Home sweet home.

So i'm back home now after the 16 days in Vegas and on the whole i'm going to say that it's nice to be back, apart from obviously the shit weather. Its the middle of July where is the fucking sun?
Las Vegas is certainly an interesting place. Very glamorous, exciting and non stop action all over the place its also in the middle of the desert which just adds to the unique appeal of the city. Even though i enjoyed the trip and made plenty of $ i wouldn't like to be there for over a month the constant sounds of the slot machines and the over the top attidude of most of the locals quickly gets annoying and at the risk of sounding like an old man sometimes its nice to put on your dressing gown and have a cup of tea without a 40 year old waitress walking round with her top off yelling 'cocktails?'
I think the biggest regret of the trip is the fact that Will and I got to do very little outside playing poker. It would have been nice to see some more shows and go to a nightclub but the deep runs we both had in the main event prevented us from doing this.
As for the main event i still have mixed emotions. For my first go at it 191st is a great effort and i certainly am proud that i didn't change my game to much and wasn't afraid to bust at anytime. I played a few hands badly but on the whole think a played some very good poker and i really enjoyed the event from start to finish. Its just a shame A9 never wins, boooooooo. From a finacel point of few the trip was a massive success. For those of you that don't know i was staked for 80% of the main event so i only risked $2K of my own money. In total i took $3.3K over to Vegas with me and after spending a shitload on food and booze i came back with $15.4K so obviously i'm delighted with this and just as i think the month can't get any better within 2 days of being back in sunny London i have my biggest ever win online taking down the $320 $50K gtd on good old patry poker for $13.8K SHIPPPPPPPPPP IT!! I had to ship big Tony 10% for our swap (he misclicked all in v full house in the first level) but i was a nice feeling to be keeping the meat of my winnings after having to give away most of my main event gold.
Just one more piece of good news (i'm such a sick luckbox), for the first time in my life i actually won money staking. I gave $150 to my good friend Alec 'the boy' Howard to play the $30 rebuy $10K gtd and he came 2nd for $2.8K which meant he made me a nice $1350 profit. He played a very strong tourney and i think its even better making money without even playing the game.
So July is quickly becoming my favourite month poker is just going great and i'm now going to try and focus on getting rid of the weight i piled on in vegas. 10p/20p game on friday, can't fucking wait!!

Busto!!

So for both Will and myself the dream of winning the WSOP 2008 is over. I busted right at the end of Day 4 playing 6000/12000/2000 when i was down to 260K shoving with A9 over the top of a raise from late position. No problem with that play but the 500K bluff i tried to pull on a guy with an obvious over pair on a JJ7 board was a bit dumb, at the time it seemed like a good idea, lol.
Will just busted for his last 300K with 1010 v AJ all in pre finishing in a respectful 118th. Overall think we both learnt a lot and certainly enjoyed the whole thing. Next stop GUKPT LUTON!

In the money!!

So this is going fucking great!! Will and i have both made the money and he has 125K and i have 477K the blinds at the start of today are 2500/5000/500 so still have close to 100 bb's which is plenty. Yesterday was another real tough grind and was up to about 630K but got raped in the last level thanks to one bad time bluff and some russian dude kicking my ass. Its hard to describe the way i'm feeling at the moment but its a bit like every emotion i have ever felt all at the same time. Day 4 is about to start so i have to run. If i make it through the day i will put up a long blog tonight.

Day 3 here we come

I think yesterday might well have been the best day of poker that i have ever played. I started the day with 28,600 and got up to 40K early thanks to finding AK and AA early, then it got hard. Playing 250/500/50 it gets folded round to this chinese guy on the button who makes it 1400. SB folds and i call out the BB with K6 SOOOOOTED. Flop 8 7 5 and i lead for 2K just trying to pick it up. He raises to 6 and i smooth call. Turn K goes check check then when a 10 hits the river i bet 6K for value/defence and he insta raises all in for 18K more. If i called and lost i would have 3K back but this just smelt like a bluff and even though it was early i went with my instincts and called after about 30 secs, he had J8 and that was a good start for me.
Soon after the table broke and i was moved to one of the toughest tables i have ever played. I was in seat 4 and the 4 guys on my right were very strong aggressive players. The swedish player in seat 2 was very very strong player who plays 10/20, 25/50 on laddies with 200BB buy ins so the fact it was so deep stacked was a bit scary but i found some good hands to play at him with and thankfully the two players on my right (one was Liz Lieu) were the weakest on my table so i was able to play a lot from late position knowing they were gonna fold 95% of hands and i would have position.
After around 4 hours of floating between 60K-80K i managed to put a good run together playing 500/1000/100 and broke the 100K mark and then the inevitable big hand took place. The swede opens on the button for 3200 the sb calls and i make it 14K total from the BB with 1010 button calls and sb folds. Flop 5 4 3 and i bet 21K, he insta moves in for 47K more and although it was a very tough spot i thought i was committed against his range and called, he flipped K2 soooooooooted and i managed to fade the 11 outs and win the pot.
After that i ran the table, made a few hands and flopped a set of 2's V KK which tony would love and ended the day on 265K. Day 3 starts in an hour playing 800/1600/200 so lots of time to work out the table and then smash it up. Will ended his day with 91K and is playing on a table close to myn, wish us luck.

Quick post

Ok so Vegas is awesome, me and Will having a great time. Both made it through to the 2nd day of the main event. Will is playing tomo and has 34,700, he played a very solid day 1 was a bit card dead but picked his spots well. I went for a slightly different approach and decided to play about 60% of hands. Ended the day on 28,700 and am playing again on wednesday. Was 11th in chips after 4 hours with 61,000 butthis was as good as it goy. Bluffed off 25K V KK on a board of 10 10 9 8 6. O knew she had QQ-AA but she made a good call. Also bluffed 10K 5 betting QJ v AK on a board of K 8 2 which sucked. Ran QQ into KK for 12K pot and at one stage was down to 11K but got my stack in at 200/400/50 with 86 Sooooooooted v AQ after a raise and a call and as we all know the 86 will never lose.

Cash is going well up about $500 and played 1 very sick hand V Brewin with J6 sooooooooted v A10 on a 9 7 7 board playing $2/5. long story short i check flop, he bets 85 into 100 pot i make it 200, he makes it 400 more and i push for 650 more knowing he was full of shit, lol!

Food is great, banter is better. Had the pleasure of meeting Kara Scott on the first night who is the fittesr woman i have ever seen also met the voice of datrs Sid widdel on the plane what a legend. Will post after day 2 i hope, wish me luck.