A smaller than usual field came together for day 1A in Cardiff. I shared an opening table with Roberto, Nathan Lee and one other player I recognised from the Vic. I built up to 18k from the original 10k without too much hassle and things were going nicely at the dinner break. After we started back I got myself tangled up in a pot from the SB against a button open. I reraised preflop and bet the ace high 2 spade flop. He called and then raised my turn bet all in for another 5k into a pot of about 12-13k. Nothing about the hand made too much sense to me at the time, but with the absence of anything to call with it was onto the next hand with around 8k in tact. Jeff Kimber moved to my left just in time to see me take a nice double up after Nathan Lee opened, a Welsh player called and I made a “squeeze” from the button with AKdd. I can’t really blame the Welsh player for making a stand with AQ but the board blanked out and I was back in business. From here until the end of play I chipped up reasonably well to finish the day in about 4th place of the 18th that were to come back on day 2.

After some gentle persuasion I was convinced to join the boys on our 1st trip to Asia, to encompass events at the APT and the APPT in Macau. Macau was quite a surreal place. Looking down from my hotel room on the 27th floor of the impressive Grand Lisboa hotel (where else have you stayed which has 2 TVs just in the bathroom?) I could see what resembled, in parts, a shanty town, broken up by huge replicas of Casinos transported all the way from Vegas. Macau now takes more money down their slots than Vegas does but for me whilst it’s most definitely worth a visit, it is no Vegas. Maybe I already have too many fond memories from Nevada but the whole Vegas experience is something else.

After a frustrating time in the $5k APT event which didn’t last past day 1, the equivalent Pokerstars event at the Lisboa began slightly better. I ground up an above average stack on day 1 and by the time day 2 was in the books we were in the money with 42 of the 450 strong field remaining. The field was a mix of experienced online players and fresh local “talent” and I was hopeful of a decent run at this one. My stack for the 3rd day was just above average but the structure was becoming very fast. Unfortunately I got off to a very bad start when raising A10 from late position and losing to a defend from the small blind with Q 10 which rivered the nuts. The structure, as unforgiving as it was at that stage, didn’t allow me much breathing room and soon after my push with 10 8 was looked up my the small blind’s J 6 and I was gone in 37th place for a disappointing $8,500

Spending some time in Hong Kong was good and allowed me to catch up with an old friend who is now based out there. I was however quite happy to be back home after almost a month away when our 12.5 hour flight landed at some ungodly hour on the 2nd September. I was looking forward to getting back to the grind, especially online, with a plan to make enough to tick off the various big live buyins that are coming up this month. How fitting then that I should manage to equal my biggest ever losing day online on our 1st day back. Luckily the GUKPT was to offer a timely reprieve and a chance to get away from the PC again, and after some deliberation I decided to drag myself down there for the £250 PLO event for a chance to defend my crown from Luton and to have a drink with a few friends I hadn’t seen for a while

I ended up departing in about 16th place, with my last chips going to my good friend Nick Gibson who went on to final, with his pair and flush draw getting there against my pot committed aces. I just had enough time to buy half of Paul’s action in a juicy dealer’s choice game before heading off to bed. The main event was set to be a reasonably quiet one, what with good events at both the International and DTD, as well as Barcelona and Cyprus all on at the same time. I just hoped I had made the right choice...

I was looking forward to getting back to my regular cash games after the merciless bumming I took in Vegas.

The only time I “perked up” in Vegas was after I changed my flight and knew I would be coming home in a couple of days, as if I could see light at the end of the tunnel and knew the pain would soon be over.

On the last night I actually had a good win in the $5/$5 Omaha game. For most decent UK cash Omaha players, playing in this type of game in Vegas should really be akin to picking money off the floor, as the players, in general, are terrible.
When you are running bad this is the worst place to be as not only do you lose your money, you are also subject to experiencing a level of injustice that would be normally be reserved for outrageous breaches of human rights.

So I've been back in London for a week now, and to be honest it's taking time to adjust back to a "normal" way of life. Everyone is still buzzing and very much looking forward to heading back in November to support James. To be honest the time between now and then will seem somewhat of a filler, but I'm sure I'm just feeling that way because of the post-Vegas blues.

I Played in the now regular Tuesday NL cash game at Walsall and I fired sets out of my arse at will ending the night up £2550. There were not any particularly interesting hands to write about, I simply ran well, was on the right side of any cooler type hands and won money in the same way that anyone sitting in my seat would have done.