Hi Everyone

Sorry for the delay, I have been awaiting confirmation from UKBetting regarding my proposed schedule. I am very pleased to announce that I am being re-signed for a second year and without a doubt the highlight of the schedule is next month, yes I am going to Bellagio to play in the $25,000 WPT Championship event. More of that later .

March was pretty awful to be honest, I think I played too much in Vienna with 8 tournaments and this is something that I agreed with UKBetting needed to be addressed in this years schedule. With the sizes of todays fields and the amounts to be won my focus this year is going to be primarily main events. I went to Monte Carlo feeling very positive and focused as apart from the WPT in Paris in July it is probably the biggest prizepool in Europe, but it was to no avail, I had a good table but didn't see any hands and had to resort to bluffing to win pots.

I am home now preparing for my first event of my second year representing UKBetting which is going to be in Dublin on Friday , then next week I will be at the Vic in London for 3 events before leaving for Vegas on the 6th April.

As part of my new contract not only will I be writing diaries but also for Sporting Lifes sister company Sportal.com I will be making videos which will be in interview and article format with tips. I also hope to be involved with some new shows which will be on the Poker Channel starting on the 23rd March on Sky.

I am leaving early for the $25,000 WPT so as to be completely in tune by the time the 7 day event starts on the 18th, there are some smaller events before and I intend to just play two of them after I have had a few days to get over the jet lag, having been to Vegas 17 times I find it gets easier but I usually don't play for at least 3 days, that's discipline lol.

Apart from Paris where I picked up a win in the shorthanded No Limit this has been a quiet start to 2005, now that my focus is mainly on championship events I hope this strategy will pay off and when I do get a result it will be big. Congratulations to Rob Hollink for hitting form after 8 quiet months when it matters in Monte Carlo taking down €650,000, and also to Brandon Schaeffer who having won the EPT in Deauville proved it was no fluke by achieving 2nd here.

I really believe the structure at Bellagio will allow me to play my natural game, with 2 hour levels and 50,000 in chips I will be able to study the opposition and change gears several times during the first day to accumulate chips without ever being at risk of losing my stack, I can't wait !

Good luck and play well.