused game , this time it didn't hurt to see the K unlike the 7 Ram flopped in London as there were still 60 players left and a long way to go , besides theoretically i can't keep losing these all ins so i am already mentally prepared for the next leg in Dublin where lets hope this time i can i make it past level 9 !

Next year the EPT events will all have 2 day ones and then 2 more days and be run on an hour clock , this will please a lot of players who were otherwise thinking of skipping these events as they were starting to look like they were being dominated by the TV coverage required without thought for the players , kudos to John Duthie for listening to the players concerns .

I have just had a 3 week break and hope to hit form as i did in the same period last year when after Dublin i travel to Amsterdam to defend my Masterclassics Omaha title , sometimes returning to a venue where you have won before just gives you that extra edge required , as always you can follow the action here at Sporting Life .